$ 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.
Jonny Jacobs, Starbucks
Jonny Jacobs, Starbucks - United Kingdom
Jonny Jacobs
Leadership Biographies
Jonny has always had a keen interest in giving people opportunities to reach their full potential. In 2016, he was nominated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAS) to be their Young Chartered Accountant of the Year, a role which earned him a place to attend the One Young World Summit in Bogotá, 2017. At the time, Jonny was the Strategy and Transformation Director and an active mental health programme sponsor at his previous company. These experiences, along with his challenging upbringing, were the catalyst for Jonny to become an advocate for positive change in his career.
Jonny took on the role of an ambassador and executive sponsor for pladis Global’s mental health programme, elevating the initiative onto the strategic agenda of the business through his role in the executive team. The programme began with a small group of colleagues working to break the stigma of mental health in the workplace before reaching 4,000 employees in the UK and influencing globally through education and support. This led to McVitie’s first-ever social partnership with the mental health charity, Mind. The joint Let's Talk campaign leveraged the brand for social good to drive a national mental health conversation.
Now at Starbucks, Jonny influences the strategic agenda as the sponsor of a wellbeing programme, the Wellbeing Blend, with 200 trained ambassadors expanding across geographies. The programme’s three core components, physical, mental, and financial wellbeing, support colleagues to feel their best every day. Starbucks has enhanced its support tools for people experiencing tough times, with counselling, prevention services, training, and education, whilst at the same time enhancing policies to support its partners to thrive. During Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK, thousands of Starbucks baristas wore a green ribbon for mental health awareness. Jonny has successfully helped expand the scope, scale, and national impact of Starbucks’ wellbeing and D&I initiatives, leveraging the company’s strong foundations in corporate social responsibility.
Jonny is also a Board Member for the Mental Health Foundation, the UK’s leading charity for everyone’s mental health, and Mental Health at Work CIC who lead the Mental Health Allies Programme, which trains employees, including line managers, on how to spot the signs of mental ill health. Jonny has brought together his experience to also co-lead the Mental Fitness in Business strategy for ICAS, which is leading the mental health conversation amongst the profession.
“I wouldn't have built the confidence to share my story if it wasn't for One Young World. No question. So everything that I do now One Young World has touched in some way. I've got the confidence, because I've seen other people allow themselves to show vulnerability. It’s the network as well; coming back and speaking on the main stage in 2019 and again in Manchester this year has helped me shape my story, find a route to give back and hopefully inspire others.”
Oceanmar Project
Nathalie was inspired by her experience as a diver and her familiarity with the challenges of ocean conservation to co-found the Oceanmar Project in 2020. The project was first online, launching as an Instagram account through which the Ocearmar team shared information on ocean conservation. Noticing a demand for ocean education, Nathalie and her co-founder, Mariana, began offering online courses during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, before launching their work in-person. In addition, the team has also worked on sustainable tourism projects.
Nathalie attended the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021, and she participated as a digital workshop facilitator at the Summit in Manchester, 2022, on the topic of Sustainable Blue Tourism. As a One Young World Ambassador, Nathalie was part of the Global Youth Inquiry, an initiative between One Young World, Mishcon de Reya and the Democracy and Culture Foundation, that took evidence of 23 One Young World leaders working in the climate space globally.
The Oceanmar Project has communities in Spain, Germany, South Africa and Mexico that support their work and activities. They organise educational events with local communities, hold online courses and have participated in conferences in various universities throughout Latin America. Thanks to their educational initiatives, they have reached over 1,800 students on topics ranging from ocean literacy and marine biodiversity to zero waste living. They have carried out over 20 beach and underwater clean-ups in Spain and Mexico, removing 100 kg of trash. In South Africa, they worked with townships on education and recycling to make sustainable eco-bricks. By the end of 2023, Nathalie and her co-founder aim to create an ocean conservation and educational centre.
