How Mastercard Foundation Scholars are Giving Back Amid COVID-19
A series of four stories.
Globally, the lives of hundreds of millions of students were upended as school closures, travel restrictions, and other safety measures were implemented in response to COVID-19. Over 15,000 Mastercard Foundation Scholars, talented but underprivileged scholarship recipients, were among those affected. Like others, they were thrust into unprecedented new realities. Distance from family and friends. Transitions to online education. And uncertainty about what the future would hold for their education—and their life beyond academia.
The Foundation quickly acted to meet Scholars mental, physical, and academic needs. With these met, and as Scholars have adjusted to their temporary new normal, they’ve turned their attention outwards to the needs of their peers, families, communities, and countries. Many have stepped up, in the true spirit of transformative leadership, to address these needs.
In this series, we share just a few stories of current and past Mastercard Foundation Scholars who are giving back amid COVID-19.
The Hope Campaign: The Hope Campaign was launched by Jobe Wuyeh and Paul Ozioma, Scholars in the Masters of Information Technology program at CMU in Rwanda. They partnered with Solid’Africa, to raise money to provide vulnerable hospital patients with meals, hygiene products, and other services. Read the full story.
Using Street Art to Drive Social Change: Emmanuel Mushy, a 27 year old alumni of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, launched Visual Aided Stories in January 2020. It’s a youth led movement that works with street artists and their murals to drive social change through digital marketing. During the pandemic, Visual Aided Stories focused their message on the challenge of COVID-19. Read the full story.
Providing Essentials to Vulnerable Families: Working with local government, Norman Mushiga and five other volunteers, are assisting with logistics and deliveries of food to more than 250 vulnerable families. Read the full story.
Making life saving information accessible to all: Marie Pierre found herself with more time on her hands than usual and decided to invest it in volunteering-from-home for Uridu, an international NGO that translates and disseminates life-saving medical information into Rwanda’s local languages. Read the full story.
