AKA Mombasa student advocates for diversity through 'Project Pluralism' initiative

Project Pluralism is an initiative by Diploma Programme 2 student, Rayyan Khan, whose objective is to forge connections between students of diverse backgrounds, bring attention to prevalent social issues and develop plans of action to address them. It also aims to bring together youth around the globe to share their different cultures and spread diversity to disband stigma and stereotypes while concurrently learning from each other.

The international programme has over 70 students enrolled from five different countries including, the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Kenya. By having youth from various backgrounds under one roof, the initiative promotes a more cosmopolitan and pluralistic society, which also happens to be a core value of the Aga Khan Academies.

Students in a virtual session of the Project Pluralism programme.

Members of the programme have been meeting virtually once a month to discuss and raise awareness about issues such as racism, gender inequality and other social problems. Different guest speakers, including university lecturers, have also been invited to shed more light on these issues and enhance the conversations already initiated.

When asked what the inspiration behind this initiative was, Rayyan said: "The idea behind this project came after participating in the Global Encounters camp in Pakistan. After the camp, a group of friends and I realised that we came to the camp with a lot of preconceived notions about different places around the world, which had drastically changed by the end of the camp. We further noticed that this was prevalent throughout the world and so we got together during the summer to create Project Pluralism."

Eventually, Rayyan hopes the programme continues to grow to reach even more students in other countries and that participants will gain a deeper understanding of the world around them, create long lasting connections and be inspired to start similar initiatives with the aim of moving towards a more unified world.