UPDATED 1st January 2021 THE KUNCHENG HU CHALLENGE

They are not coming back! So we need to act now more than ever! With thanks to everyone who has supported the Kunchenghu Challenge.. Your generosity makes a BIG difference, but we still have 5 months to go till graduation and we know China will not open up in time to get them back. We have 43 or our 60 students spread around the world who have no school to attend except the screen on their computer, no UWC community where they can share their ideas and idealism ... and that is since they left China in January 2020... please share this message and if you can give anything, even words of encouragement, please do so and help make this new year a Happy New Year for them ...

We need your help to get them to different communities so that they complete their education, take their exams and graduate.

Here is how you can contribute to stranded UWC Changshu students!

Follow the Facebook page:

The Kuncheng Hu Challenge!

Follow the students at Ranum on their Facebook page:

The Ranum Bubble for Stranded UWC Students

DONATE on this page ... its really easy and it makes a BIG difference

SHARE, SHARE AND SHARE!


Please share this page wherever you can, to whoever you can. The more exposure the better!

Personal message from Pelham and Ulrike

“Ulrike and I know so many of you who were part of a UWC community; at AC in Tice House, at the seafront with ILBs, in Nablus with the Middle East Project, in Peace and Conflict Studies classes, avoiding being oranges in West Asian History, taking German in Waterford, Visual Art at MUWCI, sitting on the Library Lawn, climbing Mount Wilko or in China on the Yushan or Changshu Challenge. Now we ask for your support for UWC Changshu students, uprooted from our UWC in China by the coronavirus, isolated at home, now facing their second year, knowing that they will not return. . We value them and want to support their commitment to UWC Changshu China by supporting them in this moment of vulnerability.”

Letter from Mariana Arrobas and Christian Havrehed on the Ranum Initiative:

Invitation to join the Danish “Ranum Bubble for Stranded UWC Students”

Dear All,

We are two UWC alumni, Mariana Arrobas (AC93) from Portugal and Christian Havrehed (AC88) from Denmark, with DP2 children who cannot go back to their respective UWC campuses for normal term start in August due to the Coronavirus. Mariana’s daughter Leonor is unable to get back to UWC Changshu and Christian’s son Victor is unable to get back to MUWCI.

We recognise how much of a disappointment this is for all the DP2s who now have to continue to study on-line until they can go back to their respective campuses or have received a permanent transfer to a UWC school they can travel to. No one knows for sure when either of these events may happen and this uncertainty weighs heavily on everyone: parents, teachers and most of all the students.

We decided that something needs to be done!

UWC is about living and studying together in a community of like minded peers. It is about participating in exciting CAS activities. It is about exchanging views and learning from each other in the common room. It is very hard to live this UWC experience when isolated at home, studying on-line. So we channelled that UWC spirit that was instilled so many years ago and found a way of creating something which we hope will help bridge the gap until these DP2 students can return to their true UWC communities. We found an international boarding school in Denmark, Ranum Efterskole College, which is willing to host DP2 students and arrange CAS activities until they are able to rejoin their original campuses or have received a permanent transfer to a school they can travel to.

The “Ranum Bubble for stranded UWC students” provides a context where stranded UWC DP2s can live together in a community and do real CAS activities, whilst they follow their respective UWC colleges’ on-line teaching program. We want it to be a better option to being stuck at home in a room.

We wish to emphasise that this “Ranum Bubble for Stranded UWC students” is a private initiative founded by alumni who are also parents and have a keen understanding of what the UWC experience is intended to be and how it has become impossible for all Schools and Colleges to provide it for all of their students. We also recognize that the current DP2 generation has been the most punished by the pandemic in terms of academic and extra-curricular disruption. The contractual relationship for participation in the Ranum Bubble will be solely between the DP2 student’s parents/guardians and Ranum Efterskole College.

We already have 6 students signed up to this initiative, including our own children. The initial batch Ranum can host is 24, so there are still 18 places available in the Bubble. This capacity can be expanded if the demand exists. The doors of the Ranum Bubble are open to ANY UWC DP2 students from ANY UWC that they are restricted from travelling to at the time provided there is physical capacity and means to meet the remaining requirements.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, there are no funds available within the UWC organisation to help pay for DP2s to participate in the Ranum Bubble, so only DP2s who have the ability to pay in full will be able to complete enrollment.

However, we are planning several private fundraising activities and we hope we will shortly have funds available to help subsidise stays at the Ranum Bubble, thereby also enabling DP2s who are unable to pay the full cost to go. So for now, if you want to join the Ranum Bubble, but do not have the funds, get creative. Make your own fundraiser, sweet talk your National Committee, see whether your college can help etc. You can make it happen! Remember Kurt Hahn: “There is more in you than you think!”.

Students can arrive at the Ranum Bubble starting 14th August. It is in everyone’s interest that as many students as possible arrive together on the 14th so that there is critical mass for building the Ranum Bubble’s unique UWC spirit. It will also help reduce contamination risks. There will be a teacher couple from Changshu at the Ranum Bubble who will help get the UWC spirit going, but they have no formal responsibility towards the DP2 students, which remains between the parents / ward and Ranum Efterskole College.

Details of how the “Ranum Bubble for Stranded UWC Students” set-up works are attached. So is Pelham’s letter of support for the initiative. Finally, once you have read all that, please fill in the Ranum Bubble on-line application form: https://ranumefterskolecollege.youngcrm.com/signup/12349

We look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Mariana & Christian

"There is more in you than you think" KURT HAHN