Eirliani Abdul Rahman recently joined the Community Engagement Committee (CEC) of the United World Colleges (UWC) International Board as a volunteer.

What is the United World College?
Founded in 1962, the UWC is an educational movement that operates in line with Nelson Mandela’s slogan “education is the most powerful weapon to change the world”. The objective is thus to help 16-19 year old students to develop resilience and the ability to experience failure as well as success though a holistic educational concept. UWC schools bring young students with different perspectives, ideas and backgrounds together and “make education a force for peace and sustainability”. The students can complete their International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma in 17 schools and colleges. Moreover, the UWC provides short educational programmes and national committees in 159 countries and territories.

How will Eirliani be engaged in the movement?
As a volunteer of the CEC, Eirliani will contribute inspiring ideas to various sections of UWC international. For example, she will be helping to develop and implement the Community Engagement Strategy. Furthermore, Eirliani will be involved in the current engagement tools and programmes (UWC Hub, UWCx and UWC Day) to engage alumni and the community. Eirliani will contribute her skills from her fields of expertise to foster a lifelong commitment to social responsibility.

How does the UWC work?
The educational concept of the UWC seeks to foster experiential learning encouraging students to step out of their comfort zone and enlarging their horizons. This is mirrored by the so-called Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS) programme which allows students to participate in supplementary activities such as theatre, music, farming or sport.
UWC international is a charity registered and administered in London, UK. It coordinates between the different UWC elements and stakeholders. In October 2017, the UNWC approved a new strategy that “broadens UWC’s ambition from providing transformative education for its students to becoming a global voice for values and diversity based education for peace and sustainability”. It rests on three pillars, namely to seek, to educate and to inspire. The core of the strategy is deliberate diversity seeking to foster innovative education. The UWC works together with various educational, programme, funding and donation partners, such as the International Baccalaureate, the Ellen Mercator Foundation, the Horizon Foundation and the Velux Foundations among others.

About the author:

Eirliani Abdul Rahman is the co-founder of YAKIN, an NGO working in the field of child rights and child protection issues and she continuously aims at raising awareness for survivors of sexual child abuse, the consequences of child labor and mental health issues.

Published on March 1, 2018.

Image credit: United World Colleges