COVID-19 Young Leaders Fund

Senad Alibegovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina

In response to the growing numbers of pet owners in Bosnia and Herzegovina that were unable to leave their homes due to COVID-19, Senad organised a project called "Šetamo šapice" ("We walk your paws"). He gathered a team of 20 volunteers from all municipalities in Sarajevo and all citizens that rang their emergency phone were provided with free dog-walking services, twice per day.

Laura Casati, Austria

GlobeAir is working to use company resources to slow the spread of COVID-19. They are offering up planes for use transporting critical resources from one area to another. These flights can transfer medicine, supplies, organs, and medical professionals. These flights are also helping repatriate stranded Austrians and transport top-decision makers from place to place to place.

Stan Karpenko, United Kingdom

Stan Karpenko is the founder of GiveVision, a company that provides groundbreaking technical solutions for visual impairments. Many people in GiveVision’s network are elderly people in the highest risk group for the COVID-19 and are socially isolated from their friends and loved ones. GiveVision has created a program that matches young volunteers with elderly people for twenty-minute weekly phone calls.

Matthew Leopold, United Kingdom

Matthew is a volunteer with three ambulance services in the London area. Along with hundreds of other volunteers, Matthew helps respond to the inflated number of 999 calls caused by the COVID-19 epidemic and make sure that every citizen has access to emergency medical services and transportation to the hospital.

Eman Borg, Malta

Malta LGBTIQ Rights Movement, Allied Rainbow Communities, Checkpoint Malta and LGBTI Gozo have joined forces to seek to find accommodation for people at risk, or who have already become homeless. The organisations have also opened a trust fund for donations that will serve as an emergency funding in case persons living with HIV cannot afford their current medication.

Abdelhamid Idrissi, Netherlands

Abdelhamid runs a program in Amsterdam called Studiezalen in which he helps families from vulnerable neighbourhoods keep up with their children’s education. His student centres have become critical during the COVID-19 outbreak and he has provided many students with the tools they need to continue school online. 

Meg Zeenat & Damian Zabielski, United Kingdom

My Mind Matters Too (MMMT) is reaching out to students and educators to check-in or their mental health during this difficult time, releasing weekly newsletters with tips on coping to this new academic reality. MMMT is also hosting Tea and Talk sessions for people to join together and discuss their mental health.

Jemima Lovatt, United Kingdom

Jemima is part of the leadership team at SpareHand, which is helping community organisations find and manage volunteers during the COVID-19 outbreak and beyond. The app enables charities to go digital with their existing volunteer base, generate volunteer availability for tasks and swiftly integrate new volunteers. They are currently onboarding local charities and community groups.

Samuel Grzybowski, France

As the leader of an interfaith movement, Samuel has put together live sessions on social media to keep the community informed about inter-religious cooperation during times of crisis. In this time the Foundation strives to bring religious people together to support one another and bond over their shared faith.

Fatima Zaman, United Kingdom

Fatima has joined the team crafting government policy towards COVID-19. In her role as the head of the UK G20 Youth Delegation, she is working with another One Young World Ambassador, Virginia Stuart-Taylor (also featured on this list) to help craft a unified international youth response to COVID-19.

Miganoush Magarian, Netherlands

TeachSurfing has started a workshop series that helps educate people about COVID-19. This series goes beyond simply informing the public and brings in experts to enlighten viewers on the central debates surrounding cutting edge treatment and technology to help those ailing from COVID-19. 

Jolly Layard Horsfall, United Kingdom

Happy Space has created a campaign called #HappySpaceAtHome. They are sending the #HappySpaceGuidebook to pupils learning from home. This provides school children without the necessary educational content and support with tools and strategies to continue their learning, maintain routine, and manage their well-being. They plan to continue to offer support to vulnerable children after schools have re-opened to deal with the long-term, well-being implications for children. As a grant recipient, Happy Space has managed to provide books and support to over 2,500 children.

Virginia Stuart-Taylor, United Kingdom

Virginia has worked with young leaders from around the world to create a unified response statement to the COVID-19 pandemic: 

Read the Communique

Grigor Yeritsyan, Armenia

Grigor is using his organization Armenian Progressive Youth to help distribute food to older people in Armenia that can not leave their homes due to COVID-19. Their network of volunteers has already begun packing and delivering boxes of food. They are planning to provide groceries for 4,000 older people for a month.

Esther Marshall, United Kingdom

Esther is the author of the Sophie Says children's book series, to help children believe in themselves and achieve their dreams, regardless of gender, race, religion or class.

Sophie Says has launched a fundraising campaign to donate copies of the book to vulnerable children and children of key workers. All proceeds will go towards helping those going through abuse get back on their feet.

Ronit Kanwar, United Kingdom

Ronit has launched Fight Covid, a platform which allows for individuals to volunteer their expertise and skills to help organisations and projects with their efforts against COVID-19. The platform's goal is to make sure that no UK initiatives tackling COVID-19 are left behind just because they lack the expertise or support they need for their ideas to develop, grow and flourish.

