$ 1 : 16
For every $1 of value invested, One Young World Ambassadors deliver $16 of social value, based on a Social Return on Investment analysis of 42 Ambassador-led initiatives addressing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2022
SDG Impact Tracker
Interested in supporting impactful initiatives led by young leaders? Search this database of over 350 projects from the One Young World Community to find out more.
OOYOO
OOYOO is a leading clean air technology company, based in Japan, that provides ultra-low emission and cost-effective energy. Utilising carbon capture technology based on advanced membranes, OOYOO purifies gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide as well as natural gases. Although purifying gases comes at a cost to industries, failing to do so comes at a lethal cost to the environment.
To distinguish itself in a competitive market, OOYOO has developed technologies that can be downsized, creating a portable feature of its product that other conventional technologies in the market cannot. Furthermore, OOYOO’s commitment to continuously innovate filter materials technology assists in the company’s mission to ensure that their technology will be at the heart of every future device that generates clean energy and clean air.
Treeapp
Treeapp is a global tree planting organisation. The Treeapp mobile app enables anyone to plant a tree for free everyday, in less than a minute. Treeapp offers the possibility for consumers in the UK and Ireland to plant trees all over the world, empowering all to make a change that benefits the planet on a daily basis. Via the app, users can watch an advert featuring one of Treeapp’s 300+ sustainable brand partners, who fund the users’ tree to be planted everyday, and then sell the advertised products directly on Treeapp’s sustainable marketplace.
Treeapp also works with businesses to offset their carbon footprint and plant trees across the world, from South America to the islands of Indonesia.
To date, Treeapp has planted 1 million+ trees in less than two years since launch, and expects to soon reach 100,000 Treeapp users. Treeapp is a certified B Corp - proving their business has a strong ESG impact.
ClearBot
ClearBot is a Hong Kong-based company developing technologies that are assisting in building the future of ocean mobility and resolving environmental challenges. Creating AI-powered electric boats, ClearBot is pioneering efficient and sustainable alternatives to automated marine services, replacing manually operated diesel boats with all-electric, zero-emission, self-driving boats. Through this technology, ClearBot monitors the marine environment and conducts water quality testing and maritime surveillance.
As well as this, ClearBot boats automate surface waste collection, aquatic weed and foam removal, marine patrolling, shallow water dredging, and bathymetric surveys and can move up to 200 kg of cargo autonomously at the press of a button. As waste is being collected, cameras onboard collect and process data using an AI model, tracking the sources of trash every step of the way. As a result, Clearbot can maintain 100% trackability and showcase on a global stage how innovation can solve social issues.
Greenfluidics
Greenfluidics is a Mexican biotechnology startup founded in 2018 with a vision of a world with green and sustainable cities, where buildings are more energy efficient and provide the well-being and health that people deserve. Greenfluidics’ innovative technology, the intelligent solar biopanel, is a multi-purpose system that generates energy while cleaning the air.
These biopanels are based on the use of microalgae, providing functional and sustainable aesthetics that help clean the air like trees, combining nature and technology in the same system, through a triangular geometry that provides energy efficiency, design and intelligent environmental monitoring that helps to revalue the area.
Greenfluidics has achieved several alliances and recognitions in the UK, Germany, Switzerland and the Middle East, as well as from relevant institutions such as the GGGI, UN, G20, and MIT, in order to accelerate the development of their technology and transform the buildings of the most populated cities into lungs.
Trestle Labs
Co-founded by Bonny Dave, Trestle Labs is an assistive technology company making schools, colleges and workplaces digitally inclusive and empowering the blind and the visually-impaired community towards inclusive education and employment. Trestle Labs builds hardware and software solutions that help visually impaired individuals listen, translate, digitise and audio’tise any kind of printed,handwritten and digital content independently across 60+ global languages.
Their mission is to ensure that no school, college, or workplace denies/discontinues education or employment for a visually-impaired individual, especially when the individual is capable, but the institution is not.
Trestle Labs’ patented AI-powered product, Kibo, is comprised of three products - Kibo mobile app, Kibo XS device, and Kibo Desk- to address the lifestyle, learning, and earning aspects of a visually-impaired user’s life. Launched in July 2019, Kibo has empowered 70,000+ visually-impaired individuals and has made 500+ institutions inclusive across 25 countries.
