Voices Against Indifference
A curriculum-based educational program, VAI connects high school students with global humanitarians who exemplify the power of the individual to make a difference. Each year, VAI addresses critical issues facing humanity from the perspectives of our participating humanitarians with the underlying goals of shifting attitudes, fostering global awareness and promoting personal responsibility among youth. Simultaneously, VAI builds bridges across cultural divides by bringing students from all corners of the region together for dialogue. An extension of this initiative is Echo’s Annual Award Dinner, at which the guest humanitarian is they keynote speaker and a local hero is honored with the Echo Award Against Indifference.
Echo Humanitarian Academic Programs
2017 Cuba
2016 Bosnia
2015 Ben Bernakne
2013 The Steel Butterfly
Democracy, Responsibility, & Civic Engagement
The Aaron Ciechanover Project: Living Science
One by One by One…Paul Farmer & Partners in Health
From Rwanda to Darfur: A Week of Hope & Reconciliation
A Decade Inspired by Elie Wiesel
Peter Agre: My Life in Science
ECHO Returns: Young Heroes of Hope
A Gathering of Nobel Laureates: Science for the 21st Century
The Bernard Kouchner Project: Compassion Without Borders
Henry Louis Gates Jr.: W.E.B DuBois and the Encylopedia Africana
The Jeffrey Sachs Project: Environment, Poverty and Healthcare on a Global Scale: What Can One Person Do?
Syl Cheney-Coker Project: Free to Write
Father Robert F. Drinan Event: Reflections of a Human Rights Activist: From Vietnam to the Middle East
The Wole Soyinka Project: Truth, Memory, & Reconciliation
An Evening with Barbara Mooyaart-Doubleday
The Kerry Kennedy Project: For Women & Children
The Harry Wu Project
The Varian Fry Project
An Evening with “The White Rose”