Sara Rajabli, Azerbaijan

Given the negative impacts of COVID-19, Social Business Youth Center launched an online mentorship programme on social entrepreneurship for underprivileged youth in Azerbaijan. In partnership with Yunus & Youth, Sara and her team will be matching young people in need with top local and international professionals & social entrepreneurs.

Caritta Seppa, Finland

COVID-19 has been particularly damaging in remote areas, where the impact can be more drastic due to a lack of resources. To counter this, Tespack has developed the Solar Media Backpack, an innovative solution that converts any space into a smart classroom. Teachers can showcase and provide videos and information about COVID-19 (as well as other educational content) in off-grid regions.

Tamar Lobjanidze, Georgia

Tamar and her team are running a blog series on COVID-19; they are seeking contributions from people that are directly affected by the outbreak or who are working on the ground in conflict contexts.

Naz Kawan, Netherlands

Naz along with three others have established Mondmaskerfabriek, the first mask-making factory in the Netherlands. They have now begun productions and are looking to employ 28 asylum seekers (status holders) in the Netherlands.

Sal Mohammed, United Kingdom

Sal and the Connected Homeless team have developed an app called Help at Home. This platform allows isolated citizens to submit requests for help and then connects them with local volunteers capable of fulfilling those requests. This will help isolated citizens stay connected with their communities and gain access to essential services.

Layla Yarjani, United Kingdom

Layla Yarjani’s education technology company, Little Bridge, has been working with the Home Office and numerous support groups, including Local Authorities for two years to provide free access to child refugees and families learning English. Since the COVID-19 pandemic and with families on lockdown, the request from the Home Office has increased so the team has now onboarded an additional 40 local authorities for free to continue digital English language learning while at home. This is fundamental to community integration in the UK. Little Bridge is also now providing free access to 140 refugees in a project with UNICEF Jordan.

Thuy Nguyen, United Kingdom

As Head of Communications at 4SD, Thuy supports Dr David Nabarro, a Special Envoy of WHO Director-General on COVID-19, as he provides strategic advice and high-level political advocacy and engagement to help WHO coordinate the global response. At The Partnering Initiative, Thuy is launching a helpline to mobilise TPI’s global network of associates who can provide organisations with advice on effective collaboration.

Farhad Wajdi, Afghanistan

Farhad Wajdi’s organisation reinvented itself by converting Solar-Powered Food Carts into Solar-Powered Disinfectant & Sanitation Carts with support from the National Procurement Authority. The project offers a free handwashing facility and disinfection service to impoverished people who are vulnerable to catching the virus. The team have also handed out brochures to educate the public on the importance of social distancing and distributed 72,000 masks to impoverished people. The grant will be used to employ 80 women who lost their jobs, to disinfect 40 locations in Kabul daily, and to provide handwashing facilities for 14,000 people per day.

Stephen Ogweno, Kenya

Stowelink has formed partnerships with twelve internationally recognised organisations. Together, they have collected the most accurate and relevant information about the COVID-19 pandemic from organisations like World Health and NCD Alliance. They have put this content into a simple informative format and shared it across social media platforms, publishing content in Kiswahili, English, and Amharic. The NCDs 365 project has reached 1.3 million people in 8 countries. Stephen was also nominated as a finalist in the health category of the Top 35 Under 35 Youth Awards by the government of Kenya for his work.

Brighton Kaoma, Zambia

Columbia University hosted a digital EcoAmbassadors workshop to train students on how to use the radio as a tool to support their environmental activism. Brighton, a Columbia graduate student and veteran radio producer, conducted the workshop and training the participants on how to effectively tell compelling personal stories. Students were asked to produce an audio commentary on their COVID-19 experience.

Routouang Mohamed Ndonga Christian, Chad

At the start of lockdown, Christian set up a COVID-19 crisis response team. Their actions so far have included:

• Organising a digital training session on manufacturing hydro-alcoholic gel and liquid soap
• Distributing 570 homecare kits to women who had just given birth
• Distributing 40 handwashing devices to civil society organisations in N'Djamena
• Launching the 235 Solutions Challenge in partnership with Tchad to identify solutions for crisis and post-crisis management
• Working on Hubjeune, which has a communication and mask distribution booth.

Ellen Chilemba, Malawi

The Tiwale Women's Center For Education and Entrepreneurship is on a mission to support the huge numbers of poverty-stricken women in Malawi, providing education, microloans, and skills training. Since the start of the pandemic, Tiwale has shifted gears to produce protective face masks, made in a safe and distanced space by Tiwale community graduates from their sewing workshops. The masks are cleaned and then either donated to essential workers and offices in Malawi, or sold to the public to help support their programmes.

Samuel Ogunsola, Nigeria

Samuel is the Founder and Executive Director of Food and Genes Initiative, a non-governmental organisation focussed on improving the lifestyle, health and wellbeing of Africans. They are currently running a number of different programmes aiming to tackle the COVID-19 outbreaks in Nigeria, including their flagship project to provide palliatives for households in underserved communities.