Zafree Papers
Zafree Papers is an Ethiopian company that manufactures paper and paper products using 100% tree-free pulp and agro-waste. Founded in 2017, and working across Ethiopia and Zambia, Zafree Papers is introducing a clean-tech paper solution using unbleached paper pulp from crop residue. From this solution, they can create eco-friendly, carbon-neutral, and 100% recyclable and non-toxic paper. Zafree Papers is a pioneer in the Ethiopian agro-waste market and intends to pursue a pan-African business model. This would enable them to continue establishing strong and reliable relationships with local suppliers and buyers, as well as maintaining existing relationships, rather than relying on raw materials and investments from overseas.
Using agricultural waste from raw materials and employing modern technology, qualified human resources, efficient management systems, and accredited production processes, Zafree has established itself as an undeniable competitor in the Ethiopian agro-waste market.
LiteHaus International
LiteHaus International - Australia
Jack Growden
Ambassador-led Initiative
LiteHaus International is an Australian-based non-governmental organisation which works towards bridging the digital divide and digitising dreams across four countries. In Papua New Guinea, LiteHaus International’s Digital Infrastructure Program has established the first 144 functional primary school computer labs in the country’s history, providing digital learning opportunities to around 105,000 students, teachers and members of the community, 98% of whom had never seen a computer before. In Australia, their Digital Inclusion Program has provided 2,600 high school students across rural and remote communities with their own personal
digital device.
By 2027, LiteHaus International aims to provide digital learning tools and opportunities to millions of students across the Asia-Pacific region to ensure everyone can enjoy a quality education. LiteHaus International and Deloitte Australia have recently signed a three year partnership to continue their collaboration.
Cancer Education UK
Cancer Education UK - United Kingdom
Mary Oladele
Ambassador-led Initiative
Cancer Education UK is a UK-based non-profit, educating, supporting, and raising cancer awareness within the Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Refugee (BAMER) and low socio-economic communities. They work to support individuals with cancer as they reintegrate into their communities, and are driven by their passion to support such individuals as they battle through stigmas, allowing conversations such as cancer to be a norm rather than a taboo.
Thanks to the funding from Roche as the Lead2030 runner-up, Cancer Education UK was able to host a series of community engagement sessions and health screening events across various parts of London; the focus was to teach about signs and symptoms of cancer whilst encouraging individuals to attend screening programmes with the UK National Health Service, such as cervical screenings and more. The sessions also included patients sharing their experience of their cancer journey to encourage others, allow more questions and promote cancer survivorship.
The support Cancer Education UK provides expands into various forms, from assisting with chemotherapy/radiotherapy appointments to lending a hand with grocery shopping. Cancer Education aims to de-stigmatise cancer, in return, allowing individuals from BAMER communities to confidently talk and ask questions about cancer.
Takachar
Many crops produce residues that cannot be used as mulch or animal feed. These residues can often impede the growth of the next crop, and unfortunately the fastest and cheapest way to address residue removal is simply by setting it on fire in the field. However, the burning of residues has contributed to air pollution that affects the respiratory health not only of the local farming communities, but also of nearby urban areas such as Delhi.
Takachar is developing small-scale, low-cost, portable systems that can latch onto the back of tractors and pick-up trucks to deploy to remote, hard-to-access communities. This system can locally convert biomass residues into higher-value products such as fertiliser blends, biofuels, or chemicals without any external energy input. This is expected to support closed-loop, self-sufficient rural communities, create additional livelihood opportunities in underserved regions, reduce air pollution and carbon footprint associated with open-air biomass burning, and ultimately improve public health outcomes. Through AstraZeneca, Takachar have been piloting with smallholder farmers, demonstrating the ability for the output fertiliser product to improve their yields and income.
Natal Cares
Founded by Uche Udekwe, Natal Cares is a social enterprise that leverages the power of mobile technology, machine learning, and low cost innovation to combat maternal and infant mortality in Nigeria. In order to bridge the healthcare information gap existing in underserved communities, Natal Cares delivers valuable healthcare information using SMS and
voice notes in six local languages. These personalised weekly texts/voice-notes remind expectant mothers of pregnancy follow-ups, clinical-reminders, child-growth and nutrition, symptoms of common childhood-illnesses, antenatal and postnatal care tips. Through this service, Natal Cares ensures that its subscribers have access to the critical health and nutritional information they need to assist with a healthy pregnancy. This year, Natal Cares successfully grew its subscriber base to 5,000 mothers and scaled into 26 states of Nigeria.
WoWoman
Zarangiz founded WoWoman, a platform to empower women by offering them a space and tools for professional development, following her experience as a young businesswoman in Azerbaijan. She wanted to build a community of women entrepreneurs and empower them through greater freedom of choice and achieve financial independence.
