One Young World Ambassadors are leading projects in every country of the world, creating substantial social impact across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Every month our Coordinating Ambassadors select someone from their region who has created significant social impact locally, regionally or even worldwide. We are delighted to feature a selection of these exceptional young leaders below. If you would like to be considered, please reach out directly to your Coordinating Ambassador. Unsure who is your Coordinating Ambassador? See the breakdown of countries here
Hashem Almusawi, Bahrain - Laptops 2 Life
Hashem works as Project Leader for Laptops 2 Life, an initiative which seeks to improve access to technology for the disadvantaged whilst offering a solution to electronic waste. To achieve this goal, the team has partnered with a selection of businesses and embassies in Bahrain, who have donated second-hand, replaced laptops to the organisation. Electronic waste is a significant cause of dangerous emissions as they contain dangerous elements when discarded in landfills.
These laptops were then repurposed, and donated in turn to different vulnerable groups including students aged between 12 and 15. For these recipients access to technology is a valuable educational resource, especially during periods of remote learning enforced as a result of the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, recipients were given workshops on the basics of computers to drive their curiosity and encourage them to use this resource effectively, and specialise in valuable subjects such as computer science and engineering.
Shubhi Agarwal & Rachana R, India - LEOPARD
Shubhi and Rachana have designed and developed an online data platform in the pursuit of eradicating global leprosy. It aims to facilitate the holistic treatment of patients, bridge gaps in the supply chain of leprosy medication, create an innovative “data lake” to understand the disease landscape with user and community analytics, and integrate a contact tracing methodology to control and limit the spread of the disease.
The application already has about 250 live patient records across five states in India, and in the long-term aims to grow to cover all leprosy patients across the world. Analytics allows the organisation to identify hot spots and follow the spread of the disease, while sending SMS reminders to help patients stick to their regime and treatment. An additional benefit is that time for patient care within the tertiary care centre has significantly increased, with reduction of time spent on administrative tasks. It also ensures data loss prevention by digitalisation of patient records on paper, with greater quality of captured data.
Cheick Oumar Doumbia, Mali - Youth For Change
Cheick Oumar has founded Youth For Change to maximise the contribution of young people in the development of the African continent, by providing them with skills through training. They learn public speaking skills, about personal finance, politics, investment, writing, and entrepreneurship. The people trained are also encouraged and trained to share their knowledge with others in their communities.
As President of Youth For Change, Cheick Oumar has led more than 300 youth projects. The initiative aims to bring hope back and facilitate youth political engagement, youth entrepreneurship, youth engagement in civil society, and youth participation in policy and decision making.
Milena Milicevic, Serbia - Innovation Attitude Centre
Innovation Attitude Centre was founded by Milena in order to accomplish the following goals for youth development: capacity building in the field of youth, fostering entrepreneurship, and youth education. It does so through a variety of events and programmes, including conferences, projects and collaborations with stakeholders.
An annual and flagship project is organised annually in Belgrade, while INAT Centre continues with its activities throughout the year to help the most motivated young professionals in the ICT sector. It connects them with the most innovative companies, helps them to create new value, products, and services in the age of Digital Transformation, and find the jobs of Industries 4.0. INAT’s actions have impacted hundreds of participants during three major conferences and 10 smaller projects.
Atoka Jo, Japan - Himeji Girls’ High School Liberal Arts Summer Program
In 2020, Atoka founded the Himeji Girls’ High School Liberal Arts Summer Program, a summer school for Japanese high school students, to improve the Japanese education system by fostering the hybrid of the current one-way style education with a more discussion-based, active learning program, and to develop greater Japanese critical thinkers.
Through this summer school, in which there were classes that were unlike the normal one-way classes common in the Japanese education system, the Japanese high school students experienced how to communicate their own thoughts clearly and developed presentation skills. Thus, they realised the joy to speak up and express their own opinions, and increased their level of confidence.
David Mora, Canada/Mexico - Enactus
David has collaborated with Enactus for many years. As a participant in the programme, he was a National Champion in 2012, and represented his country at the SIFE/Enactus World Cup in Washington DC. David has been invited as a judge of Enactus’ national competition in Mexico on four occasions, and this year was also judging the top 16 teams globally in the Enactus World Cup 2020. He is currently working as a communications advisor for BRP in Canada, and he has recently supported the Enactus team of the University of Sherbrooke in their competition preparation.
David was invited as a judge due to his background in creating exceptional social impact. He was a project leader in University, and helped create social, sustainable and entrepreneurial projects in marginalised communities in Queretaro, Mexico. He has worked closely with the government, universities, and enterprises to create lasting and sustainable projects. He has conducted research on women’s empowerment and broken technologies. In 2014, he was part of the Mexican Delegation at the G20 Young Entrepreneurs' Alliance Summit in Sydney, presenting his projects to the most important world entrepreneurs.
Julián David Padilla Vivas, Colombia - Genesis - Reckitt Benckiser
This year, RB launched the "Fight for Access" Fund to improve health, hygiene, and nutrition during the pandemic. Julián's project Genesis received support, an initiative dedicated to supporting a marginalised population in District 18 in Cali. The forced migration of rural communities because of the civil war has resulted in many being underserved by social services such as healthcare and education.