Eric Nehemiah, Kenya

The Mathare Foundation has been able to donate much-needed food supplies to 1,500 families in Nairobi. The team are also working to launch the Global Conversations Project to give young leaders a platform to discuss how they are responding to the pandemic in their own countries and communities. The Foundation has also commenced the Creativity Starts Here programme, which focuses on providing emotional and physiological support to the community through photography and music. 

Ogunlola "Babs" Babatunde, Nigeria

Babs has set up an online club, Impact Club Africa, to bring together young people from over Africa in a series of webinars. Babs has covered a lot of topics during these digital learnings, including financial management, talents and skills management, and how young people can connect with technological opportunities.

Gregory Rockson, Ghana

Gregory has launched a price protection program for medicine called 'Mutti Keep My Price' and a virtual consultation service to help ensure patients have access to essential medications as well as continual contact with medical professionals. mPharma has also launched a dashboard that allows public health institutions to track medical consumption trends and to help the government monitor the number of COVID-19 in geographic areas.

mPharma has also created a solution to equip and re-purpose private labs into COVID-19 testing centers. Each lab will receive one PCR equipment and test kits. They will also receive funding to increase their biosafety level.

Noah Walakira, Uganda

Noah’s company, Namirembe sweater makers has sought funding from different companies and organizations to massively produce reusable face masks and distribute them to vulnerable people at risk of catching Covid-19.

They have produced and distributed 5000 masks with the support of Glasgow Caledonian University. And 8000 masks with the support of Anzisha Prize. They hope to partner with more organizations to support the vulnerable communities. The communities we have reached include 4 markets in Kampala and delivery motorcyclists.

Bryan Chesoli, Kenya

Bryan is shining a light on young people who are leading change in their communities amidst the pandemic, from building life-saving equipment through open-source innovation in Spain to implementing a port-of-entry surveillance app in Nepal. Do you have a story of a young person leading change during this time? How are you the leading change? Exercising empathy and demonstrating leadership?

Arnold Leon Mugagga, Uganda

Arnold has created a campaign called Uganda Smarter than Corona which brings people together to create solutions to problems caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. The challenge will brought people together on the oursafrica platform to share information and discuss solutions, and 4 initiatives from the challenge are now part of 10 finalists for the Social Impact Award 2020. Arnold and his team also developed SeatPack, which are school bags that turn into bamboo chairs with writing surfaces to help alleviate cramped classrooms. They have currently sold 44 urban backpacks to fundraise for 44 school SeatPacks.

Wasim Abu Salem, Israel

Wasim and his team launched LoopX, a new coding platform for those isolating at home. It is completely free of charge for anyone who needs it, from teachers to students, or anyone just simply looking to improve their coding skills.

James Chege, Kenya

James created the Usalma platform to disseminate information campaigns about the risk of COVID-19 in Kenya. His goal is to raise awareness, which is currently low, and help link people to emergency response teams and help potentially infected individuals gain access to healthcare without putting others at risk.

Nelson Kwaje, Kenya

Nelson is a Program Director for #DefyHateNow, a community organization based in South Sudan, with branches in Cameroon, Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia. Nelson helped to initiate the #211CHECK collective, which is a digital community of youth working in various fields who collaborate to fight misinformation and raise awareness on coronavirus prevention and protection, using the #COVID19SS hashtag.

Victor Odhiambo, Kenya

Victor is working on an initiative to help people living in informal settlements deal with COVID-19. He has raised money to set up hand-washing stations in the slums of Nairobi to help prevent the spread of disease. His initiative is also providing mental health support to families and individuals affected by COVID-19, promoting testing for those with symptoms and providing grants and loans to help revive community businesses. Their interventions so far have impacted 50,000 people in Kiberia slum.

John Jal Dak, Uganda

John is working on combatting the spread of COVID-19 in the refugee community in Uganda. He is working on The Refugee Emergency Response on COVID-19 project, which aims to give the refugee community knowledge, attitudes, and practices to prevent them from contracting the disease. They have translated all of their communications into multiple languages and provided the community with numerous public sanitation facilities such as hand washing centres.

Obinna Victor Eze, Nigeria

Obinna Victor Eze and his organisation 360degreeHEALTH NETwork are working to ensure Nigerian, frontline healthcare providers are safe and supported despite the recently announced 40% cuts to healthcare spending. The initiative provides healthcare workers with essential resources to tackle the pandemic, primarily through the production and provision of Personal Protective Equipment. The initiative also aims to educate over 500,000 healthcare providers on emergency preparedness. The organisation will use the grant to fund the production and distribution of 3,000 protective face shields, 20,000 hand gloves, and 10,000 woven facemasks.