Zarangiz attended the One Young World Summit in The Hague, 2018, as a Delegate Speaker on the education plenary session. She credits the help that she received from One Young World when preparing her speech as the highest quality support that she has received throughout her career. After the Summit, she felt the status elevation that being an Ambassador brings, which helped her scale her work even further. Zarangiz was recognised as a 30 Under 30 by Forbes magazine, and her appearance at the Summit proved to be a turning point in recognition of her work.
WoWoman has trained over 10,000 women in person and an additional 5,000 online, through more than 500 events and workshops, ranging on issues from mental health, personal development, gender equality and business thinking. The organisation has launched 40 programmes and projects since its inception, including a partnership with Facebook through which they received funding to open W-Space, a co-working space open to women in Azerbaijan. Their coding school, Tech Tech Khanim, teaches different coding languages and design while they also have an eight-week entrepreneurship programme, WoWenture. WoWoman offers its own English language classes, and a programme focused on solving social issues through design-based solutions. Zarangiz has also developed a partnership with Visa in the She’s Next programme, which aims to empower women-owned small businesses. It is currently in its second year.
“I am very grateful and happy that I had the experience of being a Delegate Speaker, because the quality of support that I got while preparing for my speech from One Young World is still on the top levels of anything I’ve gotten.”
Empowerment Collective
Empowerment Collective - Nepal
Nasreen Sheikh
OYW Funded Projects
10
SROI
Nasreen is the founder of Empowerment Collective (EC), a non-profit dedicated to raising global awareness of exploited labour, forced labour, and extreme poverty. As a survivor, Nasreen founded EC to empower women and girls in disadvantaged, vulnerable, and underserved communities by providing a safe environment, entrepreneurial skills training in fair trade industries, sexual and reproductive health, and education.
The Asahi team helped Nasreen create a strategic plan, focusing on three programmes around women and children’s empowerment. This involves breaking menstrual stigma by providing girls with necessary education and kits that help support them for four years, with 1,200 of these kits distributed as a direct result of Lead2030. Upon receiving these menstrual kits, the girls become ambassadors for EC and help spread awareness around sexual and reproductive health in their communities. The kits are made locally by women who also gain a monetary benefit. The second element of Nasreen’s work provides 300 children with educational resources.
The final aspect involves breaking the cycle of forced labour and poverty through skills training centred around sustainable indigenous crafts and entrepreneurship. These programmes provide material benefits to participants and also give them the confidence to succeed. Since 2008, EC has empowered 5,070 women. As well as scaling EC’s work on the ground, Asahi helped Nasreen develop partnerships with fair trade companies interested in supply chain transparency. Asahi’s connections have also helped Nasreen substantially raise awareness of her work and the problems she is trying to solve, resulting in millions of views online.
“The Asahi team has just been so incredible since we got selected for the Lead2030 challenge. My mentors, my supporters, they are all very connected to the work that we are doing on the ground.”
- 1,200 menstrual health and hygiene kits distributed.
Human and Hope Association (HHA)
Human and Hope Association (HHA) - Cambodia
Thai San
Ambassador-led Initiative
31
SROI
Thai San co-founded the Human and Hope Association (HHA) in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province in 2011, as a high school student, with the purpose of empowering local communities through education, vocational training, and community development. The organisation is run entirely by young local Cambodians passionate about alleviating poverty through a comprehensive approach to tackling issues affecting underprivileged households in their province. HHA’s educational programme began by offering English language lessons to the community before expanding to include Khmer, as well as pre-school classes, art, hygiene, community workshops, sewing programmes, and farming. Thai served as Managing Director of HHA until 2022, and he remains a board member.
Thai attended the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021. Before attending the Summit, Thai received funding from One Young World via the 2020 Covid Young Leaders Fund for his pandemic education and prevention project with HHA. This programme educated 30,000 students and teachers on COVID-19 and hygiene, and gave each participant two masks and two bars of soap, produced by 45 women from the local community.
Through the work of HHA, 34 families have successfully transitioned out of poverty; 35 children have graduated from their preschool; over 600 young people have taken language courses, with 300 students receiving a scholarship and 94% of their programme’s graduates passing assessments. In addition, 117 women received vocational training through HHA’s sewing programme, with HHA distributing 88 microfinance loans to help these women establish their own sewing businesses, culminating in a 90% reduction in domestic violence suffered by participants. The organisation has also established 1,167 home and food gardens to tackle food insecurity, and provided training and resources to look after them.
