$ 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 43 Ambassador-led initiatives addressing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2024/25
SDG Impact Tracker
Interested in supporting impactful initiatives led by young leaders? Search this database of over 430 projects from the One Young World Community to find out more.
Non-Violence Project Uganda
Non-Violence Project Uganda - Uganda
Eddy Balina
Ambassador-led Initiative
70
SROI
The Non-Violence Project Uganda works across Uganda’s schools and communities to prevent and eliminate school-related violence.
Founded in 2011, Eddy’s flagship initiative, the Schools for Peace programme, trains teachers and school administrators in violence prevention and management. Devices to record and track violence are installed in schools as well as Peace Boxes that enable students to anonymously report violence.
Before the programme’s implementation, 81% of students had experienced physical violence, 75% emotional violence, and 47% sexual violence. Recognising the strong link between poverty and violence, the Non-Violence Project Uganda also runs an Entrepreneurship for Peace programme, offering vocational training and microfinance to empower marginalised youth.
Eddy was a Delegate Speaker at the Summit in Belfast. The process refined his communication skills and provided a global platform to share his story and the motivations behind his work.
To date, the Non-Violence Project Uganda has trained 25,200 students in 285 schools in peaceful conflict resolution, resulting in a 62% reduction in violence. 2,840 teachers have been trained to sustain this progress. The economic empowerment programme has provided skills training to 3,240 unemployed young people, with 66% now employed or engaged in economic activity. Microloans have also been provided to 65 women. Additionally, the Non-Violence Project Uganda has organised Peace Summits for 1,695 young people and Empowerment Camps for 480 girls, addressing issues such as menstrual health, self-esteem, and career guidance.
Eddy’s broader Advocacy for Peace programme includes a popular radio talk show on non-violence, reaching an estimated five million listeners. Subjects discussed include child protection, gender equality, the law, and human rights. Combined with community dialogues with 2,865 local leaders, this programme has increased awareness around violence prevention and pathways available to victims of violence. Eddy continues to change mindsets and foster positive role models in the community.
India Clean Air Network
Ajay is the Co-Founder of the India Clean Air Network (ICAN), an initiative under the Environment Conservation Society (ECS) that is working to address climate change and related social inequities. It does this by supporting initiatives for resilient cities, clean air, and clean energy access in rural communities. ICAN’s pilot project on effective waste management was carried out at the local level, and an advocacy campaign culminated in a government clean air action plan for cities that consistently fail to meet national air quality targets.
As a winner of the Lead2030 Challenge and participant in AstraZeneca’s Young Health Programme (YHP), Ajay set out to build a comprehensive programme to address the intersectional air pollution and health challenges faced by vulnerable communities through community engagement and youth mobilisation. With support from AstraZeneca, ICAN has improved the waste disposal practices of communities in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area. This has been a chronic challenge for the district, where the vast Dhapa landfill has caused frequent fires and a significant deterioration of air quality. Ajay’s approach concentrated on waste, mobility, and city cleanliness, which following his previous work at ECS he realised needed radical reform.
ICAN’s programmes specifically target schools and colleges, and vulnerable young people from low-income households or residing in urban slums. They provide beneficiaries with the knowledge and skills they need to address waste management and pollution challenges in their localities. ECS has secured important governmental support by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Barrackpore Municipality, part of the Greater Kolkata Region, to increase the waste segregation and general waste management practices of the district.
With support via the YHP and funding from the Lead2030 prize, ICAN has trained 500 households in effective waste management practices and provided them with household waste collection services that enable them to put that training into practice. ICAN has also trained over 100 young people on waste segregation, composting, social mapping, and field-data collection via five-day workshops with on-ground immersion. Finally, ICAN has arranged events and festivals, promoting messages on sustainability, waste segregation, and eco-friendly lifestyles to reach an additional 5,000 people.
Arena Recycling
Hellena co-founded Arena Recycling with the mission to improve access to affordable and eco-friendly building materials made from recyclable and non-recyclable plastic.
