$ 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 45 Ambassador-led initiatives addressing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2023
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.
Tabotabo Auatabu, Digital Transformation Office Kiribati
Tabotabo Auatabu, Digital Transformation Office Kiribati - Kiribati
Tabotabo Auatabu
Leadership Biographies
Tabotabo has always had a strong interest in the rights of children, women’s empowerment, and family development as a result of a difficult childhood. After studying psychology and law at university - and becoming the first counselling psychologist in Kiribati - he has played a significant role in changing the island nation's parenting culture, to better ensure women’s and children’s rights are upheld. He was instrumental in the passing of the Education Act and the Children, Young People, and Family Welfare Act, to better implement the relevant UN Conventions like CRC and CEDAW in Kiribati.
In addition to delivering training on positive parenting, Tabotabo worked with the Ministry of Education to raise awareness on child abuse amongst teachers, principals, and church leaders. As the first President of the Kiribati Schools Counselling and Wellbeing Network, he was selected as a finalist of the Commonwealth Youth Awards 2015 for his work. The following year he received a Queen’s Young Leader Award, and he successfully secured a place at the One Young World Summit in Ottawa, 2016. In a small country, being a One Young World Ambassador helped Tabotabo establish his reputation and credibility as a young leader.
In his role as the Head of the Social Welfare Division at the Ministry of Women, Youth, Sports and Social Affairs, Tabotabo implemented lessons he learned from One Young World Counsellor Mohammed Yunus at the Summit and strengthened programmes designed to train young couples on financial literacy. He led a team of 30 staff to ensure that Kiribati’s government welfare programmes were sustainable and reaching people in need, particularly children who required financial and psychosocial support.
Tabotabo served as a Senior Prosecutor in the Office of the Attorney General before moving into the newly established Digital Transformation Office. As a Chief Legal & Licensing Officer, his role focuses on establishing sound legal foundations for Kiribati’s digital development. This includes establishing best practices and evolving the legal system to ensure proper use of digital data and guaranteeing privacy rights, to accompany the government’s digitization plans. Tabotabo’s office is developing legal bills and regulations to protect people and is engaged in the national consultation process to ensure better accessibility. His legal and regulatory work will help guarantee the rights of Kiribati’s citizens as the country moves towards a digital economy.
“Attending One Young World has increased my credibility and garnered trust from others. Despite residing in a small country with a population of 120,000, the recognition received from One Young World has elevated my status as an Ambassador for young people, allowing others to have confidence in me.”
Peepul
Girish is the COO and Director-Scale Programmes with Peepul, a non-profit organisation in India, working on improving educational outcomes of students in public schools. The public school system in India is fee-free, and generally serves the most disadvantaged segments of society. However, the gaps in learning levels are particularly acute in these schools. Peepul aims to change the narrative, and help government systems deliver quality education in these schools for the poorest and most marginalised populations. The organisation’s unique approach, focused on improving student-teacher engagement as a means to improve learning, convinced Girish to join them full-time in 2019 as part of the leadership team, after collaborating with them as a strategy consultant.
Girish attended the One Young World Summit in London, 2019. At the time, he was slated to join Peepul for a year on a secondment. The Summit instilled a sense of urgency in him to go and create systemic change. He joined Peepul ten days later, but also published a manifesto at his previous company, with other One Young World Ambassadors, to encourage corporate social impact. Through One Young World, Girish has spoken at multiple events, including with Chartered Accountants Worldwide, and was nominated by One Young World for a Goalkeepers’ Changemaker Award.
Peepul is currently working with governments across two geographies in India, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh. The organisation also runs three exemplar government schools in the capital with the local Municipal Corporation, as a demonstration of excellence in the public school system. These schools work with 1,500 students. Peepul has also directly impacted over 300,000 teachers in Madhya Pradesh and 17,628 in Delhi through pedagogical training and interventions, indirectly impacting the educational outcomes of 10 million students. Peepul works extensively with school administrators and principals to ensure systemic change at all levels of the government school system, with an emphasis on improving grade-level competencies and foundational literacy and numeracy skills.
“One Young World has opened so many doors for me. Everything from hosting me in one of my first ever webinars, inviting me to their FinBiz event as a speaker and even nominating me for a Goalkeepers’ Changemaker Award, that took me to New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.”
Nature and People as One
Nature and People as One - Kenya
Adrian Leitoro Lemaiyan
Ambassador-led Initiative
11
SROI
Adrian grew up in protected areas in Kenya and co-founded Nature and People as One (NAPO) to develop and facilitate a more inclusive approach to area-based conservation efforts that respects and meaningfully engages with local communities. Adrian works extensively with the indigenous Rendille and Samburu to implement conservation and restoration projects, with a focus on enhancing ecosystem restoration, human-wildlife coexistence and strengthening nature-based livelihoods.
