International House Berkeley

International House Times 9 W hen Kathryn Davis created Davis Projects for Peace (DPP) on her 100th birthday, she challenged today's students to do what previous generations could not: to create lasting peace in the world. Her support of these international, student-led projects and the impact they have proves that you are never too old (or too young) to make a difference. As an alumna of I-House New York, Mrs. Davis wanted to ensure that I-House residents were included in the program. After her passing, her son, Shelby, carried on her vision. Every year since 2008, at least one I-House Berkeley resident (and in some years as many as four!) has won a DPP grant. In 2015, I-House was chosen to also coordinate the applications for an annual grant for UC Berkeley undergraduate students. Each fall, I-House DPP grant winners have presented their projects to fellow residents at Sunday Supper. Often inspiring and creative, several projects have gone on to have a major and lasting impact on the communities they serve. Last year, Kassandra Kachakji, who was the first UC Berkeley undergraduate DPP award winner, moved to Jordan to help young girls in a Syrian refugee camp cope with their disrupted lives and education by learning capoeria. A Brazilian art that combines martial arts, dance, and rhythm, capoeria creates a dialogue between two people—a conversation through movement. Kassandra is still there, a year later, helping to bridge the divide between Jordanians and the Syrian refugees. She has built a program of trainers who provide girls with positive female role models and the opportunity to become trainers themselves using their new skills. Manuel Schulze (IH 2013) and Torben Fischer (IH 2013-14) began their project, Recycle Up! Ghana, in 2014 with a summer camp to educate high school students about the dangers of plastic waste on city sanitation. is project made an impact, since most plastic waste in Ghana ends up in the streets, clogging storm drains and causing cholera outbreaks almost 60 times a week in the capital city of Accra. Today, Recycle Up! Ghana has grown into a significant educational and volunteer program, teaching students about proper waste management and helping them create practical recycling and sanitation solutions for communities across Ghana to reduce the spread of disease. e group's vision is to grow Recycle Up! Ghana into Recycle Up! Africa. e group recently won the Google Impact Challenge with a prize of nearly 10,000 EUR, enabling them to conduct 3 summer camps in 2016 and empower an additional 90 Senior High School students to become agents of change in their communities. Manuel and Torben's vision is to grow Recycle Up! Ghana into Recycle Up! Africa. To learn more, please visit: recycleupghana.org/about/ n This year's Davis Projects for Peace winners include Thanh Mai Bercher (pictured left), who will be traveling to the Middle East to empower adolescents by teaching filmmaking, and Hayden Shelby (pictured right), who will be producing both a conference and a documentary film about peaceful activism for college students and youth living in the slums of Thailand. Changing Our World Davis Projects for Peace: One of the many trash problems addressed by Recycle Up! Ghana

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