Two Princeton students—Hassen M. Yesuf ’10 and Fatu S. Conteh ’10—have been awarded $10,000 by the Davis Projects for Peace, to build a well and redevelop a spring in Jorit, Ethiopia, during the summer of 2009. Their project will provide a clean water system for the village residents.

Yesuf, an astrophysical sciences major, and Conteh, a chemistry major, said the inspiration for the project came from their own experiences growing up in villages like Jorit. As a child in Ethiopia, Yesuf had personal experience with the suffering water-borne illness can cause, and Fatu recalls playing games while waiting every morning in long water queues in Sierra Leone. “Our cultural knowledge and sensitivity place us in a uniquely advantageous position to successfully carry out the proposed project,” they said. They hope that in addition to benefiting the lives of the villagers by addressing the basic need for safe drinking water, the well will also promote peace by mitigating “the small-scale effects that water scarcity has in destroying the family and undermining peace and unity in the community.”

The Davis Projects for Peace program, which was established in 2007 by Kathryn W. Davis on the occasion of her 100th birthday, is designed to encourage and support creative and practical ideas by young people for building peace throughout the world. A lifelong internationalist and philanthropist, Mrs. Davis is the widow of Shelby Cullom Davis ’30, who was U.S. ambassador to Switzerland from 1969 to 1975. In 2007 Mrs. Davis and her son, Shelby M.C. Davis, donated $5 million to endow Princeton’s Kathryn W. and Shelby Cullom Davis International Center.

Now 102, Mrs. Davis says, “My many years have taught me that there will always be conflict. It’s part of human nature. But love, kindness, and support are also part of human nature, and my challenge to these young people is to bring about a mindset of preparing for peace instead of preparing for war.”

Davis Projects for Peace invites applications from all students in schools that participate in the Davis United World College Scholars (UWC) program, which provides grants to select American colleges and universities in support of students from all over the world who have completed their pre-university studies at UWC schools, as well as from students at International Houses worldwide and Future Generations.

For 2009, “The competition on nearly 100 campuses was keen, and we congratulate the students who proposed the winning projects,” said Philip O. Geier, executive director of the Davis UWC Scholars Program.

Applications from Princeton students were sent through the Pace Center, which serves as a central resource for civic engagement activities at Princeton by supporting students in addressing civic problems through public service internships and fellowships, academic work, volunteer service, extracurricular projects, civic action trips, and professional opportunities. A complete list of the winning schools and projects, as well as a video interview with Mrs. Davis from 2006, is available at www.kwd100projectsforpeace.org. 

May 2009