Adrian attended the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021, and was a recipient of One Young World’s 2020 Covid Young Leaders Fund in 2021. At the Summit, he met fellow Ambassador Bryce Mawhinney, who provided him with project support and helped him establish a partnership with the Katie Adamson Conservation Fund for the Herder Conservation Initiative. This programme employs four herders who carry out conservation monitoring and have reported over 500 sightings of endangered wildlife species, contributing to their continued protection. In addition, Adrian was named as one of the five Restoration Stewards for the Global Landscapes Forum in 2022 and nominated as an IUCN changemaker by One Young World, for which he was selected to share his work at the IUCN leadership Forum in Jeju, South Korea.
NAPO has five ongoing projects. The Mt. Marsabit Tree Nursery produced and distributed 1,500 tree seedlings in 2021 and a further 8,000 in 2022. Its pilot project, Ramat, has assisted the regeneration of 40 acres of land in isolated communities in the Ndoto Mountains. NAPO has also trained 120 community members in beekeeping through its Bee Works Africa programme, and distributed over 200 beehives to community members in Marsabit. Additionally, to enhance local governance, NaPO has facilitated discussions between 270 indigenous community members to co-create rangeland management solutions in northern Kenya.
“During one of the workshops at the Summit I met fellow Ambassador Bryce, who has collaborated with me on conservation projects and connected me to the foundation that has supported my work on the Herder Network. That was a huge outcome of the Summit for me and NAPO.”
erthos
Following her passion for sustainability and cleaner oceans, Nuha co-founded erthos in 2016 as a research project with her coursemate, Kritika. Two years later, after working on different prototypes that offered plant-based and non-toxic alternatives to plastic packaging, they decided to incorporate erthos as a green technology company and join accelerators in Canada.
erthos is a company looking to build better materials to help towards a plastic pollution free planet. After spending some time with plastic manufacturers, Nuha and her colleagues developed a clearer picture on how to present solutions that would realistically solve industry challenges to creating truly environmentally beneficial products. This unique approach aims to benefit both existing plastic and consumer industries and works by integrating natural alternatives into existing supply chains to create a circular economy. The erthos team’s products reduce Co2 emissions by 70%, energy consumption in the manufacturing process by 50%, and use 98% less water than traditional plastic manufacturing.
Their products are compostable but also compatible with current plastic technology, and have so far:
● removed over 700kg of CO2eq GHG emissions from the atmosphere
● diverted 3,500kg of plastic
● conserved over 3,400 litres of water
● reduced 1,750 KwH of energy consumption.
As erthos grows, Nuha hopes to continue scaling her work within the plastics industry and create a demand for zero-waste packaging globally. The team has already raised over $8M dollars, built an exciting pipeline of customers, and is scaling their operations in North America and APAC. By 2025, erthos’ solution has the potential to save seven million kilograms of plastic from the planet, and at commercial scale can achieve a 70% reduction in carbon emissions when compared to traditional plastics.
KRIS for Peace
Motivated by her family’s experiences in the conflict-affected southern Philippines, Arizza co-founded KRIS for Peace (KRIS) in 2008 with an aim to promote peace through education. Initially, KRIS began by building libraries and providing educational materials in vulnerable areas. Currently, the organisation’s focus is empowerment, leadership development, and capacity-building in young people to help them develop into peacebuilders. KRIS has organised and hosted the IsangBayan Peacebuilding Conference, the Extremely Together programme in partnership with the European Union and the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as its Edulkaw programme, and provided disaster relief in typhoon-affected areas of the Philippines. Through the Extremely Together programme, Arizza and her team have held a series of training workshops and conferences designed to train peacebuilders, while Edulkaw emerged during the pandemic to provide digital devices to young people who could not afford them.
Arizza attended the One Young World Summit in Bangkok 2015 as a Delegate Speaker, and was a returning Ambassador in Ottawa 2016. As part of the One Young World Community, Arizza was connected with the Kofi Annan Foundation. She was also featured in the book “We Have a Dream: 201 Countries 201 Dreams with Sustainable Development Goals”, written by fellow Ambassador, Taichi Ichikawa.
Since 2020, KRIS has trained over 3,000 young Filipinos through Extremely Together, with an additional 600,000 indirectly reached through related online information campaigns. The IsangBayan Peacebuilding conference was attended by 81 young Filipinos, with the online content reaching another 361,000 people. Another 70 students have been supported with the provision of digital devices through Edulkaw, while KRIS has also provided vital disaster relief to 3,280 people.
