This Month's Projects in Numbers:
600,000 women provided healthcare
25,000 tonnes of CO2 mitigated
32,700 children educated or trained
...
Meet the Ambassadors
Ailars David - Tanzania
(He/Him)
Ailars founded the Sustainable Ocean Alliance Tanzania (SOA Tanzania), a youth-led organization founded to empower young people and coastal communities to protect and restore ocean ecosystems while advancing climate action and sustainable livelihoods. The organisation does this by running capacity building and leadership programmes, such as the Our Ocean Bootcamp, which trains young people on practical marine science and advocacy skills. SOA Tanzania also runs ecosystem restoration projects through partnerships with local communities.
Since its establishment in 2020, SOA Tanzania has built a community of over 700 young people, collectively known as Generation Restoration, who participate in the organisation’s programming. SOA Tanzania has also adopted over 5,000 hectares of mangrove ecosystems and 0.5 square kilometres of seagrass meadows for long-term conservation and restoration.
Visit the soa tanzania website
Shirene Yaseen - Qatar
(She/Her)
Shirene founded Arabic Mate, a digital education platform that connects native Arabic teachers from low-income and displaced communities with learners around the world seeking to learn or practice Arabic through personalised, one-on-one lessons. The platform was designed to both make Arabic lessons more accessible and provide opportunities for talented Arabic teachers, particularly women from marginalised communities, who are often excluded from global education markets despite their skills and experience.
While Arabic Mate had 66 registered students and a growing pool of teachers, the project was forced to pause due to the displacement and lack of technical and financial support caused by the war in Gaza. Today, Arabic Mate is in its relaunch phase. With support from international collaborators, Shirene is rebuilding the platform and preparing for an official relaunch focused on sustainability, ethical digital work, and long-term impact that empowers women experiencing displacement.
Aissatou Diallo - Senegal
(She/Her)
Aissatou founded AskCare FemTech, a women’s preventive health startup focused on reducing cervical cancer deaths and improving access to essential diagnostic services for women in low- and middle-income countries. AskCare’s core innovation is a three-in-one “screen, diagnose, and treat” approach that uses software to deliver rapid HPV testing, AI-supported imaging of the cervix, and same-day treatment of early-stage precancer through heat-based therapy. This integrated model greatly reduces loss to follow-up, one of the biggest challenges to effective cervical cancer prevention in underserved communities.
The organisation operates in Senegal, Rwanda, and Nigeria, in partnership with public and private healthcare institutions. More than 600,000 women have received ultrasound services through AskCare, and over 10,000 women have been screened for cervical cancer. These interventions have reduced loss to follow-up by over 70% and cut diagnostic time by nearly three times through digital imaging and clinical decision-support tools.
Connect with aissatou on linkedin
Brigitta Maria Andrea Gunawan - Indonesia
(She/Her)
Brigitta founded two environmental initiatives, 30x30 Indonesia and Diverseas. Her first project, 30x30 Indonesia, advocates for policies in support of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a 2022 agreement signed by 196 countries to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. This initiative also mobilises coastal communities through workshops and restoration activities.
Her second initiative, Diverseas, creates digital resources, such as short films, e-learning modules, and virtual reality workshops, to educate people on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Ocean Literacy Principles, and conservation leaders. The organisation also provides training for young women in Indonesia to develop competencies in scuba diving and marine conservation through the Blue Roots Scholarship. So far, Brigitta’s work has engaged over 17,000 people and planted 1,000 corals.
Yves Uwimana - United States
(He/Him)
Yves works at GE Aerospace and is a member of their Operations Management Leadership Programme. Through GE Aerospace's Next Engineers initiative, he also expands access to engineering education and inspires students aged 13 to 18 to see themselves as future innovators in the aerospace field and beyond. The Next Engineers project is particularly focused on those from underrepresented communities, and aims to demystify complex engineering concepts.
The Next Engineers program has reached over 7,500 students, with 160 hours of free out-of-school programming provided to students through the Next Engineering Academy. In addition to his professional work, Yves is spearheading a school-building initiative with fellow One Young World Ambassador and GE Aerospace employee Mike Futoryanskiy through buildOn, a nonprofit that empowers go-doers to fund and construct schools in underserved communities. They are in the process of crowdfunding $47,000 to build a primary school in a village in Guatemala.
Mina Milovic - Montenegro
(She/Her)
Mina is a young European Ambassador whose work focuses on European integration of the Western Balkans. As a representative of Montenegro during the Berlin Process Youth Forum, she worked with young representatives from all six Western Balkan countries to develop joint policy recommendations on migration, economic development, and security. She contributed to drafting these recommendations and later presented them in the Parliament of Montenegro during a structured dialogue with government representatives.
She participated in several additional high-level regional and international forums, including the EU Enlargement Forum, the EU-Western Balkans Investment Forum, and the Ignita Forum. She also contributed to advocacy and awareness campaigns on sustainable tourism, aiming to improve public understanding of European integration processes and their benefits. Additionally, she participated in two OSCE-led activities to combat online gender-based violence, misogyny and radicalisation in the digital space, and to emphasise ethical and responsible AI-based solutions.
