The Melton Foundation is a leading proponent of Global Citizenship practice, promoting and enabling global citizenship as a way for individuals and organizations to work together across boundaries of place and identity to address global challenges.
The cultural fabric of India is akin to a colorful mosaic of religions, languages, cultures, literary pieces, philosophies, and relics. The sheer diversity found in the country, interspersed with varying strands of thoughts, beliefs, and ways of life, is of gargantuan dimensions. The integration of different cultures over millennia has yielded a rich heritage, comprising a number of literary texts, architectural creations, and philosophical sects. Globalization, and therefore global citizenship, is a phenomenon which underlines the evolution of the Indian society and has worked its way into the mindset of the people for thousands of years, resulting in the interwoven societal setup existing today.
Since its inception, the Melton Foundation’s Grants Program has translated small ideas of social impact into functional local and global projects led by Melton Fellows. Over the last decade, these Global Citizenship initiatives which received funding and support through our grants program have touched hearts, minds, and lives everywhere. Read on to delve into the rich archive of projects accomplished by our global, intercultural community of Melton Fellows over the past ten years!
To broadly define Global Citizenship Education (GCE), we can state that it is a learning framework that enables individuals and communities to aspire and actively participate in the societal transformation towards a more equitable, sustainable, and peaceful world. A collaborative and lifelong learning process, Global Citizenship Education furthers individual and collective competencies necessary to promote and act towards societal transformation.
The best way for a global citizen to begin her journey is to explore her local environs and work towards creating models for problems that exist in different corners of the globe for implementation in the local setup. The local sphere is where the most visible changes occur, the site of the real empowerment of communities.
We, as a human race, have come a long way. From being nomadic tribes to constructing skyscrapers, the Homo Sapiens have traversed the globe, setting up civilizations in the remotest lands and sailing across the seven oceans. Despite the intermingling of societies, accelerated by globalization 18th century onwards, the hindrances to Global Citizenship have only increased. What are Melton Fellows doing to change this narrative, and make Global Citizenship an everyday reality?
The SDG Innovation Challenge is a virtual ideation marathon for motivated young people from across Africa to come together in developing and connecting practical solution ideas for challenges faced by their local communities at the grassroots level. Here's what the maiden SDG Innovation Challenge 2020 was all about.
On the 5th, 6th, and 7th of November 2020, the Melton Foundation in partnership with CSTEP Bangalore, organized the Climathon Bengaluru 2002. Inspired by EIT Climate-KIC, the innovation marathon culminated in prototypes that sought to ameliorate the current climate status quo and develop solutions to Urban Waste Management.
At the Climathon Hangzhou, in 24 hours, 8 teams of 28 students participated in the competition. They worked together to provide innovative solutions to the environmental problems faced by the city of Hangzhou in China.
In October 2020, the Melton Foundation organized a Mental Well-being Workshop for members of the network. Hosted by Senior Melton Fellow Dr. Vernice Richards, a Ph.D. holder in Sports Psychology and Performance Psychology Consultant, the workshop explored a topic deeply resonant with the current background of the COVID-19 pandemic - ‘Uncertainty’. As emphasized at the very beginning of the event, the objective of the workshop was to make one feel uncomfortable, get out of one’s comfort zone, and ask and answer some serious questions.