“I still share my experience with One Young World, especially because I work with a lot of young leaders. I tell them that the Summit is an example of a gathering that erases boundaries and that promotes peace and empathy because you have so many stories and experiences happening at the same time. Every time I meet a young leader I tell them to apply to the Summit.”
Seeds of Fortune
Seeds of Fortune - United States
Nitiya Walker
Ambassador-led Initiative
41
SROI
Nitiya is the founder and Executive Director of Seeds of Fortune, a non-profit and EdTech platform to help young women of colour through their college applications process and scholarships, as well as provide them with financial education and career development skills. By 2036, over half of all college graduates in the United States will be people of colour, but only 8% of higher education institutions currently have equitable student representation and support programmes. Originally launched as a scholarship programme in New York City in 2014, Seeds of Fortune developed its digital platform to expand its reach.
Nitiya attended the One Young World Summit in Munich 2021, which allowed her to share the story and struggle of access to higher education for underrepresented groups in the United States. She developed strong connections, particularly with other American Ambassadors, which helped her expand the scholarship programmes Seeds of Fortune offers. Nitiya also established a partnership with Verizon, creating an internship programme for young women of colour. She received $25,000 from One Young World in partnership with the Brandtech Group as part of the Rebuilding Communities Fund, which helped fund her Fall College Prep Programming. Due to this funding, 30 high schoolers were sponsored to participate in an intensive college preparatory programme with Yale Women in Economics.
The Seeds of Fortune platform has helped over 2,500 women in the college application process, with 243 students receiving approximately $30,000,000 in scholarships and funding as a result of their work. The platform includes financial literacy advice for both students and parents, modulistic training on essay-writing, scholarships, application processes, choosing the right schools and subjects, and leadership development programmes. Seeds of Fortune has also hosted events in major US cities.
“Attending the Summit had a very tangible impact on my project, I had fellow Ambassadors join Seeds of Fortune as volunteers and I established a partnership with Verizon and the Brandtech Group.”
Eco-Soap Bank
Eco-Soap Bank is a non-profit founded by Samir Lakhani that employs economically-disadvantaged women to recycle leftover soap from factories. This recycled soap is then distributed to children and refugees, to whom Eco-Soap Bank also provides hygiene education. Eco-Soap Bank leverages waste materials and creates new bars of soap to address the critical need for hygiene in the fight against preventable disease.
Samir utilised the $50,000 funding available through Lead2030 to purchase five recycling machines that went to each of Eco-Soap Bank’s five soap factories across the world. The organisation employs 160 women and builds economic infrastructure that empowers local communities. The $50,000 Eco-Soap Bank received through Lead2030 has resulted in a threefold increase in its recycling capacity output. The organisation reached 1.6 million people, mostly children, through its soap and hygiene education in 2022 alone, while Eco-Soap Bank’s total reach since its founding stands at 8 million people. The primary recipients in 2022 were Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and Ukrainian refugees in Poland, and more recently, the organisation has worked to support earthquake survivors in Syria and Turkey.
Eco-Soap Bank typically distributes its soap through schools accompanied by hygiene education provided by its partner organisations. In refugee settings, the soap is distributed through Eco-Soap Bank’s INGO partners to reach the most vulnerable people. In addition to the material benefits of the programme, Lead2030 provided Samir with the opportunity to familiarise himself with the vocabulary and requirements of partnering with large corporates, and how to frame value propositions to create sustainable partnerships.
“Our partnership and Lead2030 award with Reckitt has been the most important, defining, punctuating moment of our organisational history. This award has legitimised our organisation. Having $50,000 to spend towards purchasing equipment is completely out of reach for most small charities, and that's what we did.“
- 10.5 million bars of soap recycled and redistributed across the globe in 2022
Stowelink Foundation
Stephen founded the Stowelink Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that aims to inspire healthier communities in Africa through innovative community health projects focused particularly on non-communicable diseases. These types of diseases are responsible for 39% of deaths in Kenya annually. Stephen does advocacy work with the Stowelink Foundation, cooperating with the government and key health institutions to raise awareness of non-communicable diseases amongst young people and facilitate inclusive and affordable healthcare spaces.
Stephen attended the One Young World Summit in London, 2019. A year later, he started the NCD 365 project in Africa with the support of fellow One Young World Ambassadors, who helped him with networking, engaging local citizens, establishing partnerships, and expanding Stowelink Foundation’s reach in West Africa. Following in his footsteps, Kevin Oduor, their Chief Program Officer, attended the Summit in Manchester, 2022. Through his participation in other One Young World channels, Stephen was able to use the Community to broaden his reach even further.