The organisation collects plastic waste from the beaches of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which is then sorted into density, mixed and melted with sand to produce eco-bricks, paving blocks and tiles. Arena Recycling also raises awareness on waste management and recycling practices in the community around marine areas through capacity building workshops. In addition, these workshops promote behavioural change by inviting participants to engage in waste management through collecting plastic waste and beach clean ups.
Hellena digitally attended the One Young World Summit Munich, 2021, with DSM-Firmenich. This helped her connect with young leaders across East Africa and find support in Ambassadors in the region working in the circular economy.
Arena Recycling has collected over 820 tonnes of plastic waste mitigating over 2,378 tonnes of carbon, improving fishing conditions for the coastal community in Dar es Salaam. 122 tonnes of this plastic waste was collected through community beach clean ups. Hellena's awareness and education campaigns on waste management and recycling practices have impacted more than 160,000 people.
EmpowerFULL
Anxhela founded EmpowerFULL to help survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence reclaim their identity, self-esteem, and financial independence.
Operational since 2021, EmpowerFULL offers structured courses designed to support their social and economic reintegration. Anxhela’s past lived experience of displacement shaped her commitment to social justice and economic empowerment, and inspired her to Anxhela dedicate her career to creating pathways for others to build secure, independent futures.
As a Delegate Speaker at the Summit in Belfast, Anxhela grew as a leader. She found the sessions insightful, broadening her outlook and impact. She is more strategic now with a stronger voice in advocacy, better at building relationships, and exchanging ideas and resources.
EmpowerFULL focuses on personal development, professional skills, and financial assistance to help survivors of human trafficking find sustainable employment. The course is broken into three phases. The first focuses on personal development and soft skill training spanning 10 sessions over two months. Modules work on self-confidence, communication, and career planning. EmpowerFULL then helps participants buy work-related items, such as laptops, sewing machines, and clothing. The final phase supports participants with their career development, assisting participants in securing dignified, stable jobs with development opportunities.
EmpowerFULL promotes systemic change by collaborating with shelters and NGOs. So far, seven shelters have run and hosted courses using the EmpowerFULL model and the course has been delivered eight times, once in Greece and seven times in Albania. The most recent course was run for an all-male cohort. With 10 participants per course, EmpoweFULL has directly impacted 80 human trafficking survivors.
Akatale On Cloud
Frank founded Akatale On Cloud, a social enterprise that buys produce from farmers, processes and packages it, and sells it to consumers.
It also supplies wholesalers and retailers.
To support a circular economy, the project runs an e-mobility arm that uses electric motorcycles to deliver purchases and collect food waste. This waste is repurposed into products such as fertiliser and animal feed.
While attending the Belfast Summit with the Audi Foundation, Frank spoke about creating food security using the black soldier fly, an insect that quickly decomposes organic waste into fertiliser. He has trained 4,000 people in using the insect effectively and saved 500,000 tonnes of food from being wasted. Of this, 60,000 tonnes of waste has been transformed into organic fertiliser to grow fresh food and 300 kilograms of methane is mitigated each day.
In the next year, Frank plans to expand Akatale On Cloud’s e-mobility system by designing motorcycles to carry heavier loads for farm distribution. He also hopes to create five million jobs in sustainable agriculture over the next eight years, providing people with practical skills and steady income.
Health Horizons International
Health Horizons International - Dominican Republic
Eliezer Lapotts-Abreu
Ambassador-led Initiative
44
SROI
Eliezer is the President and Executive Director of Health Horizons International Foundation (HHI), a non-profit organisation founded in 2009 with a mission to strengthen primary health care in the Dominican Republic. The Foundation has a long-running track record of success in providing healthcare interventions. Since inception it has impacted almost 1.8 million people through various combined programmes, many delivered in collaboration with the country's Ministry of Public Health. HHI has consistently been at the forefront of efforts in the Dominican Republic to deliver education, prevention and integral management of non-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension using a comprehensive approach.