Lebogang Bogopane, South Africa

Lebogang Bogopane, as Founder of the Mothotlung Network Against Domestic Violence and Child Abuse, established the Sello Sa Mosadi project to protect victims of domestic violence and child abuse during lockdown. It provides trauma counselling, accommodation, food and transport to victims of abuse. It also operates a reporting service, and remote counselling services over the phone or online. The organisation will use the funding to maintain this essential service for an increasing number of victims, while adhering to the WHO’s guidelines for preventing the spread of the virus.

Mbiydzenyuy Ferdy, Cameroon

In response to the growing COVID-19 crisis in Cameroon, Ferdy launched the Community Mutual Aid Crisis Response to connect those in need of assistance with willing volunteers.

Isabelle Kamariza, Rwanda

The main object of Solid' Africa is to provide aid to the most vulnerable patients of Rwandan public hospitals. At the start of the pandemic, the team leapt into action and, in just 13 days, doubled the number of patients they support. Solid' Africa now ensure that 2,400 meals per day are being delivered to four hospitals, benefitting 800 patients who would otherwise go hungry in these challenging times.

Emma Ingaiza, Kenya

Emma is working in a large Nairobi slum as a health manager, managing a team of 60 people to provide over 400 patients a day with essential healthcare services. She is also helping to coordinate other NGOs working in Nairobi with the informally settled population.

Isaac Olufadewa, Nigeria

Isaac and his team have produced #STOP-COVID-19 infographics in over 100 languages, making them the world's most translated COVID-19 healthcare infographics. They are currently collaborating with the pandemic communications team at the Nigeria Center for Disease Control on a research project, and have recently created COVID-19 mental health infographics that have also been translated into multiple languages.

Isaac and his team are also working on the Slum and Rural Health Initiative, for which Isaac is a finalist for the UK-based Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene grant programme. He plans to use the funds for a COVID-19 research project that will involve internally displaced persons camps in Northern Nigeria. The initiative's research study was also one of the studies accepted as a poster presentation at the world's first and largest virtual conference on COVID-19 organised by the International AIDS Society.

Hauwa Ojeifo, Nigeria

She Writes Woman is a women-led movement tackling the stigma against mental health in Nigeria. The 297% rise in reported GBV cases during lockdown in the nation’s most populous cities brought increased urgency on their work. As a result, She Writes Woman is partnering with Women At Risk International to provide a 24/7 toll-free, crisis counselling helpline, serving as a first point of contact to ensure that survivors of GBV, as well as those living with mental health conditions, have access to confidential psychosocial support and counselling during the pandemic. The partnership will use the grant to launch a virtual support group, open casefiles with mental health practitioners, and organise virtual counselling for survivors during the Covid-10 pandemic.

Racheal Kalambula, Malawi

The #AmWithHer initiative, run by “Zenith for Young Women Achievers”, has established a one-stop-centre that receives and documents complaints of gender-based violence, refers victims for care and support, and reports violence with the social department, police station and judicial court. It also collaborates with five Girls and Women Protection Committees in Blantyre’s townships, to orientate women in laws to ensure child protection and to protect victims of gender-based violence. The organisation will use the funding to operate the hotline, train volunteers to use the referral system, process the complaints and connect victims with psycho-social support.

Funmilola Awosanya, Nigeria

Funmilola has partnered with a number of local foundations and organisations to provide hand gloves, sanitisers and food to people living in Ajegunle Apapa in Lagos State. Through this project, more than 300 people have been provided with accurate information about the virus and access to nourishing food form home.

Olasupo Abideen, Nigeria

Know COVID-19 has become the go-to organisation to find quality information about COVID-19 in Africa. Olasupo and his team are ensuring the provision of relevant and reliable facts, debunking fake news, and providing healthcare tips to help local communities stay safe, informed and protected. Their radio programme has targeted over 100 million Nigerians and they have just launched their perception report.

Prince Agbata, Ghana

Prince is working to scale and increase Coliba's ability to recover and recycle plastic waste. Their current programme encourages citizens from low-income communities and slums to stay home and sort their waste, exchanging their recyclables for rice, cooking oil and other food items. They are also working to get waste pickers provisions of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and to connect them to pick-up requests from households.

Achaleke Christian Leke, Cameroon

Local Youth Corner Cameroon is a civil society organisation fighting against violent extremism and developing youth leadership. To tackle the spread of the pandemic and due to the shortage of affordable hand sanitiser, Achaleke and his team have turned their office into a rapid response lab, producing bottles of home-made hand sanitiser as part of their 'One Person One Hand Sanitizer' initiative. Achaleke has used the grant to increase production of these vital resources, and will distribute products and educate staff and inmates in overpopulated prisons in Cameroon.

Dickel Dia, Mauritania

As part of a collaborative of OYW Ambassadors and with support from her organisation AFPHY, Dickel Dia has established the Fight Co-Vi Initiative. Based on a survey the team conducted, they identified increased rates of domestic violence to women and girls in Mauritania and have since supported 140 victims with mentorship. The project will use the grant to coach 10 victims in soap production, with the aim of producing and distributing over 5,000 bars of soap to vulnerable communities. They will also train a further 35 victims of violence to run their own water distribution cooperatives, reaching a further 5,000 people with handwashing facilities in 5 target localities.