The Stowelink Foundation’s work is divided into in-person support, which includes cardiovascular health and baseline cancer screenings for patients, as well as training for healthcare professionals, and digital healthcare innovation. This includes mobile apps, such as the NCD 365 programme, focused on various issues related to non-communicable diseases for education purposes. The Stowelink Foundation is now present in 10 countries in Africa, and has run 28 medical camps directly impacting 232,612 people and helping diagnoses. The organisation has distributed 1,360 books related to health issues and worked with 67 schools to provide health-related training and mentorship to students. The Stowelink Foundation has also worked with hospitals to re-open non-communicable disease clinics and supports in-hospital volunteering. It has produced a free-to-reuse animated video series.
“I attended the Summit in 2019, London, and launched my NCD 365 project a year later. Thanks to connecting with other Ambassadors at the Summit, I was able to expand the NCD 365 project to West Africa, getting us more partners and more engagement on the ground.”
Live Through This
Live Through This - United Kingdom
Stewart O'Callaghan
OYW Funded Projects
Live Through This is the UK’s only LGBTIQ+ cancer charity, supporting and advocating for LGBTIQ+ people affected by cancer in a country with worse cancer outcomes than other nations. The organisation is queer patient-led and tackles the barriers facing LGBTIQ+ patients through peer support programmes, educating healthcare providers on the principles of equitable healthcare, and producing bespoke resources and information for both patients and professionals.
In addition to receiving valuable feedback and guidance from their mentors at Roche, Stewart was able to use the funding to create high-quality, inclusive campaign materials. These were exceptionally well-received and raised substantial awareness of the organisation’s work. These campaigns doubled traffic to the Live Through This website resulting in a new sign-up every week for the organisation’s peer support programme. It also allowed Live Through This to speak directly with leads of the UK National Health Service screening programmes to help them improve their understanding of and care for the LGBTIQ+ community.
Live Through This’ campaigns also include an educational component and its training programmes are recommended by 100% of attendees. Stewart also authored a booklet specifically to address the needs of the transgender community about their cancer risk and the screening programmes, which can be accessed via the Live Through This website. This booklet was shared with the British Association of Gender Identity Specialists, who have committed to using it in their network of clinicians. Lead2030 has allowed Stewart to work directly with Roche’s diagnostics team and also scale their work through the establishment of additional partnerships.
“Having the ability to engage with One Young World and accept the Lead2030 award, it puts this very under-represented topic in an international conversation. I felt good, supported by Roche, and I felt like they took the time to understand who I am and why I was doing what I was doing”
- 169K+ people reached through the Screening MOT and Best for my Chest campaigns
imagi
imagi is an EdTech gaming startup co-founded by Dora Palfi, which aims to abolish the gender gap in coding by empowering young children with skills, confidence, and community to develop an interest in technology. Originally focused on a direct-to-consumer approach, Lead2030 shifted imagi’s attention to working with educational organisations, including schools and non-profits.
Thanks to the Lead2030 funding, the organisation was able to develop a new platform that is a solution for schools. This platform allows teachers anywhere in the world to sign up and get access to classroom management skills and learning content. The content includes step-by-step lesson plans and tutorials for teachers. The result is that any teacher who is not an expert in coding can also teach programming to their students confidently. More than 400 educators from 53 countries have joined the new platform. Previously imagi’s content was exclusively in English but Swedish translations are now available.
imagi has also continued its previous solution; a mobile app where children can learn to code on their own through self-paced learning tutorials. In 2022, this app was used by 20,000 coders in 99 countries. Dora’s mentorship with Deloitte helped her narrow her focus to generate the greatest possible social impact. Lead2030 also gave Dora the opportunity to learn about impact and business metrics from industry-leading experts, helping to support imagi’s strategic shift away from a direct-to-consumer business model towards creating a community of educators.
“I got to attend a session with the other Deloitte delegates, where senior leaders from Deloitte were present. When you’re a young founder you don’t really get this big company experience. So for me actually, it was kind of unique to be able to have a look inside how senior leaders at a company think. We have had customer relationships emerge from having been at One Young World.”
20,000 coders in 99 countries created using the imagi's mobile app in 2022
Breathe Mongolia - Clean Air Coalition
Breathe Mongolia - Clean Air Coalition - Mongolia
Enkhuun Byambardoj
OYW Funded Projects
Breathe Mongolia – Clean Air Coalition is a non-profit organisation working to end Mongolia’s air pollution crisis. Co-founded by Enkhuun, it carries out its mission by arming people with the resources to protect themselves and their families against air pollution, building a community of allies to foster cooperation against air pollution, and holding decision-makers accountable through pollution monitoring. Breathe Mongolia hopes to prompt behavioural changes and policy improvements to tackle the air pollution crisis in the country.
