Announcing the 2024 Davis Projects for Peace Awardees

International House congratulates the ten I-House residents who have received funding through the Projects for Peace program to implement their own grassroots projects this coming summer:

Yuxuan “Sean” Chen – Breaking Chains, Weaving Hopes, and Building Bridges: Drama Therapy for Peace (United States)
Cecilia Costa da Luz – Creating Safe Spaces for Victims of Gang Violence in Brazil (Brazil)
Huong Dang – Educating the Vietnamese Community to end Gender-Based Violence (Vietnam)
William Eugene McKee – Borders and Binaries: Making Space for Irish Voices in the Brexit Conversation (The Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom)
Fitsum Mehari – Peace through Economic Empowerment: Training for Survivors of Sexual Violence in Tigray (Ethiopia)
Farah Otero-Amad – Comuna 13: Documenting Hope, Strength, and Social Change in the Colombian Capital of Hip-Hop (Columbia)
Carlos Outten – Creating Critical Discussions of Peace through Literature: Boy Blue Novel Completion (The Bahamas, Jamaica, Columbia)
Julia Roy – Kawaii: Examining the Impact of Japanese Cute Culture (Japan)
Reshad Sharif – Harmony through Art: Empowering Afghan Students’ Journey in the US (Afghanistan)
Amay Yadav – Building Resilient Communities in the Fight Against Gender-Based Violence (Nepal)

These residents join the 2024 Projects for Peace grantee cohort which consists of 129 projects nominated by 94 partner institutions including I-House. This summer, projects will take place in 69 countries and 14 U.S. states. Student leaders of each project receive $10,000 in funds to pursue innovative, community-centered, and scalable responses to the world’s most pressing issues.

Projects for Peace was founded by Kathryn W. Davis ‘32, an I-House alumna who celebrated her 100th birthday in 2007 by supporting 100 Projects for Peace, designed “to bring about a mindset of preparing for peace, instead of preparing for war.” Each year, the program awards $1 million to 100 student projects, in the amount of $10,000 each. Since its founding in 2007, Projects for Peace has funded more than 2,200 projects.

Thanks to Davis’s special relationship with I-House, a separate 20 projects are awarded to Residents of International Houses worldwide, with 10 projects specifically earmarked for Residents of International House in New York. These projects aim to positively impact people in specific regions and throughout the globe. Winning proposals demonstrate creativity in designing projects and employing innovative techniques for engaging project participants in ways that focus on conflict resolution, reconciliation, building understanding to break down barriers that cause conflict, and finding solutions for resolving conflict and maintaining peace.

Congrats to all the awardees!