Ankit Kawatra, India

As the crisis around the COVID-19 pandemic grows, the livelihoods of a large number of families surviving on daily wages are becoming increasingly precarious. In response to this, Zomato Feeding India has initiated the 'Feed the Daily Wager' project to provide food support to such families, giving them a reliable supply of meals in the absence of employment opportunities. So far, the team have served more than 1 million kits, providing an incredible 10 million meals in 20 cities.

Mark Sultan Gersava, Philippines

Bambuhay is a social enterprise which promotes responsible production and consumption by creating high-impact solutions to plastic pollution. Since the start of the pandemic, Mark and his team have pivoted their products towards medical supplies, creating reusable respirator masks using activated charcoal as an anti-viral, microbial and bacterial agent. He is also in the process of testing bamboo distillate as a natural disinfectant and is testing the efficacy of virgin coconut oil serum against COVID-19.

Lezeth Garcia, Philippines

Lezeth is working with Johnson & Johnson on their measures to provide support to their employees and community during these challenging times. For their employees, Johnson & Johnson have since introduced work from home measures, released thirteen months pay early, allowed workers ten days of sick leave, and have delivered hygiene kits to their home. In the community, the team have donated more than 20,000 care packages to local hospitals and NGOs.

Suman Kumar, Nepal

Suman is currently collaborating with the National Innovation Center in Nepal and renowned universities such as Stanford University and the University of California Berkeley to create COVID-19 response technologies.

Their most recent innovations include developing a ventilator and a Powered Air-Purifying Respirator (PAPR) PPE that use local resources in order to reduce the price of mass production. Suman is also working on a reusable Pneumask project for frontline health workers, and UVC chamber box that can disinfect masks and gloves so they can be used over 10 times. Mass production has started on the chamber boxes and they have been sent to several hospitals. 

Heidy Quah, Malaysia

Heidy is helping refugees impacted by the outbreak in Malaysia as Founder and Director of Refuge for The Refugees. She has personally overseen teams of 40 volunteers, who have packed food for 2,819 refugee families (over 14,000 beneficiaries), providing them with food on the table to last the next 2 weeks. This is all delivered safely to help them maintain social distancing. Heidy has used the Covid Young Leaders Fund grant to reach over 1,100 families in phase 8 of her operation, with food to last a month, and is currently planning the next phase to reach a further 1,000 vulnerable households.

Khairunnisa Ash'ari, Brunei

Khairunnisa and her team have responded to the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) by creating DIY face shields. With their initiative, their aim is to make sure that all frontline staff, medical personnel and support teams have access to basic PPE to protect themselves and provide peace of mind.

Tanjila Mazumder Drishti, Bangladesh

Tanjila led the formation of a partnership between BRAC and P&G to support adolescent girls and women in poor households with sanitary pads for safe menstruation amid the pandemic. The initiative has brought together the best of business and development to directly support more than 100,000 adolescent girls and women across the country through BRAC’s nationwide door-to-door networks, and engaged 49,000 people over the internet to build awareness about the issue.

Holly O'Keeffe, Singapore

Holly leads the social impact efforts for Experian, a leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools around the world. She empowered colleagues to connect remotely in 7 countries which helped to put 16,5000 vulnerable people in the Philippines on the map in under two hours.

Michael de la Pena, Philippines

Michael stopped his work as an Intensive Care (ICU) nurse several years ago to join the UNILAB Foundation, a non-profit organisation focussed on building a healthier Philippines. As the start of the pandemic, Michael returned to work as a community nurse to capitalise on his years of experience and to ensure that the health system does not become overloaded.

Yashovardhan Lohia, Thailand

Indorama Ventures is a world-class chemicals company and a global integrated leader in PET, a polyester fibre used in face masks made from recycled plastic waste. They have increased their production of PET to meet the growing global demand for face masks amidst the crisis, as well as donating PPE resources to two local hospitals on the frontlines of the COVID-19 outbreak in Bangkok.

Nabila Rubaiyat, Bangladesh

AIM Initiative Foundation, a registered non-profit organization in Dhaka, Bangladesh is working on various sustainable development goals including quality education, poverty, and gender equality.

Amid this crisis, the organization launched the COVID-19 Support Campaign in March with the distribution of masks, soaps and hand sanitizers to the families of Meradiya, Dhaka and is continuing with the food distribution campaign till now. The campaign also includes the distribution of Personal Protective Equipment for doctors and health workers and different healthcare professionals. Till date, AIM Initiative Foundation has served more than 550 low-income families (2200 people).

Wangchuk Rapten Lama, Nepal

Wangchuk is an outreach health worker and the director of a monastery-run clinic in the Highlands of Nepal, providing healthcare to the local community for the equivalent of just 0.04 USD. He is leading a campaign to disinfect a number of other clinics and monasteries in the region and has turned his sights on building a hospital in his village.