“During the Summit, I realised that there are a lot of people working to make the world better, and it inspired me to dream bigger, to not stay small with my ambitions. After the Summit, I did some leadership courses with One Young World that helped me develop my communication and leadership skills to be more effective.”
European Association for Law and Finance
European Association for Law and Finance - Montenegro
Katarina Bošković
Ambassador-led Initiative
23
SROI
Katarina is the Founder and President of the European Association for Law and Finance (EALF), an organisation that brings together young people, civil leaders, war victims, and peace experts to reflect on the aftermath of conflict and rebuild communities in the Balkans through respect and trust. Their work prioritises groups that are traditionally underrepresented in peacebuilding discourses, including victims of war who are also victims of sexual assault.
Katarina attended the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021, and spoke on a panel with fellow European Commission Peace Ambassadors on the challenges of being a peacebuilder. Following the Summit, she contributed to the “Declaration on the Future of Peacebuilding and Leadership” and participated in One Young World’s Action Accelerator programme, as a result of which she developed her peacebuilding apps. Katarina will participate in the UN General Assembly in 2023, on account of learning about the participation opportunities from fellow Ambassador Ramiz Bakhtiar.
The European Association for Law and Finance has impacted more than 20,000 young people and over 1,000 civil leaders, war victims and peace experts. Their education programme, Peace Talks, has reached 800 teachers from six countries in the western Balkans and provided them with resources and tools to both learn about peacebuilding and teach the topic in classrooms. Katarina and her team have also developed a pilot programme connecting victims of war with psychologists to help tackle post-traumatic stress disorder, impacting 40 people with plans to scale further. Their peace app, made for students, has over 20,000 users and offers eight hours of regularly updated interactive content on peace and conflict resolution, including live lectures. In 2023, they want to expand their policy and legal frameworks project, through which they produced a recommendation that was implemented in June 2022 by the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina to give state benefits to war victims.
“Both the Summit experience and the post-Summit programme have been very useful for me. I gained a lot of knowledge and expande my leadership skills. I connected with other Ambassadors from other countries and we are working together on a project for the United Nations. Additionally, this project came out of my participation in the One Young World Action Accelerator programme.”
Elvis Martin, National Youth Commission of Australia
Elvis Martin, National Youth Commission of Australia - Australia
Elvis Martin
Leadership Biographies
Elvis began his advocacy work as an international student who noticed the myriad gaps in Australia’s mental health support system. He began by helping international students navigate the country’s legal system to better protect their rights and access vital services. Since then, his work has expanded to cover multiple areas, while his own lived experience continues to provide the foundations for his role as a social justice campaigner. Elvis raised $1M to build a youth refuge and became heavily involved in the Mental Health Compliance Commission. He also co-founded co-health youth action council, a community health organisation that strives to improve health and wellbeing for all, with a particular focus on young people experiencing mental health challenges.
Elvis first attended a One Young World Summit in The Hague, 2018, and found the experience to be like no other. He discovered One Young World is a universal hub for advocacy through which young leaders like himself can tap into resources and support. Elvis implemented his learnings from the Summit, particularly on sustainability, into his advisory roles in government bodies and actively encouraged their implementation.
Elvis scaled his advocacy work and became Principal Ambassador for the National Youth Commission of Australia. He also became a diversity and inclusion spokesperson, sitting on various boards related to mental health, homelessness, family violence, and technology. Elvis was appointed the National Chair of Red Cross Youth. His approach to advocacy is people-centric and emphasises the lived experience of people experiencing hardship. He became the youngest member appointed to Victoria’s LGBTIQ+ Taskforce, and the youngest member to be appointed to the Victorian Government’s Anti-Racism Taskforce. He is also the first male to be appointed to the expert advisory panel of Safe and Equal, a family and domestic violence peak body. This has involved one the biggest wins for his advocacy career, as Australia's newly instituted domestic violence paid leave has come out of the work done by Safe and Equal.
