BCB Civic Engagement Fellow 2023: Aisha
Aisha is working on making education accessible to girls in Afghanistan where girls are currently banned from higher education. She highlights: “We can not wait for this humanitarian crisis to be resolved to make sure that girls have access to education. That would be a loss of a generation.”
When asked what motivates her, she replies: “It’s very personal, because I was a part of a generation that grew up in democratic Afghanistan, however flawed that democracy was, but we still had access to school and today my sisters are deprived of their very basic human rights.”
The Fellowship helps Aisha to make contacts on the ground in Berlin to support her in helping her sisters, classmates and friends back home.
Fellowship Overview
Applications are open once a year at teh beginning of the spring semester. Watch out for announcements on social media or contact the Civic Engagement Office for more information.
BCB Civic Engagement Fellow 2023: Abdullah
Abdullah is working on his documentary film project The Silent Storm that highlight the intersections of climate change and mental health in Pakistan.
According to Abdudllah, mental health is an aspect of climate change that is often overlooked, especially in the Global South: “The mental health aspect is in the shadows. The people who are displaced because of floods live in a constant state of insecurity and this will shape their lives from that point on.” Mental health is not widely discussed and Abdullah wants to start a conversation about this back home.
Abdullah became inspired to start this project when he went to a documentary screening at a cafe in Berlin. What he watched stuck with him and sparked a desire to do something himself. He hopes that his project will inspire others to do the same and spread awareness in their own way: “You can go talk to a friend and do some research on it. Then you can tell another friend and that’s how you build a movement.”