Due to this track record of impact, Eliezer and the team were selected as Lead2030 Challenge Winners by AstraZeneca, and Eliezer was invited to participate in its Young Health Programme (YHP). The programme enabled Eliezer and HHI to invest in new public health interventions, by expanding Movimiento Mujeres, a programme focused on women's health.
Movimiento Mujeres has trained 12 young women to become community healthcare workers (CHW), with 30 additional women currently enrolled in training. In addition to normalising conversations around sexual health and mental wellbeing, these CHWs provide their community with health information, support vaccination campaigns, and connect families to healthcare.
Through Movimiento Mujeres and via support from the YHP, 19,210 people have been reached with health services or resources. The programme has significantly improved access to reproductive healthcare in target communities, who have received high-quality, comprehensive health education. In addition, the 12 women who are now CHW, benefited personally from leadership training as part of the programme. Eliezer remains committed to expanding additional programmes of HHI, such as Sano y Feliz, which provides youth with knowledge about nutrition, mental health, and chronic disease prevention.
Ecovon
Brenya founded Ecovon to produce wood boards without cutting down trees.
By using agricultural byproducts like coconut husk and sugarcane fiber, Ecovon manufactures biodegradable building and packaging materials from what would otherwise be waste. The enterprise also supports rural livelihoods in Ghana, where farmers can now recycle their coconut husks into fully sustainable, naturally flame-retardant boards.
After being selected for the Summit in London, Brenya’s Partner dsm-firmenich helped him refine his investor pitches, gain international exposure, and present his company to the organisation’s executive board. DSM-Niaga even became one of Ecovon’s first customers.
By the end of 2024, Ecovon produced 5,000 cubic metres of coir ply, saving an estimated 2,750 trees. Brenya also works with over 1,000 coconut street vendors and 500 farmers to source raw materials. This not only reduces environmental waste but also provides new income streams for local communities. Ecovon’s business model benefits both people and the planet by addressing deforestation, pollution, and rural unemployment simultaneously. Brenya is committed to protecting forests for future generations, and will continue to expand Ecovon as a circular alternative to traditional building materials.
Dugong Bughaw
Anjelou co-founded Team Dugong Bughaw to advocate for HIV awareness among Filipino youth in 2015. Their flagship programme, Project High Five turned what was meant to be a 6-month college project into a non-profit youth organisation. Project High Five creates awareness on HIV prevention, transmission, treatment, condom use, and HIV screening in higher education institutions. In 2023, Anjelou expanded the reach of Project High five with the launch of Project HAYI focused on youth empowerment, stigma reduction, and peer to peer education through establishing reproductive health corners called the Nook within higher education institutions. Additionally, Team Dugong Bughaw tackles a lack of adolescent health services, stigma around mental health, and builds a network of proactive youth advocates through various other projects.
In 2023, Anjelou attended the One Young World Summit in Belfast. The Summit gave her the opportunity to connect with young leaders across the world and build her global network. Through this network, Anjelou has been able to amplify her voice and advocate for her work with Team Dugong Bughaw at a global scale.
Team Dugong Bughaw has impacted more than 25,000 people with their HIV awareness and prevention education initiatives. Project HAYI has been able to provide community based screening services to 909 people, and train 29 youth leaders in HIV prevention and awareness. Through the Nook, Team Dugong Bughaw has also been able to distribute 97,969 condoms and 2,279 lubes to students in higher education institutions.
JovenGO Guatemala
JovenGO Guatemala - Guatemala
Rosemary Dionicio Vasquez
Ambassador-led Initiative
51
SROI
Rosemary founded JovenGO Guatemala to provide language training, leadership programming, and human rights education to Indigenous and Afro-descendent youth.
Utilising both in-person and online instructional methods, JovenGO encourages young people to undertake a project to benefit their community. In Guatemala, where there are over 20 Mayan languages, learning an Indigenous language has been shown to improve the feeling of connectedness to one's community and pride in cultural heritage.
At the Summit, Rosemary met delegates from Ecuador and El Salvador whom she later collaborated with on a project to provide tutoring opportunities for students applying to international scholarships. Inspired by their own One Young World experiences, they have given guidance to over 300 youth.