Following the Summit in Manchester, 2022, Elvis returned again to Australia to scale his advocacy work. He was elected Deputy Chair for the State of Victoria’s peak body for mental health. In this role, Elvis hopes to bring more diversity and break stigma around mental health challenges, and advocate for a system without barriers and gaps especially for the most marginalised in the community.
“Being a One Young World Ambassador not just elevated my advocacy work, it also gave me a better understanding of the world around me. It gave me a platform, it's like a universal stage for advocacy and for passionate young people. That's how I see it. A global hub that young people can tap into for resources and support.”
Peace in Our Schools
Ramiz’s childhood was significantly impacted by the conflict in Afghanistan, and these experiences led him to discover constructive ways to resolve conflicts peacefully. During a visit to the United Nations in 2018, he met his co-founder, Lika Torikashvili, with whom he founded Peace in Our Schools as an interfaith initiative teaching young people about peacebuilding. Ramiz is an Afghan Muslim, and Lika is a Georgian Jew; they lead Peace in Our Schools, a non-profit organisation together to build a more peaceful, just and inclusive world.
Ramiz attended the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021, which gave him an opportunity to connect with other young leaders in peacebuilding and speak on a panel about his work. The Summit gave Ramiz access to a network of contacts that have since helped promote and develop his work. One Young World Ambassadors have also participated in Peace in Our Schools’ Youth Diplomacy Talks, in which community leaders and experts from different faiths discuss peacebuilding, bringing a uniquely diverse perspective to the programme.
Peace in Our School’s Peace Camps last for three days with approximately 20 participants in each camp ranging from school children to young adults. The Peace Camps, which have been held in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Indonesia, centre on skills-building, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, and involve direct support from certified psychologists. Over 600 students from 10 schools have engaged with the programme so far, while 12 online Youth Diplomacy Talks have reached over 2,500 people through direct participants and livestreams. For their work with Peace in Our Schools, Ramiz and Lika received a PACEY award from the Basel Peace Office in 2023. Following this, Peace in Our Schools plans on working with Ukrainian refugees and Russian immigrants through its Peace Camps in Georgia.
"Leadership involves mobilising people to work towards a common goal. Without a network of supporters and the necessary tools to connect with these individuals, it can be challenging to effectively exercise leadership. My experience at the Summit proved to be invaluable, as it provided me with a network of collaborators and young leaders who have supported and facilitated my journey in exercising effective leadership."
Circle of Intrapreneurs
Tim is the co-founder and Chairman of Circle of Intrapreneurs, an organisation that seeks to drive positive social change globally through business by creating a community of young changemakers within corporate organisations. Tim was inspired to start his organisation after attending the One Young World Summit in Bangkok 2015.
Throughout the Summit, Tim and his co-founder David connected with other Ambassadors who were as passionate as they were about creating social change without having to leave their companies. After these interactions, and noticing that there was a demand for such a community, Tim and David launched the Circle of Intrapreneurs in November 2015 with the support of One Young World. Tim is still actively involved in the One Young World Community. In 2016 he was invited back as a Delegate Speaker to the One Young World Summit in Ottawa and ran breakout sessions at the Summits in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
The Circle of Intrapreneurs’ network has grown to over 10,000 members, with more than 1,000 new social intrapreneurship ideas conceived since its inception. Members of the organisation’s community have developed 15 live projects, including TicketAid, HerOwnBoss, Human Atlas, and Hack 4 Hackney, among others. The Circle of Intrapreneurs also provides support for intrapreneurs around the world digitally, and consults corporations interested in developing their employees’ intrapreneurship skills to boost employee engagement and drive innovation. The initiative is about to launch a mentorship programme for its members and has partnered with the United Nations to work in favour of the Sustainable Development Goals.
“I think a lot of the achievements I’ve had with the Circle and personally, wouldn’t have happened without One Young World, because they basically accelerated the Circle. And for example, becoming the first head of Intrapreneurship at Barclays Ventures was a direct relation to my work in the Circle.”