Girish Ananthanarayanan, India

Peepul is a non-profit that partners with governments to transform learning in public schools in India. Girish and his team at Peepul are looking to alleviate the COVID-19 impact across the education ecosystem by ensuring relief on the ground to local communities and launching an e-training capsule programme focussed on a typical government teachers' realities and needs.

Miles Pepper, United States

Miles and his brother have launched a project called Disinfect Connect, a database of distilleries around the United States producing hand sanitiser. Disinfect Connect helps hand sanitiser-producing distilleries connect with communities and organisations in need of their products.

Trevor Schonewille, Canada

Trevor and his team have launched an innovative series educating people on how to manage their finances during the COVID-19 pandemic. They've recently partnered with the SPTF to develop additional COVID-19 related financial literacy lessons. Monkiri are translating the lessons into multiple languages so that people all around the world can have access to the resources, and have recently expanded their Content Management System to allow more organisations to distribute mobile lessons through the app and continue to reach their users.

Raghu Appasani, United States

The MINDS Foundation is producing content for anyone that is trapped at home and struggling with their mental health during this crisis. The MINDS Foundation has hosted a webinar discussing mental health and have produced a series of articles on lockdown & mental health. They will continue to provide content related to COVID-19 to help their people manage with these significant life changes.

Raghu is also supporting a campaign called 'F The Virus', selling bracelets to help fund additional resources and supplies for medical workers.They have also created a platform that tracks supply and personnel shortages from hospital to hospital so that supplies can be transferred effectively and efficiently.

Angela Edward, United States

Angela works with an Interdisciplinary Team at a 501©3 Thome PACE, serving some of the community's eldest and frailest citizen. Thome PACE works with elders and families who are eligible to go to Nursing Homes and manages their health and safety to keep them living in their homes. Angela works on a team of Licensed Social Workers who are prioritising finding ways to support caregivers, manage mental health symptoms, and coordinate needed care and response to crises during the pandemic. 

Cameron Dagg, Canada

Labatt Breweries have mobilised their breweries to produce and distribute 50,000 bottles of hand sanitiser to support Food Banks Canada, front line workers and partners in the restaurant and bar industry.

Genevieve Westrope, Canada

Stay The F*** Home are selling themed gift boxes with items exclusively sourced from Toronto-based makers and small business. Genevieve recently launched The Wash Your Hands box and all profits will be used to buy Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for a local Toronto hospital.

Aminka Belvitt, Canada

Wofemtech Solutions Inc provides online professional training for in-demand business, technical and personal skills for the modern women and industry. Since the start of the lockdown, Aminka has made their video conferencing platform available for trial.

Alfred Junco, Canada

Chango.ca have set up a free financial guidance system, matching those that have been financially hit by the virus with a tailor-picked finance professional that is able to provide guidance and advice.

Amil Khanzada, United States

Virufy.org's mission is to develop an app so that anyone can know their COVID-19 risk simply by coughing into a phone. The nonprofit's global team of students from 6 universities, mentored by Stanford faculty, are utilising AI to identify respiratory signatures undetectable by the human ear.

The team are looking for donations and hospital collaboration! Contact: [email protected]

Amanda Nguyen, United States

Amanda Nguyen, CEO of Rise, established the Survivor Safe Haven initiative to provide the increased people at risk of sexual and domestic violence with access to resources and information during the government enforced lockdown. Survivor Safe Haven partners with restaurants, grocery stores and other essential establishments to provide access to rapid response for survivors of domestic abuse. The initiative will use the grant to expand across the US, and to not only provide rapid response during this time, but establish a long-term, strong and viable outlet for survivors in the foreseeable future.

Carlos Madrigal and Adan Ramirez, Mexico

Dr. Carlos Madrigal raised $75,000 for the provision of medical equipment to protect healthcare personnel on the frontlines of the pandemic. In partnership with Adan Ramirez and his organisation - Green Fluidics - they designed an algorithm to determine how best to distribute the donations.

Orlando Anaya, Mexico

In partnership with SuuT KuXtal, a Mexican organization that builds sustainable items, and a local recycling facility, KM1 participated in the creation of recycled plastic to build protective masks for hospital personnel. To this date, they have built and donated close to one thousand units.

César Rafael Feerman Molina, Mexico

Bebequitin shared information during the quarantine to give people tools to reduce child abuse and domestic violence. In collaboration with various therepists, Cesar and his team have also implemented low-cost psychological and lactation counselling services, giving priority to health professionals and their families.

Cada Día Cuenta - COVID-19 Hackathon

The OYW Latin America Community launched a hackathon from 3 - 5 April, which aimed to devise solutions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 across the region.

3,600 people took part, including mentors, volunteers, and participants. Representing 18 different countries, the participants developed over 210 solutions.

Karen Lopez, Guatemala

RESI was formed by young volunteers in Guatemala to support Guatemalan families who are currently living in situations of vulnerability as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. RESI will support 2,000 families with monthly food baskets which will cover their nutritional needs from May to December.

