Jenifer Colpas, an OYW Ambassador from Colombia, has been selected as a finalist for the CNN Hero of the Year 2021.
Jenifer is one of the 10 CNN Heroes of the Year 2021, an annual program that spotlights the impactful work of people across the world since 2007. Each CNN Hero was nominated by global audiences, and selected by CNN, to each receive a $10,000 prize.
The top recipient is chosen as the CNN Hero of the Year and receives an additional US$100,000 to continue their work.
CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute is a television special created by CNN to honor individuals who make extraordinary contributions to humanitarian aid and make a difference in their communities. The program was started in 2007. Since 2016, the program has been hosted by Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa.
Honorees are introduced each autumn and the audience is encouraged to vote online for the CNN Hero of the Year. Ten recipients are honored and each receives US$10,000. The top recipient is chosen as the CNN Hero of the Year and receives an additional US$100,000 to continue their work. During the broadcast celebrating their achievements, the honorees are introduced by celebrities who actively support their charity work.
This year marks the 15th Annual CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute, honoring the Top 10 CNN Heroes of 2021 with viewers voting online for the CNN Hero of the Year.
You can vote for Jenifer here:
About Jenifer
In 2015, Jenifer Colpas came face-to-face with the water crisis while volunteering in rural areas of Colombia. “I realized that there was no water, not even to drink,” she says, and she decided to do something about it. Jenifer is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Tierra Grata, a social enterprise that develops low-cost, easy-to-install solutions providing access to clean energy, safe water, and sanitation services to rural communities in Colombia.
It wasn’t an overnight success. “It was a lot of moments in conversation with the community,” she says, “and every time I went deeper into the stories of the families, I started like realizing different things about the story of my country.” In Columbia, where 4.9 million people lack access to a decent toilet, and 1.4 million people do not have access to clean water, Jenifer was eager to give back and who better to do that than someone who speaks the language and calls Columbia home.
“I'm understanding my country in practice, not just reading something on the news,” she says. This required understanding the situation of rural poverty by breaking bread with different families and communities, building trust, and listening. For many outsiders, there is a single narrative of Columbia – one that involves conflict and suffering. But Jenifer hopes to change that narrative by focusing on what sustained these communities through their darkest days – their resilience. The people of Columbia aren’t waiting for a miracle, instead, they are taking the lead in their own rebirth. Jenifer’s goal is to ensure that the solution to the water crisis is sustainable for its citizens as well as the environment.
Through Tierra Grata, the waterless toilets conserve a limited resource and provide a natural fertilizer to use on farmland by using natural materials like sawdust and ash help to break down waste into usable and safe compost. To date, her team has managed to reach approximately 10,000 people through tangible health and hygiene improvements to more people in underserved areas in Colombia – a critical need during the pandemic. She’s also worked to socialize citizens about sanitation, a topic of conversation that many would rather shy away from but is necessary for women and girls especially. Access to a private waterless toilet means that women and girls are further protected from sexual harassment and health problems brought on by contaminated water sources. Talking about this openly empowers women to make safe and sustainable choices for them and their families.
Every day, Jenifer is thinking of new ways to catalyze development through face-to-face encounters that further empower the citizens in Colombia. Her dream is to expand the mission of Tierra Grata, and with her plans to pursue a master's degree in social development she can help bring more solutions to light.