Derek Dewosky, WPP
Derek Dewosky, WPP - United States
Derek Dewosky
Leadership Biographies
Derek has always been passionate about diversity and inclusion. His experience growing up LGBTQ+ in a conservative environment in the Southern United States sparked his passion for human rights and producing work that supports the UN’s SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities.
In his previous role, Derek impacted his company’s culture by founding the first Pride network to build an equitable and inclusive workplace. He launched a partnership with Out In Tech, the world’s largest non-profit community of LGBTQ+ tech leaders, creating opportunities for LGBTQ+ people to advance their careers and visibility within the STEM sector by giving them resources and support. As part of this, he brought together leaders from across the industry to discuss inequality in technology and marketing, with a focus on the inequalities inherent in data and product development.
The One Young World Summit London, 2019, was a life-changing experience for Derek. It empowered him to continue his journey as a young leader and to continue placing purpose at the heart of his work. Derek broadened his understanding of the role technology can play in affecting change after seeing One Young World Ambassadors Isra Chaker and Dalia Yousif speak on the role of social media in promoting civil rights.
Since then, Derek has continued to champion diversity and inclusion initiatives and amplify the work of individuals from underrepresented backgrounds as Associate Director for Business Development at WPP. He helped launch the WPP Consumer Equality Equation Report, the most comprehensive study into the relationship between ethnicity and the consumer experience in the UK. This data helps companies make informed decisions while advancing social impact. Additionally, he leads an integrated marcomms team providing pro-bono support to the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation.
Derek actively supports some of the industry’s largest employee resource groups which champion LGBTQ+, racial and cultural diversity and inclusion. In his role he directly supports the CEOs and executive leadership of the largest marketing agencies in the UK with developing and implementing strategic business plans, which often look at areas related to diversity, equity and inclusion. As part of this, Derek leads the WPP UK Workforce Alliance Board, working with changemakers from across WPP to make recommendations to the Board on pressing global issues. Most recently, Derek was named Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe Class of 2023 and in the top 100 Business Developers in the UK by the BD100.
“One Young World helped launch my international career and has given me not just a platform to advance my leadership, but the knowledge and community connections to create real change at scale. I’m honoured to be a One Young World Ambassador.”
Voices of Self-made
Kiyoka founded Voices of Self-made as a university student with the purpose of inspiring, empowering, and encouraging young people in Japan and around the world to become global leaders by sharing and exchanging the mindsets and experiences of leaders and professionals of the world.
Kiyoka attended the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021, as a One Young World Japan Delegate. She has since become an active member of One Young World Japan, where she organised and moderated the Student Pitch Event U18 Youth Leaders in Japan working on SDG-related initiatives in the lead-up to the Summit in Manchester 2022. In 2023, she was part of the organising committee of One Young World Japan’s Sustainability x Social Entrepreneurship Spring Camp in collaboration with the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) in Okinawa, Japan.
Voices of Self-made has organised 10 events so far in Japan including events with leaders from a diverse range of fields including diplomats, business leaders, and professional Paralympic athletes and coaches. Currently, Voices of Self-made has 20 members, but the organisation’s events are open to all young people in Japan interested in their initiatives.
“I think it really gave me the network and the connections, for not only just inviting those leaders to the events that I host, but also it gives me constant inspiration and motivation to be part of this global leadership community. I've also been able to get involved with One Young World Japan’s activities like the spring camp in Okinawa, and the StudentPitch Event.”
Hope Behind Bars Africa
Hope Behind Bars Africa - Nigeria
Oluwafunke Adeoye
Ambassador-led Initiative
19
SROI
Oluwafunke created Hope Behind Bars in 2018, as a female-led social impact organisation addressing inequalities in Nigeria’s criminal justice system. Originally inspired by wrongful accusations against her father, Oluwafunke began offering pro-bono services to prisoners and shared her story online, which led to people offering to volunteer and her starting Hope Behind Bars Africa. The organisation’s scope now goes beyond free legal services and is attempting to reform the criminal justice system in the country.
