Sydney Kamen '19 Davis Peace Prize

Following the last year she spent studying Swahili in Tanzania as a Department of Defense Boren Scholar, Sydney Kamen ‘19 will be returning to East Africa after being awarded the Davis Peace Prize. The Prize is a competitive $10,000 grant awarded to innovative student-designed peacebuilding programs around the world. Under this grant, Sydney will be implementing a health-based approach to peacebuilding through a community-based participant-designed menstrual hygiene management (MHM) program with historically marginalized and conflicting communities in rural Rwanda. This program will organize around local challenges, local talent, and assemble local skill to promote community-level health, peacebuilding, tolerance, and stability. These objectives will be developed through comprehensive MHM education, reusable sanitary pad (made from locally-sourced cotton and recycled banana leaf fibers) construction training, production, and distribution through a newly established women's cooperative all interested participants will be inducted into, and the launch of the "MHM Mamas" mentorship program that will be implemented in local secondary schools.