New JUHAN Website Offers Access to Valuable Resources for Humanitarian Causes | Press Releases

Fairfield University, a founding member of the Jesuit Universities Humanitarian Action Network (JUHAN), has helped create a new website to make sharing information and resources easier.

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (November 12, 2015) — With the support of a recent grant, students and faculty at universities across the globe will have access to a variety of useful materials through a new website, JUHAN Online , named for the Jesuit Universities Humanitarian Action Network.

The grant, worth $260,000, comes from the New York City-based Teagle Foundation, who works to support and strengthen liberal arts education, which fosters meaningful work, effective citizenship, and a fulfilling life. The three-year grant—the second one from the Teagle Foundation for JUHAN—concerns preparing students for responsible civic engagement as well as professional careers in humanitarian service at three Jesuit institutions.

JUHAN Online will serve as a communication portal and information clearinghouse to support the work of partner universities across the growing JUHAN network. The website will also serve as both a virtual “toolkit” of replicable teaching materials and best practices. Sample syllabi, course outlines, assessment tools, and strategies to engage students in humanitarian action will be available.

Creation of the site was a collaborative effort between Fairfield University’s School of Engineering students, who worked on the site as part of their capstone coursework, along with project partners from Georgetown University and Universidad Centroamericano (UCA) in Nicaragua. The project is named “Collaborative Project in Student Learning: The Examination of Enduring Questions through Humanitarian Education.”,

“We are thrilled to be launching this website and we encourage students, faculty and humanitarian practitioners to visit and contribute to the website,” said Julie Mughal, Fairfield’s JUHAN director. “We are hoping JUHAN Online will become the ‘go-to’ site for students, faculty and staff across the Jesuit family of universities—and beyond—who are interested in partnering in humanitarian action. We are stronger when we work together in our response to crisis.”

JUHAN was originally founded in 2008, a collaboration between Fairfield, Georgetown and Fordham Universities on the premise that institutions will be more effective working together to address the needs of those who are suffering. Since JUHAN’s formation, the network has worked together to address many recent crises, from the 2013 Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines to the devastating earthquake in Nepal in 2015. Students learn how to advocate, fundraise and take action on global humanitarian crises. The upcoming 2015 Humanitarian Action Day will be recognized across the JUHAN network on Friday, November 20, with a special emphasis on the Syrian Refugee Crisis. This is the 3rd annual Humanitarian Action Day in recognition of Universal Children’s Day celebrated on November 20th. On this day universities and students join in solidarity to help those in need both locally and globally

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Vol. 48, No. 52

Fairfield University is a Jesuit University, rooted in one of the world’s oldest intellectual and spiritual traditions. More than 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students from 36 states, 47 foreign countries, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are enrolled in the University’s five schools. In the spirit of rigorous and sympathetic inquiry into all dimensions of human experience, Fairfield welcomes students from diverse backgrounds to share ideas and engage in open conversations. The University is located in the heart of a region where the future takes shape, on a stunning campus on the Connecticut coast just an hour from New York City.