Edith Soria, Mexico

Create Purpose is a bi-national nonprofit organisation which creates project-based programs and learning opportunities for children and teenagers. When the pandemic started, the organisation made its classes 100% virtual, equipping orphanages and shelters and computers and a stable internet connection. With support from the US Immigration Policy Center and a migrant shelter, Create Purpose have also bought their coding classes to asylum-seeking girls and teenagers.

Tabata Amaral de Pontes. Brazil

Although the Brazilian President has insisted that COVID-19 is a hoax, Tabata is using her platform within the government to unlock funding to support vulnerable populations, set up medical response facilities, educate the Brazilian community about the dangers of COVID-19 and encourage people to self-isolate.

Renan Ferreirinha Carneiro, Brazil

Renan and his coalition proposed a bill to allow public schools to be used as shelters for socially vulnerable people during the pandemic. In April, the bill passed, a measure which demonstrated that the government must be responsible for supplying food, minimum health & sanitary conditions, as well as medical care. The money to fund this program will come from the Poverty and Social Inequalities Fight State Fund.

Mauricio Durán Núñez, Colombia

In Colombia, there is a tremendous deficit of ICU beds. For that reason, Mauricio, along with his team at RB, industrial designers, and doctors, developed the TAS Capsule. Their objective is to produce at least 280 capsules; distributing 30 for appropriate patient transfer in ambulances and 250 to cover the lack of ICU beds. To help realise their vision, Mauricio and his team are in conversation with several national and governmental entities in Colombia and Ecuador. 

Lucas Bravo, Colombia

The EDUCAMBIO foundation is feeding families in conditions in Cali, Colombia. Three hundred donors - partnered with EDUCAMBIO - are currently providing food for over 1,000 vulnerable families in Cali.

Ilana Milkes, Colombia

World Tech have set out to fill educational gaps created by quarantine in the form of technical education solutions. Starting March 30, for every educational kit purchased, World Tech will donate another kit to a child that lacks access to educational technology.

Debbie Marin, Colombia

Chocó Robotics School is making masks to donate to the Quibdó Hospital in Colombia. In Chocó, the health system is precarious and lacks the necessary equipment to face an outbreak of COVID-19.

Nasha Cuello, Argentina

AB inBev Argentina have transformed their facilities to distil 70% alcohol in order to donate 150,000 bottles of hand sanitiser to those that need it most. They are currently distributing to multiple provinces and towns to reach hospitals and civil society organisations.

Angela Cáceres, Colombia

Angela is promoting the campaign "Help us take care of those who take care of us". A donation of just 20 dollars will buy all of the materials required to make a protective suit for a health professional at the Erasmo Meoz hospital in Cucuta. The garments are made entirely by volunteers, ensuring that every single dollar that is donated goes towards the purchase of the necessary materials.

Juan Carlos Viloria Doria, Colombia

Juan is working on the Coalition for Venezuela in Colombia’s campaign to help Venezuelan migrants and refugees living in Colombia. The Coalition for Venezuela is helping to provide these communities with critical resources such as food, medicine, personal hygiene products and biosafety products. 

Felipe Acosta and Camilò Mendez, Colombia

Dondoctor partnered with the Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá Hospital to create the "Qué no cunda el pánico" campaign to fight against misinformation surrounding COVID-19. They have launched a platform that provides accurate information and connects directly with the health system in Colombia.

Karen Carvajalino, Colombia

Biz Nation have released 15 classes on technology, marketing and productive education for free during the quarantine, available using the code APRENDOENCASA2020. Biz Nation is also working to create new customised courses for corporations who have their employees working from home.

Jonathan Puerta, Colombia

Jonathan and his team at TASKME are working to help small companies and startups respond effectively to COVID-19. They launched THE SKILLBOX PROJECT, a community of young volunteer professionals who make the most of their time in quarantine by helping entrepreneurs and small businesses develop web pages, e-commerce sites, marketing campaigns among other things.

Camila Fierro, Colombia

Camila and her team at Ya Tengo Donde Escribir are delivering bags of groceries to the kids they support through their work. The organisation creates educational materials with recycled notebooks and supports young students who don't have access to basic educational needs. 

Jenifer Colpas, Colombia

“WASH for all, WASH for life”, an initiative founded and led by Jenifer Colpas, is directly supporting the most vulnerable people in Indigenous and Afro-Caribbean communities who were displaced by Colombia’s civil war. It provides access to drinking water, hand washing facilities and educational workshops to minimise the spread of the Covid-19 virus in these marginalised communities. The initiative will use the grant to reach an estimated 7,500 people with vital preventative intervention.

Mileidy Jiménez Sánchez, Colombia

Mileidy helped to deliver 350 face masks to homeless people, sex workers, street vendors and older adults.