Oluwafunke attended the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021. Listening to other Ambassadors, as well as her participation on a digital panel with Robert Spano, Former President of the European Court of Human Rights, motivated Oluwafunke to scale her work towards facilitating systemic change. She has since now partnered with the Ministry of Justice and the Legal Aid Council to address issues of false imprisonment and prisoner’s rights.
Hope Behind Bars has so far directly impacted over 7,000 people. Of these, 397 people have received free direct legal support, while 4,000 have gone through the organisation’s welfare intervention, skills empowerment and reintegration programmes. In partnership with the Cornell University Centre on the Death Penalty, Hope Behind Bars has provided capacity-building training to 200 lawyers and law students. They have also leveraged technology to create legal awareness to more than 2,000 individuals to help them know and assert their rights. Oluwafunke has also co-authored learning resources for pro-bono lawyers. Hope Behind Bars trained women in prison in tailoring and sewing, who made around 1,400 reusable face masks during the pandemic. The organisation has developed an app to connect lawyers with pro-bono work, with over 1,000 users. Since its founding, Hope Behind Bars has saved over 200,000 hours of prison time for the wrongly incarcerated and has cut time spent awaiting trial by 50%.
“Talking to people during the Summit and hearing them affirm the importance of my work in different contexts made me realise the need to bring a system change approach to my work”
DreamSpace Academy
DreamSpace Academy - Sri Lanka
Aravinth Panch, Kishoth Navaretnajarah
Ambassador-led Initiative
12
SROI
Aravinth and Kishoth founded DreamSpace Academy as a social enterprise designed to tackle local socio-economic and environmental challenges by offering challenge-based learning, grassroots innovation and impact venture building. Aravinth’s experiences as a refugee, exiled from his country for ten years, led him to launch DreamSpace Academy as a means to develop innovative social enterprises and infrastructure in Sri Lanka.
Aravinth first attended the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021, and then returned in Manchester, 2022, where he spoke on the Presentation Stage about his story and work. He was impressed with the number of young people acting to solve the world’s challenges, and he used the opportunity presented by the Summit to successfully maximise his network and make connections with fellow Ambassadors. Aravinth’s co-founder, Kishoth, became a One Young World Ambassador in Manchester, 2022.
Through their DreamSpace Lifecycle programme, Aravinth and Kishoth’s team identify young people from underserved communities that are motivated to generate change. These young people receive extensive training with interdisciplinary skills to help them develop grassroots, innovative enterprises of their own. DreamSpace Academy helps these young changemakers partner with international experts, thereby ensuring that they have the comprehensive skillset and exposure necessary to excel in their respective fields. So far, nine changemakers have graduated from this programme. DreamSpace Academy has also trained more than 1,400 people with vocational skills, with 14 innovations and 19 ventures having been built by their changemakers and incubatees in topics ranging from media information literacy, microbiology, local manufacturing, software engineering, arts and business development. Aravinth, Kishoth, and their team also work on environmental issues, women’s empowerment, peacebuilding and reconciliation, and rural development.
“When we talk about our problems, we think they are the biggest thing in the world, but then you get to the Summit and see that the whole world is full of challenges and that there are a lot of people working; in every small part of the world there is someone trying to solve a big challenge. And that’s what you learn from One Young World, and meeting such people, you feel that you are not alone. That is very important.”
Imagine Apps
Nicolás co-founded Imagine Apps with the aim to make it Colombia’s first global software company. In doing so, he has focused his attention on creating opportunities for Colombian and Latin American talent to stop the region’s ongoing brain drain. Colombia in particular is predicted to have a digital talent gap of 60,000 to 112,000 software developers by 2025 [1]. Nicolás is the youngest person in Colombia to speak at a TEDx conference, and has developed a significant online following through which he offers courses and guidance on navigating the burgeoning tech space in Colombia and the region more widely.
Nicolás attended the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021, which allowed him to hear different perspectives on social projects and businesses, which in turn helped spur him to new ideas and opportunities. The Summit experience also inspired him to scale his work by developing world class technology in Colombia. Nicolás has kept in touch with other Ambassadors, and routinely discusses possible future collaborations and meetups within the One Young World Community in the country.
