Students for Humanity

Students for Humanity is a great website creating a space where students from privileged and under privileged backgrounds can interact. The project was created by Frerieke van Bree, an architect and teacher originally from Netherlands, and her colleagues who provided online mentoring for a group students from Khayelitsha, in South Africa. While there seem to be no sociologists currently involved in this project, this is a an excellent initiative, with a very interesting article written by students titled: What Culture Means to Me. To find out more about Students for Humanity, read on.

From the ‘About‘ Students for Humanity page.

Our aim is to create a united voice for students around the globe. We believe that technology can enable us to bring about positive change in our communities. The internet enables us to communicate with students from around the world and share our stories. By embracing our differences, we can work together towards a brighter future.

We are a mix of students from privileged and underprivileged communities connecting online. Some of us have never used the internet before but we are learning fast from our online mentors.

Despite our different backgrounds we serve a common goal: we are students who want to make a positive impact on humanity.

By having online buddies from different communities, we share our experiences and find ways in which we can collaborate. It’s almost like a United Nations for students. Some of us report on community projects, others organise fundraising events and others do voluntary work to benefit our communities.

We believe students are able to change the future. Our voices matters! Raise your voice with us by joining us today.
Introduction

This initiative was started by our three online mentors in 2008. While working with youngsters in The Netherlands and students in South African township Khayelitsha, they felt the need to create a place for us to make our voices heard. The two European ladies (one living in South Africa) exchanged experiences with a South African developer (living in the United Kingdom). By sharing their experiences it inspired them to create the Students for Humanity website, a project supported by the Dutch foundation “Stichting Umeebee” in The Netherlands.