Sharjah HCT hosts panel discussion on Poverty & Hunger Alleviation for Festival of Thinkers conference
Under the theme of “Poverty & Hunger Alleviation”, The Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology hosted a panel discussion involving social entrepreneurs and NGO leaders on the final day of the Festival of Thinkers conference. The fourth Festival of Thinkers conference is organized by the Higher Colleges of Technology, providing a platform to foster and celebrate thinking, inspiring the youth of the region, and allowing thinkers from around the world to come together and share
The fourth Festival of Thinkers conference is organized by the Higher Colleges of Technology, providing a platform to foster and celebrate thinking, inspiring the youth of the region, and allowing thinkers from around the world to come together and share
The fourth Festival of Thinkers conference is organized by the Higher Colleges of Technology, providing a platform to foster and celebrate thinking, inspiring the youth of the region, and allowing thinkers from around the world to come together and share
Session Participants included Michael Brosowski, CNN Hero and founder of Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation in Vietnam; Paul Kronenberg, co-founder of Braille Without Borders in India and Tibet; Diane Latiker, founder & president of Kids Off The Block in USA; Amy Stokes CNN Hero and founder of Infinite Family; Rebecca Stromeyer, founder of e-Learning Africa in Kenya; and Sean Evers, founder and managing partner of Gulf Intelligence.
The discussion highlighted the role of education, entrepreneurship, technology and aid in the fight against poverty and how can poverty be overcome as sustainable outcome and not a momentary success. Sharjah HCT students had the opportunity to engage in discussions on the subject of poverty and hunger and why such crises repeats themselves on a global scale, as has been seen again in Somalia where there are three million people on the verge of starvation.
During the panel discussion, Amy Stokes, the founder of Infinite Family South Africa and a Top Ten CNN Hero spoke about the plight of 35 million orphaned children in Sub-Saharan Africa. “This means that these children grow up in households in very distressed communities with limited resources, right now,” she said.
“My husband and I adopted a child in Johannesburg, South Africa and there we truly understood how big the orphan crisis is, with children growing up without a family. We decided we had to find a way to help these children and give them shelter and education to be able to secure good jobs and help rebuild their own communities.”
Michael Brosowski CNN Hero Founder, Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation Vietnam told the large audience of his work in the capital Hanoi.
“I had no plan. I was 21 when I went to Vietnam. In Hanoi, I noticed there were a lot of kids working in the streets; they were country kids who came to the city to raise money to provide for their families. I wanted to help them, so I started doing what I can do which is to give them English lessons for free,” he said.
Diane Latiker, the Founder & President Kids Off The Block in Chicago USA said her work with disadvantaged children came about because she “wanted to live with everybody in my community in peace”. “I began to think what I can do as a mother of 8 to make an impact in my community without moving out. When we leave our communities, things get worse,” she said.
“I just cared about other people’s kids. I didn’t know anything about nonprofit or social programs. I just have a small living room and I wanted to help few kids in the neighborhood. These kids suffer from poverty and anger issues because of poverty. We have a youth violence problem in Chicago.”
Paul Kronenberg Co-Founder of Braille Without Borders spoke about setting up the project in Tibet for blind children with his partner Sabriye Tenberken. “One of the main challenges we faced at the beginning was how to make these kids overcome their fears. Kids who have come to us were outcast of society and nobody wanted to deal with them,” he said.
“We are not born with fear, but at some point fear comes in. Those kids have fear about the future, so we thought what we could do to take away that fear from them. We then started the dream factory, we asked those kids to dream about what they really want to do in the future.”
Rebecca Stromeyer, the founder of the eLearning Africa project in Kenya described the early start to her program.
“I grew up in an environment where I learned entrepreneurial skills at a young age that made me a hard worker and can’t be really idle. I started my own business when I was still studying for my degree. I strongly believe that education is vital,” she said.
eLearning Africa is a conference aiming to adopt ICT technology for education and training involving all the sectors including governments, corporations, and other organizations.
The Festival of Thinkers biennial conference is organized by the Higher Colleges of Technology to provide a platform to foster and celebrate thinking, inspiring the youth of the region, and allowing thinkers from around the world to come together and share their ideas and thoughts.
