DAAD Award for Elvire Kouakep Kouadjio

The "DAAD Award for Outstanding Achievements and Extraordinary Volunteer Involvement of International Students" was awarded to Elvire Kouakep Kouadjio this year. The thirty year old from Cameroon has been doing her Master's in European Studies since October 2010 at RWTH Aachen. The award is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD, and is worth 1000 Euros.

 

Elvire Kouakep Kouadjio was nominated by the Catholic Student Group in Aachen. The mother of two children has already completed her Bachelor at the FH Cologne. During that time she was already involved in the Association of Cameroonians in Aachen, which she has been chair of since 2009. In the past year she has managed to include many Cameroonians in the association's activities and has provided an immense contribution to their integration.

Equal opportunities for women is especially important to Kouakep Kouadjio. For this reason, she started the Friends of Cameroonian Women in Aachen. She also started a children's dance group two years ago. She actively supports development-political projects for her home country of Cameroon. For example, access to clean drinking water for everyone in Cameroon is a topic of the project "O’BOSSO: Wasser ist Leben“ or "Water is life".

Kouakep Kouadijo also contributes to the integration of international students in Aachen through her work with the student initiative RWTH Aachen INCAS. There she has worked a great deal on the project "My home is your home" since July 2012. She provides students, who have recently arrived to Aachen, housing possiblities for the first few days or weeks of their stay or helps individuals in emergency situations.

The DAAD award will be officially awarded during RWTHtransparent in Janaury 2013.