One of Imagine Apps’ flagship technologies is a digital platform that supports citizen security, designed to help the ongoing implementation of the peace process in Colombia. The software provides authorities with aggregate data and straightforward reports on the status of crime, development, and social variables within local communities, to improve governance and decision-making. Developed with Fundación Ideas para la Paz, an NGO committed to the development of communities in remote locations, the platform has been used by more than 300 of the 1,102 municipalities in Colombia. At the same time, Imagine Apps has helped to create a new generation of Colombian tech talent, by training 100 employees at Imagine Apps.
“Getting to interact at the Summit with people from different parts of the world that are working in such diverse projects really changed my mindset. It gave me a tonne of new ideas and opportunities, and motivated me to dream bigger.”
Mentors4U Colombia
Mentors4U Colombia - Colombia
Yineth Paola Renteria Martinez
Ambassador-led Initiative
13
SROI
Mentors4U Colombia was co-founded in 2017 by young Colombians, after noticing the socio-economic barriers and professional challenges to accessing the labour market in their country. The non-profit organisation identifies, supports and connects low-income students with career opportunities through their mentoring programme. Yineth was a mentee of the original programme in Colombia. After graduating, she became their Director of Operations, and then COO, where she replicated the programme throughout Colombia.
Yineth attended the One Young World Summit in Bogotá, 2017, as a fellow of The Jang-Calderón Family Foundation in 2017. Being part of the One Young World Community, especially in Colombia, has given her the opportunity to expand her work with Mentors4U Colombia. Yineth created a mentorship programme for Ambassadors that are part of the One Young World network in the country as a pilot in 2019. The feedback and knowledge she gained from this experiment proved vital to the project’s later success. Through One Young World, Yineth has been connected with both local and international opportunities, and has been involved with the Latin American Leadership Academy.
Mentors4U Colombia has successfully organised seven mentorship programmes, impacting over 500 students, and the project has been successfully replicated through partner organisations in four other countries. Their mentorship programme lasts between six to seven months on average, with mentors and mentees meeting up to four hours a month on a one-to-one basis. The organisation provides skills building opportunities through workshops, as well as guidelines and advice, to mentors and mentees alike, to ensure that both parties get the most out of their time together. Mentors4U Colombia also reduces social gaps when it comes to accessing the labour market. Their methodology has been used to advise universities, businesses and non-governmental organisations in Colombia to create their own mentoring programmes, and the organisation has partnered with university alumni associations and companies to source its mentors.
“I think that One Young World gives hope for young people to keep working despite the challenges they face daily to change the world. Being part of the One Young World Community, especially in Colombia, has been a great opportunity to expand my work with Mentors4U because they had me create a mentorship pilot programme for other Ambassadors in 2019.”
SMART Liberia
SMART Liberia - Liberia
Ahmed Konneh
Ambassador-led Initiative
11
SROI
Ahmed co-founded SMART Liberia in 2011, as a result of his experience as a high school graduate looking for mentorship opportunities and resources to access higher education. SMART Liberia’s work is focused on three strategic areas: the Education Advancement Project, a university preparatory programme for high school graduates; the Youth Entrepreneurship Programme, an incubation service for young Liberian entrepreneurs; and the Professional Development Programme, designed to facilitate the entry of university graduates into the professional world.
Ahmed attended the One Young World Summit in Munich 2021, as a European Commission Peace Ambassador. He was a signatory of the “Declaration on the future of Peacebuilding and Leadership”, along with his fellow Peace Ambassadors, which was published on International Peace Day in 2021. As a result of his One Young World experience, Ahmed made important connections, and was able to leverage his growing network to continue developing as a young leader.