JovenGO Guatemala has provided 12,000 young people with lessons in languages including Qʼeqchiʼ and Kʼicheʼ. The organisation also offers classes in sign language and English. Other projects of JovenGO Guatemala, focused on information-sharing, have reached 18,000 youth and adolescents with guidance to reduce adolescent pregnancy, HIV transmission, and sexually transmitted infections.
AIKA Alliance
Anjatiana is the Founder of AIKA, a climate alliance of youth-focused organisations from the Malagasy community, an Indigenous group in Madagascar.
The organisation is particularly focused on youth capacity-building that enables young people to engage in international climate consultations, such as the Conference of the Parties (COP). The organisation concentrates on four areas: skills and tools for youth organisations, funding for youth activities, communication of youth advocacy, and reporting on youth action. At COP28 and COP29, Anjatiana was able to connect with Ambassadors from the Summit in Belfast. She included Ambassadors in the panel events she organised, and she views this expertise as one of the great advantages of the One Young World Ambassadorship. In total, AIKA has included 5,500 youth in global climate consultations, including in-person events and webinars.
The organisation selects the topics to cover through a national survey. AIKA has also provided local youth-led climate organisations with funding and enabled youth to participate in dialogues using the Malagasy language.
Háblalo
Mateo founded Háblalo, an app providing a free, mobile Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device for people with disabilities.
After downloading Háblalo, users take a brief quiz regarding their access requirements resulting in a fully customised interface based on disability type. Depending on the customisation, the app may include features such as a pictogram library, phrase construction tools, quick-access phrases, subtitling, and translation. Háblalo also has tailored content, accessible by scanning a QR code at participating businesses and public buildings.
In 2023, Mateo won the Entrepreneur of the Year Award supported by TFG Asset Management. The recognition led him to connect with entrepreneurs and industry leaders in Europe, where he eventually hopes to expand Háblalo. The connections that he made at the Summit have provided him with a worldwide network, and significant global momentum due to his award.
By 2024, 300,000 people used Háblalo. He is also the Founder of Asteroid Technologies, the umbrella organisation behind Háblalo that focuses on accessible technology. In addition, Mateo has founded Apgreid, an edtech company, and Grondplek, a 3D printing venture. In 2025, Háblalo has already grown to 500,000 users.
ERAO SVG
ERAO SVG - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Jeshua Bardoo
Ambassador-led Initiative
2
SROI
Equal Rights, Access and Opportunities Saint Vincent and Grenadines (ERAO SVG) is a human rights organisation dedicated to promoting social justice and equality for marginalised groups.
Jeshua co-founded ERAO SVG to educate, sensitise and create awareness through in-person events, online events and advocacy work around four key thematic areas. These include women’s rights, children's rights, LGBTQ rights, and disability rights. In 2023, ERAO SVG became the first organisation in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to host an official Pride Month celebration, organised in collaboration with the British High Commission.
Jeshua attended the One Young World Summit Belfast, 2023, as a leading scholar. Same sex relationships remain criminalised in Saint Vincent and Grenadines.1 which has been a significant challenge for Jeshua as a queer person. However, becoming a One Young World Ambassador helped him overcome these challenges by bringing visibility to his work and helping him mobilise international support for ERAO SVG.
Through ERAO SVG, Jeshua has impacted over 280 people with his awareness and advocacy efforts. Additionally, the organisation runs a legal advice clinic which provides counsel to victims of gender based violence free of cost. Through this clinic, Jeshua has directly supported 30 survivors in their fight for justice.
Brio
Brio is a global mental health organisation that partners with local leaders and civil society to co-design mental health programmes.
At the heart of Brio’s approach is Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), a behavioural science model that builds psychological flexibility, self-awareness, and values-driven action. Brio focuses on strengthening mental health skills and processes, promoting wellbeing, and improving community mental health support systems.