Genesis is committed to protecting, healing and nurturing the lives of more than 400 families in the area, and has also provided mental health support with a hotline serving more than 10,000 people suffering from increased pressures during the pandemic. Since 2009, the RB Social Responsibility programme has benefitted more than 5,000 inhabitants in this district by opening 5 community dining rooms to provide meals for children, and protective spaces to guarantee their rights. In 2019, RB led the "Cambiente" project to transform the community’s practices regarding home hygiene, thus promoting responsible management of waste and protection of the Meléndez river.
Maiya Suyunchaliyeva, Kazakhstan - Ban Ki-Moon institute for Sustainable Development at KazNU
Maiya is CEO and Founder of the Ban Ki-Moon Institute for Sustainable Development (BKMISD), which is an international academic institution at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. Its establishment is working towards the Sustainable Development Goals, and is designed to become a national and international think tank and a hub for developing cutting-edge research and educational programmes.
Its flagship programmes include the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI), University 4.0, MDP/Global Classroom Program on Sustainability, Green Campus, Green Bridge through Generations, University Social Responsibility Network (USRN), Ruhani Zhangyru (Cultural & Social development program of Kazakhstan), “Al-Farabi – Smart City” and more. As a result of the engagement of young leaders within the university at these events, more than 70% of students have reported an increase in both their quality of education and emotional intelligence.
Katharina Hilker, Switzerland - Generation B
Katharina is one of the leaders of Generation B – Bühler’s internal platform that drives actions to connect people and bridge gaps of all kinds. The purpose of this initiative was to defeat gender stereotypes, to enable employees, students, parents, and leaders to be open-minded and empowering towards women in STEM careers.
There were 26 high school students aged between 14 – 16 invited to take part in an interactive session that allowed them to learn from the experiences of three very different profiles of women in STEM. This session saw the participants learn first-hand from the experiences of established women in the field. A safe space was created in this session that empowered the young students to voice their concerns and aspirations about careers in STEM.
Alejandra Plaza Limón, Mexico - Observatorio de Innovación Tecnológica para la Transición Energética
Alejandra is working with a Global Shapers team to create an Observatory of Technological Innovation for the Energy Transition (OITTE), defined as a unifying platform to bring clean energy companies and environmental advocates together to collaboratively map out sustainable energy solutions. The project stages involve the research, development and dissemination of accurate information, and specialising in finding financial opportunities that benefit clean energy transition projects.
This project has long-term ambitions, and is based on changing the current paradigm for energy generation, therefore dramatically decreasing CO2 emissions in Mexico. Its impact relies on becoming a pioneering organisation that works with an interdisciplinary perspective to solve the challenges on the energy industry.
Millicent Barty, Solomon Islands - Millicent Designs
Millicent is a social entrepreneur and Chair of the Young Entrepreneurs Council Solomon Islands. Her core initiative, Millicent Designs offers a communication service to tackle adult illiteracy in Solomon Islands using structures of traditional oral history to effectively translate development projects to rural communities. YECSI (Young Entrepreneurs Council Solomon Islands) is a membership-driven organisation which supports Young Entrepreneurs with capacity building, skills and mentorship opportunities.
Millicent participated in One Young World’s Shine a Light series, which highlights the work of Ambassadors in different countries on a particular SDG. The event brings together young people working towards a common goal, demonstrates the work Ambassadors are undertaking, and connects young people across different regions. The episode which Millicent participated in explored SDG 4, on Quality Education.
Shreya Mantha, USA - Foundation For Girls
In December 2014, Shreya and her sister Sahana established Foundation For Girls (FFG) to economically empower women. They are leading the way in driving long-term systemic change through Crucial Capabilities, Conscious Collaboration, and a Consistent Community. For a population whose prospects for economic independence and upward mobility seemed so out of reach, FFG identified an opportunity to invest in women. FFG built a multi-faceted program rooted in education and a social support system that is helping tackle the upward mobility problem in the US. FFG's approach consists of education in the areas of Financial Well-Being, Career Journey, Digitally Forward, as well as providing a Circle of Care, a supportive community of coaches to help each participant work their way to economic empowerment.
FFG's programs and coaching results in a ripple effect yielding a 3x multiplier, enabling women to better support their children, friends, and/or family members, leading to more productive engagement in society. With a team of 75 coaches, Foundation For Girls has impacted more than 2,500 women through 800+ workshops and over 70,000 hours of coaching.
Iki Chan, Hong Kong - Foster Hong Kong Virtual Global Internship
The Covid-19 crisis has caused a crisis in the job market and professional opportunities have become scarcer. Having noticed this, Iki decided to create “Foster Hong Kong - Virtual Global Internship”, an online platform to match project partners with potential, suitable applicants. This project connects partners and interns virtually without limitation of time zone, geographical boundary, or visa issues.
This platform is advantageous for both partners and interns. The partners receive skilled and appropriate labour. Creative ideas from a more diverse background of interns gives partners new insight into their projects. Meanwhile, interns gain work experience with high flexibility. This programme offers them the opportunity to understand their strengths, and offers career development under one-to-one mentorship by the partner. It also offers improved employment opportunities, as a result of the experience gained from the completion of 90-hours virtual global internship.
Interested in learning more about Ambassador projects around the world? Check out our Impact page to learn about how young leaders in the One Young World Community are leading the charge towards the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.