Stephen O'Donnell - Ireland
(He/Him)
Stephen founded the Beyond the Autism View Podcast, a project he created after the Summit in Belfast to discuss autism with a variety of guests. Some guests are Autistic, while others work closely with Autistic people. The product runs weekly every Monday, and is available on Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
So far, Stephen has hosted five podcast episodes, with more scheduled to be recorded in the upcoming months. Across social media platforms, these episodes have been viewed 1,800 times. Through this podcast, Stephen hopes that people gain a better understanding of autism and the societal barriers the Autistic community faces.
Listen to the Podcast on Spotify
Renata Koch Alvarenga - Brazil
(She/Her)
Renata founded EmpoderaClima, a youth-led organisation that advances gender-just climate action through education. It does this by hosting Brazil’s first open-access, multilingual database on gender and climate justice, including over 200 resources for educators, students, and activists. Through this hub, the organisation also built community programmes to connect climate science to lived experience. These workshops and leadership tracks are led by young women in several Brazilian cities, and prioritise participation by Black, Indigenous, Quilombola, and other climate-vulnerable communities.
Over 60,000 people were reached by EmpoderaClima webinars and toolkits, with 500 people trained through workshops and public events. EmpoderaClima also sent youth participants to international forums such as COP and CSW, with strategic partnerships with organisations such as UNICEF, the Malala Fund, UN Women, and Plan International. This work is delivered by 50 volunteers that work across Latin America and deliver locally adapted activities and outreach.
Learn More About EmpoderaClima
Luis Eduardo Matos - Venezuela
(He/Him)
Luis Eduardo is the Founder of Atarraya Arquitectura, a Venezuelan collective of architects, urban designers, and landscape architects who view the built environment as a dynamic field for social and physical integration. The organisation balances architectural heritage with modern technical innovation and acts as a bridge between the public and private sectors. At its core, the collective ensures that their urban strategies are culturally sensitive, economically viable, and technically feasible.
The collective’s approach to urban retrofitting is exemplified by their most recent project, rehabilitating the city of Pampatar’s Historic Centre. The initiative focuses on the squares and corridors at the epicenter of the coastal town and transforms underutilised infrastructure for recreational, commercial, and mobility uses that will benefit 50,000 inhabitants. Design-wise, Atarraya Arquitectura focuses on updating this infrastructure in a climate-resilient and historically sensitive manner.
Parissé Devaux - United Kingdom
(She/Her)
Parissé is the Founder of a community interest company (The Village UK) and the Health and Wellbeing Programme Coordinator for Barking and Dagenham, a borough located on the East of London. In her role, she co-designs and coordinates a community-led model of care rooted in the principle that no one is left behind or forgotten. In partnership with local authorities, health inequalities teams, GPs, community and clinical psychologists, voluntary sector organisations and colleagues across the NHS. The initiative brings holistic health and wellbeing directly to communities with limited access to traditional services. Each pop-up is culturally tailored, blending music, food, activities and community warmth with access to clinical and non-clinical support.
Her work with the borough centres shared learning. Healthcare professionals deliver clinical talks while residents lead lived-experience sessions on long-term conditions such as sickle cell anaemia, diabetes, Parkinson’s and more. This two-way exchange builds trust, humanises care, and ensures professional understanding reflects real community challenges. The initiative also works to reduce stigma around mental health and self-care, empowering the community to reach self-actualisation. It achieves this by meeting people where they are and recognising that some may not feel comfortable approaching a therapist, but will open up to a barber, hairdresser, massage therapists, beauty therapists or a community elder. Through these partnerships, Parissé's work delivers trauma-informed training and equips community members with clear referral pathways so they know where to signpost individuals in need.
Connect with parissé on linkedin
Sydney Montgomery - United States
(She/Her)
Sydney is the Founder and Executive Director of Barrier Breakers®, a national non-profit dedicated to expanding access to higher education and career pathways for first-generation and low-income students in the United States. Barrier Breakers® does this by providing individualised, one-on-one admissions advising delivered by a highly experienced team of current and former deans, directors of admission, and counselors. This high-touch model ensures that every student receives expert, personalised guidance rather than standardised advice throughout the admissions and financial aid process. Their support begins in high school and continues through college and into graduate or professional school.
Since its founding, Barrier Breakers® has supported more than 7,000 students, helping them collectively earn over $490 million in college and graduate school scholarships. Through national virtual conferences, Barrier Breakers® has reached an additional 6,000 students, expanding access to admissions guidance and career exposure regardless of geography. In 2024 alone, 2,300 students participated in their Break Into Law Conference, making it one of the largest free law-focused access conferences in the country.
Learn More About Barrier Breakers®
David Santiago Rocha Cárdenas - Colombia
(He/Him)
David founded Peatlands for the Future, a science-based, community-centred initiative led by The Ecosystem Carbon Conservation (TECC) to restore and protect peatlands in the High Andes. These ecosystems are some of the country’s most important yet overlooked natural assets, storing large amounts of carbon, regulating water flows for downstream cities, and providing habitat for unique plant and animal species. However, decades of drainage, livestock grazing, fires, and weak governance have caused severe degradation.
So far, four hectares of peatland are under active restoration and protection, and two local landholders are participating through voluntary conservation agreements. The project also carries out strong scientific monitoring, including establishing baseline measurements of soil carbon and soil structure, developing community-led monitoring methods, and preparing to measure greenhouse gas emissions and water-related benefits.