BRYN (1st year)

“I decided to join the UNICEF committee with the intention of helping for a good cause, after hearing about it from someone else. It was also an opportunity for me to keep busy and meet new people while working for an organization that I like and that I wanted to discover more in-depth. As the project coordinator, my job is to brainstorm ideas with my peers to find a project to follow with the creative committee. Our current project is to go around every student building to encourage people to get rid of their glass bottles in the boxes that we placed in the lobbies. That way we can bring the boxes of bottles back to Albert Heijn to receive money for it in return.

The money that we raise is used for the Maman Lumière Project in Burundi. This project gives children the opportunity to grow up healthy as it teaches women in a community how to cook properly for their children, increasing their knowledge on good nutrition. This program aims to tackle the rampant issue of infant malnutrition in Burundi. It's also very important to me to help and work for this organization in these times knowing that, given the COVID situation, countries with a lower GDP are more impacted.

As everything is online, it has become harder for us to find business sponsorship and fundraisers around the Hague because they are all really struggling right now. However, we adapted to the situation and I think we did well with the possibilities that we have. We hosted many events to raise awareness to issues such as children' rights around the globe, we organized many movie nights, Instagram challenges and a pub quiz to keep the committee active online and we will try to be even more active next semester with new seminars ! Thanks to the many programs and virtual conferences that we've had so far I truly feel like it taught me a lot about useful ways of helping others, and to bring people together to help financing an important project with us."

Location: Toronto