A new eight-year educational scholarship has been established to benefit one hundred at-risk children from the Arab Middle East. The 100 LIVES initiative is announcing the new program at the Near East Foundation’s Centennial Gala before an audience of humanitarian aid leaders and members of the Armenian community. 100 LIVES and NEF developed the program together as a way to express gratitude on behalf of the Armenian community to the people of the Middle East who offered shelter and food to refugees of the Armenian Genocide a century ago.

Valued at nearly $7 million, the 100 LIVES and Near East Foundation Gratitude Scholarship Program will provide children affected by conflict, displacement and poverty the opportunity to study at UWC Dilijan, an international co-educational boarding school currently hosting students from over 60 countries, or other UWC network schools around the world. The program will be administered through the Scholae Mundi Foundation, which aims to provide students with opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to contribute to the international community and catalyze social change.

The first recipients of the scholarship will be enrolled in UWC schools in 2016.