SMART Liberia maintains its own space, known as the Changemakers Village, which has emerged as a hub for young people from all walks of life to come together and pursue their dreams and entrepreneurial ideas. It also functions as a co-working space. Through their Education Advancement Project they have supported 34 students to study abroad on fully or partially funded scholarships, with SMART Liberia providing advice and preparatory aid throughout their application process. The organisation has also been instrumental in the launch and incubation of 40 new businesses in Liberia through its incubation programme, while 100 university graduates have successfully gotten internships through SMART Liberia’s Job Readiness programme. In addition to these landmark projects, the organisation has hosted several other events in entrepreneurial spaces, reaching over 2,000 people.
“There were a lot of leadership lessons and seminars that I attended that tremendously impacted me in a positive way. I also made a lot of connections at the Summit, and some of these people were very useful in helping me figure things out and set things up. So I would say the knowledge and the network were two of the most important benefits of the Summit.”
Al Sudaniya Mentoring
Mai founded Al Sudaniya Mentoring (ASM) in 2013, following her participation in the MILEAD Fellowship, led by the Moremi Initiative and based in Ghana. As part of this fellowship, Mai was tasked with implementing a community-based project in her home country. Al Sudaniya Mentoring offers support and guidance through mentorship to women in Sudan to develop their personal and professional skills. Throughout the six-month mentorship programme, women are provided with tailored, holistic, one-to-one mentoring with female Sudanese role models, informative workshops, and the opportunity to implement impactful projects of their own.
Mai attended the One Young World Summit in The Hague, 2018, on an Enterprise for Peace Scholarship supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has continued to be an active member of the Community and has attended One Young World events in London, such as the London Caucus in the British Museum and the European Commission’s Peace Caucus in 2021.
In the first year of the mentorship programme, five girls graduated. Currently, there are more than 280 women involved in the project as both mentors and mentees. In addition, mentees have the opportunity to become mentors once they have graduated from the programme. 93% of mentees reported that the programme was very useful in building towards their professional goals, while 87% of mentees maintained contact with the ASM community after completion of the programme. Since graduating from ASM, 87% of mentees have helped at least one other Sudanese woman to develop both personally and professionally and 72% of mentees have gone on to obtain full or part-time employment.
“If there is one thing I have learnt during my time at One Young World, it is that everyone has something to offer, and we all have a purpose, it has been truly empowering. We must find out what we are passionate about and work hard to make our dreams a reality.”
Lumen Energy Solutions
Jinsu co-founded Lumen Energy Solutions in 2019 to tackle the challenges faced by companies looking to implement sustainability measures without negatively impacting business. At the time of Lumen Energy Solutions’ founding, only 45.96% of total final energy consumption in Honduras was from renewable sources, a fall of 6.4% from the previous year. Lumen Energy Solutions has developed a scientific approach to lower traditionally high costs of the transition to renewable energies in the country.
Jinsu attended the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021. The Summit inspired him to lead more sustainably and introduce a more comprehensive approach towards a broader range of Sustainable Development Goals, including gender equality and decent work and economic growth, within Lumen Energy Solutions. Despite being a small company, Jinsu has incorporated an obligation to create impactful and sustainable change both within and through his organisation.
Lumen Energy Solutions, a data-driven and IoT focused energy efficiency company, helps its clients reduce energy cost and waste in their day-to-day business operations. The initiative’s approach is based on analysing specific processes within client organisations to determine sources of energy wastage. In doing so, Lumen Energy Solutions successfully facilitates the implementation of sustainable business practices within companies that lack the economic capacity to otherwise complete an energy transition. Jinsu and his team work with industrial clients in 16 different fields, and have begun expanding into the commercial sector. Their work incurs a significantly lower cost for their clients than alternative energy saving programmes by focusing on behavioural and operational shifts to reduce energy waste. Through these measures, they have been able to save approximately 28,000 metric tonnes of carbon emissions, the equivalent of 6,000 cars per year.
“The greatest value of One Young World has been the ability to see other young leaders around the world with their own initiatives, their efforts, energy, and passion. I think I’ve become a more well-rounded leader.”
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.