“I really loved how One Young World organised the Summit and I learnt from the speakers. I was a recipient of One Young World’s 2020 Covid Young Leaders Fund, which helped me make an important contribution to preventing the spread of COVID-19 in my community as well as creating economic opportunities for them.”
R-Seat
Rez co-founded Refugees Seeking Equal Access at the Table (R-SEAT) formally in 2021, after six years of working for more meaningful inclusion of refugees in international and domestic policy-making conversations that affect them. Empower, her first initiative, has reached around 20,000 refugees, through mentoring programmes and workshops. Rez led the first ever Global Refugee Youth Consultations in 2016 and helped form the Global Youth Advisory Council to the UNHCR. She also co-founded the Centre for Asia Pacific Refugee Studies at the University of Auckland, a research centre focused on informing and developing responses to conflict and climate-induced displacement throughout the region.
Rez attended the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021, as a One Young World Peace Ambassador and Delegate Speaker. The exposure to fellow Ambassadors and their work globally inspired her, and presented her with multiple potential opportunities for future collaboration. Rez was also invited to speak on peacebuilding and conflict resolution during the One Young World Peace Events in 2021 and 2023 respectively.
R-SEAT has been instrumental in developing mechanisms for refugee representation in four countries. These mechanisms are composed of a group of refugees that act as community representatives and liaisons with their respective national governments in the United States, Ireland, New Zealand, and Canada. The initiative is also in the process of establishing mechanisms in Colombia, Mexico, Germany, Uganda, Portugal, Switzerland, and Kenya. In addition to representing refugee communities, the members of the mechanisms advise governments and have actively facilitated changes in national policy, such as New Zealand’s refugee resettlement strategy. The US mechanism is also cooperating extensively with the US State Department on funding for organisations operating within the international refugee regime. Through R-SEAT, refugees have chaired forums in the UNHCR for the first time.
“The most valuable impact of becoming part of the One Young World Community is the exposure to what other young people are doing around the world, and the connections and ideas that come out of it. As well as the credibility that comes along with it, people trust the One Young World brand and name and what it stands for.”
Thrive Future
Jemima founded Thrive Future in 2020, as a social enterprise to promote gender equality. She was inspired to do so after witnessing the challenges faced by charities aiding victims of sexual violence, and decided to leverage corporate interest in supporting gender equality causes. Thrive Future aims to provide in-person educational training for corporate businesses to tackle a wide range of gender inequalities. The organisation’s free digital platform, Thrive+, provides additional research material on gender issues in 186 countries.
Jemima attended the One Young World Summit in Ottawa, 2016. After the Summit, she collaborated with fellow Ambassadors to establish a One Young World Working Group to End Domestic Abuse, which produced a document detailing the business case for ending domestic abuse. This was presented at the One Young World Summit in Bogota 2017, and resulted in a pilot training programme in London. Jemima also created the Thrive Network of Law Changers in partnership with One Young World, a gender equality advocacy network focused on taboo issues with 25 members around the world, including fellow Ambassadors.
Thrive Future has so far trained around 2,036 delegates through its programmes while the Thrive+ platform has 834 members and provides access to over 30 expert articles and more than 15 awareness videos. The organisation also runs the Mentoring Tree, a six month mentoring scheme to develop women's platforms in their workplaces, with 18 women currently involved. These women act as both mentors and mentees to ensure that all participants have an equally productive experience. Thrive Future has also published 186 country profiles in partnership with frontline charities.
“Before the Summit, I felt quite isolated as a young person in this space since a lot of people that I was working with were significantly older. Meeting other Ambassadors in a similar stage in life to me was pivotal in terms of building a network. It gave me the confidence to continue my work and I have collaborated a lot with One Young World. Like the Law Changers from Thrive, a lot come from the Ambassador Community.”
How to use to the SDG Tracker
Search for projects by the following case study categories:
- Ambassador-led Initiatives: qualitative and quantitative analysis of the social impact of projects which are led by young leaders in the Community.
- Business for Social Good: written case studies for initiatives ran by corporate partner organisations, led by young Ambassadors/employees.
- Leadership Stories: short biographies of Ambassadors who are growing into influential leaders for social good in some of the world’s largest companies.
- Covid Young Leaders Fund: detailed case studies of grant recipients from One Young World's 2020 funding opportunity for projects tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Lead2030: detailed case studies of the Lead2030 award winners and how their projects have generated impact from participating in the programme.