At the virtual One Young World Summit held during the coronavirus pandemic, Daisy found renewed hope and motivation by hearing how other leaders continued their work despite global uncertainty.
Brio has directly impacted 133,820 individuals across 17 mental health initiatives. In India, Brio’s 21-day well-being programme, named Hausla, equipped over 127,000 government school teachers and 100 youth facilitators with increased emotional resilience, self-awareness, and efficacy skills to improve classroom environments. Additional projects include a menstrual and mental health programme in Karnataka for 500 adolescent girls and a pilot project integrating mental health curriculum in government schools in Rajasthan, reaching 1,000 children and 120 teachers.
In the United States, Brio supported 2,500 18-25 year old AmeriCorps members with wellbeing training and resources to improve mental health. In Latin America, Brio helped train 2,000 community volunteers to provide peer mental health support for youth, Indigenous communities, and families affected by violence, migration, or forced disappearance. Additionally, in Colombia, youth-centred programmes used music, dance, and storytelling to promote the wellbeing of 100 individuals in conflict-affected areas, and a project with human rights collectives in Mexico provided mental health training to 200.Brio demonstrates the impact of community-driven scalable mental health programmes across three continents. Following the successful pilot, Brio and its local partner are now collaborating with the government of Rajasthan to integrate a mental health curriculum that reaches 3.3 million children across 74,000 schools by 2028.
Pura Vida Palau
Miel founded Pura Vida Palau, a store selling eco-friendly products including reef safe sunscreen. Traditional sunscreens contain ingredients, such as oxybenzone and octinoxate, that harm coral reefs and marine animals.1 In Pacific Islands nations such as Palau, this poses a particular threat to the archipelago's biodiversity.
As a One Young World Leading Scholar, Miel used the Summit to discuss how a return to Indigenous knowledge, values, and practices are the solution to the climate crisis. Through One Young World, she later had the opportunity to sit on a panel at COP28 on climate resilience.
Miel used her expertise to campaign for the passage of a ban of reef-toxic sunscreens. In 2020, the country was the first to institute a ban on sunscreens with ingredients toxic to coral reefs. This regulation has not only reduced coral bleaching, but allowed for Palauan businesses to begin stocking an increase in local products. Miel sold 7,500 reef-safe sunscreens and, through a partnership with her parents’ small business, Palauan Made, provided training to eight Palauan female entrepreneurs to help them launch their own businesses.
Blend Edu
Thalita is the founder of Blend Edu, an organisation that aims to build an inclusive culture and help put diversity in action in companies by providing educational and consultancy services.
Blend Edu has two key products, Diversidade SA and Representa. Diversidade SA provides diversity teams and employee resource groups (ERGs) of partnering organisations with training and educational resources on the best practices, benchmarks, and methodologies related to diversity and inclusion. Representa SA is a free platform that facilitates career development for underrepresented groups, featuring live content, training material, active scholarships, and job opportunities. Additionally, Blend Edu provides consultancy services to support organisations in building their diversity and inclusion strategy.
In 2022, Thalita attended the Summit in Manchester with her Lead2030 sponsor Bristol Myers Squibb.The prize money from her Lead20230 win not only helped Blend Edu build a robust product in the midst of the pandemic but facilitated profitability in the long term. As a One Young Ambassador, Thalita gained access to various platforms, learning and networking opportunities, which inspired her to launch Representa to improve accessibility to professional development opportunities for underrepresented groups in Brazil.
Blen Edu’s Diversidade has impacted 1,000,000 people from 150 organisations. Launched in 2024, Representa SA, Thalita’s first B2C product, has over 40,000 users, 36,000 of whom joined the platform in 2024. The next step for Blend Edu is to launch Representa SA for recruiters to foster inclusivity in the hiring process.
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 Biographies: short biographies of Ambassadors who are growing into influential leaders for social good in some of the world’s largest companies, organisations, and in government.
- One Young World Funded Projects: detailed case studies of grant recipients from One Young World's funding opportunities, including Lead2030, Rebuilding Communities, and the COVID Young Leaders Fund.