New year, new ambitions
Happy New Year! 2017 has started on a really positive foundation for Watipa. Our year has begun by connecting with the 34 young people around the world who are the first Watipa scholars.
On International Human Rights day in December 2016, the inaugural Watipa scholars were announced. That day marks the adoption of universal human rights by the United Nations in 1948. The announcement of the first recipients of a Watipa scholarship was our contribution towards realizing the right to education. This is a commitment we intend to honour and repeat for many years to come. In this first round, we awarded 22 scholarships and 12 highly commended awards to young people from 8 different developing countries.
The Watipa program differs from others: support is given directly to young people at various stages in their education. Two in three of these first awards were given to young women, and the ages of the scholars range between 15 years and 24 years old. The scholars are living and studying in a variety of countries: Malawi, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Nepal, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are studying disciplines spanning agriculture and fisheries, to catering, to nursing, to veterinary medicine, to education and more. The scholars share the one common factor of having a vision and demonstrated experience in community service.
The scholars were thrilled to received the news, and the first payments are going through at the moment. All of the £16,000 raised last year will be disbursed and received by the scholars in January. We will be profiling some of the Watipa scholars in the newsletter and on the website in the coming months.
Our consultancy work is also off to a good start this year, as we build our contribution to projects in Nepal (on access to family planning and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services for marginalised people), quality of care in health service provision in Africa (and a new training approach to support it), and working with young people to expand access to integrated health services.
Keep up-to-date with our thinking, work and new ideas through our latest blogs:
- Uganda: Meet a scholar, Kyendikuwa Francis, a 2016 Watipa scholar
- Kenya: Watipa my hope, a poem by Rose Omollo, a 2016 Watipa scholar
- Global: Happy New Year, celebrating new beginnings
- Global: Humility and grace, the announcement of the inaugural Watipa scholarship awards
Wishing you a happy, prosperous and fulfilling 2017!