Benjamin Bocio, Dominican Republic

Dr Selin Benjamin Bocio Richardson and his organisation FUMEBO arranged to donate face masks, face shields, protective googles, glove boxes, and disposable gowns to frontline healthcare workers to protect them from dangerous exposure to the virus. The organisation has also committed to supply and distribute ‘Vital Boxes’ of food and basic hygiene essentials amongst these rural communities, allowing them to remain safely in their homes. FUMEBO will use the grant to supply and distribute over 1,000 Vital Boxes to over 1,000 low-income households. On these missions, it will also distribute personal protective equipment to underfunded hospitals located in the southern Dominican Republic.

Julian Bautista, Colombia

SomosEnlace is a new initiative launched by La Otra Juventud, a Bogotá-based civil society organisation that works with digital media communications to strengthen democracy and youth empowerment in the capital and beyond. Supported by UNICEF Colombia, the project aims to create a network of information exchange among community media outlets and civil society organisations in 8 different regions in Colombia.

Estefanía Angel, Colombia

NomoWaste is raising money to purchase cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment for recyclers. This is vital work as it helps the works to keep their facilities cleans and prevents them from contracting COVID-19 from the materials that they sort.

Lylean Machado, Colombia

Lylean Machado has partnered with the GERMINARFORTALENCE to provide much-needed food and security to the most vulnerable families in Bogotá, including Afro-colombian families, victims of the armed conflict and people with disabilities.

Néstor Gómez, Colombia

Alimentación para Soacha (Food for Soacha) aims to assist the most vulnerable families in the municipality of Soacha by proving food and basic hygiene products. The project has already targeted more than 400 vulnerable families.

Colombia Cuida Colombia, National initiative

Colombia Cuida Colombia is a national alliance, connecting people and organisations to reduce the impact of COVID-19 in the most vulnerable populations. The initiative is a united front of more than 260 organisations around five key issue areas: communications & information, food security, health, education and employment & entrepreneurship. In April alone, Colombia Cuida Colombia raised enough money to provide 11,002,029 kilos of food to 1,268,432 people in 152 municipalities and cities.

Rinesh Sharma, Fiji

The pandemic, combined with three cyclones, has severely affected the work of Smart Farms Fiji and IG Distributors. SmartFarms solution is to distribute home-based hydroponics kits, including informational materials, so people can provide independently for their families. This is vital for the population in a stagnant economy resulting from closed borders over pandemic concerns, and recent, devastating natural disasters. The team have already deployed 15 kits and conducted educational classes for the households, with a further 35 set to be deployed in June.

Natalino Guterres, Timor Leste

LGBTIQ+ youth in Timor Leste are particularly vulnerable during the current health crisis. Many from this group no longer live with their families and instead live communally, making safe social distancing near impossible. Others have lost their jobs and are now unable to afford the mandatory face masks they need to be able to shop and work. Natalino plans to leverage this community by empowering them to produce rainbow face-masks, giving them to means to support themselves financially whilst also providing them with the personal protective equipment that they so desperately need.

Arash Bordbar, Australia

Arash spearheaded the release of a statement calling on local, national and international COVID-19 response actors to ensure that refugees and migrants are substantively considered in their response. This includes taking necessary steps to prepare refugee camps and ensuring real access to national medical infrastructure. The APRRN have now turned their attention to educational content, building a databank of articles, editorials and advocacy statements.

Regina Lepping, Solomon Islands

The Solomon Islands is among the few countries that have not yet had an outbreak of COVID-19. As a youth advocate, Regina is working tirelessly to make sure that it remains that way. Earlier this year, Regina created Agents of Change Solomon Islands (AOCSI) in response to the Australia bush fires, but the team have since shifted gears to spread accurate information about the virus through creative campaigns.

Johannah Maher, Australia

Johannah has co-released a rock song called 'Break The Transmission - Do It For Love' with the aim to inspire people to fight COVID-19 by staying at home and protecting communities. All song purchase proceeds during the crisis will be donated to Foodbank Australia.

olan Salmon Parairua, Solomon Islands

Nolan is working with the Ministry of Finance and Treasuring to ensure that the financial institutions in the Solomon Islands remain operational. This is vital to ensure that individuals and business are able to fully prepare for the state of emergency and lockdown.

SIYISFLA is also working with the Solomon Islands Ministry of Health to collaborate on community-wide awareness campaigns on COVID-19.

Grace Forrest, Australia

Millions of vulnerable workers do not have access to COVID-19 testing, health care, sick leave or the physical or financial ability to isolate. Many have lost jobs and are stranded overseas, unable to support themselves or return home due to lockdowns and travel restrictions, creating the perfect storm for exploitation, human trafficking and modern slavery to flourish.

Walk Free is calling on business and government leaders to act urgently and collaboratively to address risks to vulnerable workers and protect lives. Their publication - 'Protecting People in a Pandemic' -  examines key risks that COVID-19 presents for migrant and other vulnerable workers and provides practical guidance and current examples of measures that business and government can take to mitigate those risks. Walk Free have also just released a report on slavery in the Commonwealth.