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With the extra money we can enable more young people to have a UWC education. Extra ...
Maya for Mostar
Belize
Aim
Scholar and eco-warrior, living in the jungle of Belize, needs to raise balance of fees to study at UWC in Mostar, Bosnia Herzegovina.
My Story:
My name is Maya Atkinson, I am 17 years old and I live at the Chaos Oasis (an Earthship and the biggest recycling project in the country), which I helped my parents build in the depths of the Belizean jungle in Central America. Since I first heard about the IB course at UWC, I’ve been working and studying for the last 2 years in order to get accepted : around 20 thousand kids apply to study at UWC each year for only 2 thousand places, that means statistically it is twice as hard to be admitted to UWC than Oxford! So imagine how happy I was in February when I was offered a place to study at UWC Mostar.
I am trying to raise funds so I can attend UWC and really make a difference to my life and the world, but with the arrival of Covid-19 in Belize, which has annihilated tourism and my parents' income, we need help to raise fees. If there is one thing this lockdown has taught me, it is that we need to make changes in the World for a better future and I believe education is the key.
What is UWC?
United World College is a movement of 18 international schools around the world whose mission is to “make education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future". UWC schools are committed to enabling their students to become change makers. Diversity is a key aspect of the UWC movement.
What’s so special about UWC?
I love UWC for its extraordinary education (the IB) and its determination to help others creating peace and diversity. It will enable me to make global connections and develop change-making skills that will help me make a real difference in the world: this exciting course will introduce me to teachers and fellow students who will help to fulfill my potential and find the right path for me to follow. I have been offered a place at UWC Mostar which specializes in conflict resolution...it is located where Bosnia and Herzegovina meet (did you see the pic of the amazing bridge?!).
What is the IB?
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program encompasses six subjects, an extended essay, study of Theory of Knowledge, as well as ‘CAS’ activities – Creative; Activity (a sport); and Service (i.e. volunteering for community action). It differs from normal high school or sixth form colleges as it is very much about giving back, something that is very important to me.
About me:
I was born in Spain in a bath in a barn!!! My parents are English and Spanish and just a little bit crazy, as you will see if you read on! When I was 5 we moved to Mexico in search of our dream home. After many travels and adventures - this is crowd funding, not a book - we ended up in the middle of the jungle in southern Belize. My family and I all loved our new life: camping in a cleared area with no electricity, no water and no walls, just us, the dog, some snakes, some tarantulas and a lot (I do mean a LOT) of ants and insects....
Treasured memories are: going to the nearby creek for water and bathing, riding our horse to school and climbing fruit trees to eat mangos, guavas and golden plums. At the village school my teacher told me that if I read too much my brain would melt!While I was at that school our family was featured in the Belize episode of Kevin McCloud’s Escape to the Wild...if you really want to know what I was like you can always watch it for a giggle (yes I am the one going on about machetes!!!).
I then attended a nearby Mayan boarding school called Tumul K’In. My uniform was the traditional Mayan dress. I learnt the basics of the Ketchi Maya language, how to cook and make tortillas over a fire (and how to start those fires by lighting a plastic bag). Some lessons were better than others! I learnt about traditional agriculture, how to butcher a pig and to treasure water (we had to carry it from the nearby river - water’s really, really heavy..).
Four years ago, I moved to Mayatan school in Copan, Honduras. I was introduced to a completely different culture and learnt to speak fluent Spanish rapidly. I lived with a host family and was fully immersed into their way of living. Last year I started a Friday for Future school strike with as many friends as I could gather. Every Saturday I had fun teaching underprivileged kids the basics of English and learnt tolerance and compassion (teaching 6-10 year olds English ain’t easy!). I also helped translating for medical brigades from America that come down and give aid to poorer villages.
Earthships
....or how watching one film can change your life!
The definition of an Earthship is a self-sustaining house made from recyclable materials which is powered by the sun and collects rain water that is recycled for food production. Earthships are beacons of sustainable living around the World.
We saw a film, Garbage Warrior, about the Earthship creator Michael Reynolds, the rest as they say is history... we were hooked! My childhood in Belize was spent collecting bottles and tyres to make the foundations and walls of the Earthship. We gathered these materials from restaurants and bars but for my sister and I, nothing was better than collecting from the dump because you never knew what you were going to find! As a child I loved this big, beautiful building that that my family and I were creating, it was so life changing. It is the first ever Earthship in Belize and I have either found, washed or cleaned almost every bottle in its walls.
The Chaos Oasis has grown to become the biggest recycling project in the country, we have used over 1,200 car and truck tyres, 50,000 plastic bottles, 40,000 glass bottles and countless sacks of rubbish containing styrofoam, tins and cans, not to mention a few ovens, fridges and many broken electronics. This was my first experience of how I, as an individual, could make a change in the world around me as I could see the benefits in the local community. We reuse old glass bottles to carry our drinking water: my father uses rum bottles so everyone thinks he is drinking the whole day! My family made sure that nothing ever goes to waste and that has always been my ethos.
Why help me?
Young people of my generation have never been more proactive and vocal about changing the world (eg. Greta Thunberg, Malalla and Boyan Slat). I am actively committed to making the world a better place and I am fully conscious of the opportunity I am being given. Attending a UWC college will not only give me an incredible education, but also connect me with an extraordinary network of international change makers. Any help you give me will be hugely appreciated and I am very driven to 'give back' as soon as I have the opportunity to do so.
Many UWC alumni have gone on to be massive contributors to philanthropical projects around the world. The RIB lifeboat was created by students and teachers at UWC Atlantic in the 60s. Recent alumna Umra Omar was nominated as the UN in Kenya Person of the Year 2017, Umra and the Safari Doctors are changing hundreds of lives every month, based in Kenya, they offer free basic medical services where there are almost none.
Testimonials:
Catrin is a UWC alumna:
Anna is a teacher at Mayatan:
Invest in education!
The fees for Mostar are 33,000 Euros for the two year course. I also have travel and living expenses. I was hoping for a full or partial scholarship but this year UWC is low on funding and my family has to pay the full amount - a sum which my family simply cannot afford (there’s not a lot of money in rubbish in the middle of the jungle!). We are hoping for some help from family and friends and UWC is doing everything they can to help but with Covid 19 things are tough for everyone so I desperately need as many contributions from as many people as possible. Just a little from many goes a long way...
I really would love to help my fellow students. Therefore I hope that this campaign goes really well and I surpass my goal, then I can donate the extra funds to help other students either through Mostar or the UK committee.
Rewards:
Because I am in Belize it is impossible to send anything so I have come up with some ideas I hope you will like....
- All donations will result in recycling!
- So first of all you will receive your Mayan Nawal, I have drawn them all myself - this is like your spirit animal / symbol and has spiritual significance. For example this is my Nawal ( brief version ):
- I am going to paint a wall of honour / thanks with all my donators names in Mayan glyphs. I mention it here so you can see what it will roughly look like:
If you are wonderfully generous then you will be invited to stay at the Chaos Oasis...just have a look at my rewards...
EVEN LITTLE CONTRIBUTIONS MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE!
In these extraordinary times, if you can not gift money, please, please, pleeese share this on to anyone and everyone you know.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIME.
This project successfully funded on 22nd July 2020