Global Citizenship Week 2021 – Impact

The Global Citizenship Week 2021 - Seven days packed with Townhalls, an Open Mic, hub activities, and the biggest Global Citizenship Virtual Ideathon yet! Reaching 1000+ changemakers throughout the week, we explored ways to put Global Citizenship into Practice by engaging individuals and organizations from various disciplines, cultures, and backgrounds. Read on to gauge the impact of the Week!

Over the course of 7 days, the Virtual Global Citizenship Week 2021 saw cross-domain and cross-cultural collaboration and interaction to churn out practical solutions for local problems and global aspirations!

Top Highlights and Major Takeaways – A bird’s eye view!

• We reached 1000+ changemakers via various digital and social platforms to join hands with a diverse network; Our fundamental motivation was to streamline expertise from different disciplines into collective action!
• We touched base with 20+ countries in the process, providing an open and authentic platform for a healthy intercultural exchange geared towards effective collaboration!
• The most-liked factors across the events by our attendees, as evident by the feedback surveys, were the content delivered/speaker’s contribution, diversity of the panel as well as the audience, and the format of the sessions conducted.
• Our Open Mic saw eight artists coming together on a common platform in a night which had a live audience of 71 and reached ~500 viewers.
• Ideathon 2021, which was the biggest edition of the Global Citizenship Virtual Ideathon yet, saw as many as eleven submissions with the final ideas dealing with topics as wide-ranging as menstrual health and winning justice for waste collectors!

The pie chart depicts the percentage distribution of our participants and attendees.

Confronting Discrimination: A Townhall

With over 73 registrations from around the world, and close to 60 participants this Townhall saw issues such as the powers of privilege, intergenerational legacies, and change at the individual level being discussed with a focus on shifting paradigms for the future and helping organizations rid themselves of micro-aggressions and other forms of discrimination. One of the facets of the session most appreciated was the diversity of the speakers,  as well as the audience, creating an open space for individuals to share and listen to stories and experiences!

To find out more about the Townhall, click here and access the full recording below!

Unity in Diversity: An Open Mic

Eight artists from different countries joined hands to come together for a night of diversity, performing renditions of songs, dance, flow art, and spoken word to create a melange of talent, joy, and intercultural exchange! With an audience of about 415, the Open Mic provided a platform for hearts and minds to connect across geographies and express solidarity through the creative medium of art!

Uncover more about the Open Mic here and watch the performances below!

Building Back Better: Be a Post-COVID City Mayor for a Day!

A hands-on workshop facilitated by Fransiska Tirtoadisurja, this session saw participants going back to the drawing board to learn about the basic principles of urban planning, with a vision to develop better cities in the post-COVID scenario, implementing the lessons learned from the pandemic. The majority of the workshop attendees agreed that the highlight of the session was the fresh set of insights they took away from the content shared in the workshop and the experiences shared by Fransiska!

To explore the Workshop in greater detail, watch the impulse video below and read more about its impact here!

Cultivating Well-Being in Difficult Times: Spanish Townhall 

Organized by our Temuco Hub, this discussion allowed attendees to interact with experts to unravel the importance of our holistic well-being, which has come into the spotlight following the onset of the pandemic. The discussion, which saw as many as 53 registrations, also debunked myths surrounding self-care to ease accessibility and remove barriers!

Catch the recording of the Townhall below and view the discussion for yourself!

Putting Global Citizenship into Practice: Panel Discussion

With four eminent panelists – Shehzia Lilani, Ms. Ediola Pashollari, Patricija Virtič, and Sartaj Anand – on the roundtable, this Townhall saw as many as 97 registrations! The feedback from the event suggests that the diversity on display during the discussion – be it professional or cultural backgrounds – together with the content delivered by the speakers made for a healthy discourse around the issue of implementing Global Citizenship real-time!

Watch the Panel Discussion as it unfolded below or read more about it here!

Global Citizenship Virtual Ideathon 2021

Ideathon 2021 was the biggest edition of our flagship event yet – it clocked 200+ registrations, engaged with 63 ideators, and yielded as many as eleven different solutions! We also saw four teams taking home the winner’s prizes, their ideas including those that extend aid to farmers, help families access health insurance, accord dignity to waste collection, and a storytelling initiative to help underprivileged women in Kisumu! The winners of Ideathon 2021:

• Winner of the Ideathon – Stories of Kisumu, a storytelling initiative that empowers the vulnerable girls and women of Kisumu County in Kenya through the device of storytelling

• 2nd Place – Let the World Breathe, whose prototype envisages research, give visibility and a voice to the communities of waste collectors to facilitate the sharing of their insights
• 3rd Place (Joint winners) – Farm for Good, whose idea revolves around an inclusive agricultural extension service for small farmers that links them to markets and other agronomy services, and inSUREd, whose web/mobile application helps the working class and others to book doctor appointments and other services

The winners of the Ideathon receive support and aid to help them turn their ideas into reality! Read more about the impact of Ideathon 2021 here!

Global Citizenship Virtual Ideathon 2021 – Showcase

The Showcase for the Ideathon featured a Keynote Address from Kwabena Twumasi Ankrah, Senior Fellow of the Melton Foundation since 2016, Winner of New Business Challenge & The German Institute of Business and Technology Innovation Hackathon Kectil Leadership Fellow, Azubi Africa Fellow, and Clinton Global Fellow. Titled ‘The Unknown of Fear’, the address revolved around transcending fear to achieve transformative change through collaborative action. He called upon all the participants present to decide whether to be crushed by it or use it as a springboard to succeed!

Watch the complete Keynote Address below and learn how to navigate and harness ‘fear’!

Melton Foundation Hub Activities

The Melton Foundation also hosted regional inter-hub activities for its Fellows and internal members, an opportunity for them to interact across their campuses virtually and network, interact, and exchange thoughts on their cultures through quizzes, dance, and other fun activities!

The Virtual Global Citizenship Week 2021 came to a close on April 25th, with the Ideathon wrapping up on the 1st of May with the Showcase! This week will leave us with a lot of memories and key takeaways that are sure to help us advance in our quest to realize Global Citizenship in practice and equip young changemakers around the world to initiate ripples of transformation!