Lead2030 allowed Enkhuun to expand her team significantly, with four new staff members. This has resulted in greater capacity for Breathe Mongolia to carry out its operations, and the organisation used the funding provided by AstraZeneca to kickstart its Let’s Take Action! project. Through this project, Breathe Mongolia works closely with 28 families to reduce their dependence on coal burning. Breathe Mongolia also supports and subsidises the families by installing air pollution sensors within households, while 67 children from areas most vulnerable to air pollution exposure have received neurodevelopmental assessments. The organisation operates a bilingual digital platform with educational material and actionable points to help people avoid the negative effects of air pollution as much as possible. Since inception, the platform has had more than 34,000 unique users.
Using the funding provided by Lead2030, Breathe Mongolia has been able to turn each of these action points into workshops for school children, impacting over 500 young people who are trained on air pollution science. Breathe Mongolia fostered seven new collaborations with organisations working in environmental health and climate change as a result of its participation in Lead2030.
“I think the biggest thing from Lead2030 has been just the visibility for our organisation; our projects and our mission. I think it's also built a lot of credibility for our organisation and for establishing new partnerships. I think last year was the most number of collaborations that we had with other organisations.”
- 500+ young people received workshop training on air pollution science
Social Mobility Business Resource Group
Social Mobility Business Resource Group - United Kingdom
Hisham Hamid
Business for Social Good
Hisham’s professional background is in chemical engineering, but he has been determined to foster a culture within bp that supports people from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds.
Hisham’s work with social mobility in bp launched after the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021, which he attended virtually. bp’s delegates are encouraged to go to the Summit with a project idea they can implement using the lessons they learn at One Young World, or develop an idea for a project at the Summit itself. Hisham had the idea for the Social Mobility Business Resource Group, and was able to make lasting global connections with other young leaders to help progress with the support of the wider team within bp.
bp has a strong tradition of supporting education, work experience, and apprenticeships, but last year, as part of his role in the Education and Employability team, Hisham supported the development of a framework through which bp’s social mobility initiatives could be focused.
Through the collective effort of many passionate individuals in bp, the Social Mobility Business Resource Group now has over 1,000 members with a structured presence and visibility across bp’s various work streams. The group has established regional chapters, and organises monthly educational sessions with regular opportunities for members to share insights and experiences.
They also have more formalised programmes such as mentoring, with over 180 people signing up for mentoring sessions of 6-10 individuals. These mentoring circles work through six curated workshops on leadership development and socioeconomic diversity together, building safe and reciprocal relationships throughout. This programme is designed to give participants the flexibility to tap into a wider group of professionals at their own convenience. Hisham and his team are also planning a Social Mobility Week at bp to foster representation, while also looking to develop the company’s external social mobility outreach significantly in the coming years. Last year, bp also completed its first full submission to the Social Mobility Employer Index with a published external ranking, to demonstrate accountability and to verify that its work aligns with cross-industry standards.
Whilst at the Summit, Hisham and the project team were also able to leverage a connection made with Forage (theforage.com), a San Francisco-based company that provides virtual job simulations and an opportunity for diverse candidates, particularly those from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, to engage with world-leading companies. bp have since delivered a pilot with Forage, which centred on digital skills with over 1,400 candidates enrolling around the globe. This programme centres on four modules of self-paced learning. Hisham has been able to radically pivot his career from engineering, turning social mobility into his primary focus at bp.
“When I look at pivotal things that have happened in my career, One Young World is at the forefront of that. I wouldn't be working the job I'm working today if it wasn't for One Young World, and that's not a cliché, it's just a reality. It gave me the opportunity to pursue a passion of mine full time.”
siempact
siempact - Germany
Siemens Ambassadors
Ambassador-led Initiative
siempact is a grassroots movement within Siemens to create a positive impact for sustainability. As an umbrella initiative containing a significant number of projects, siempact is a democratic community and each member has full voting rights.
The idea for siempact was born out of the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021, when Delegates from Siemens were determined to carry the energy of the Summit experience back into their company and create meaningful change. The founding members reached out to the One Young World Ambassador Community within Siemens and the initiative quickly developed into an intergenerational movement that has now grown beyond the One Young World Community in Siemens, and is open to all interested, passionate colleagues.
The projects within siempact are completely self-driven and wide-ranging. They currently include:
- a sustainability scoring model focused on a consumer-product level
- an amendment to business travel practices so ecological sustainability is given equal consideration to economic and safety concerns
- an employability project aiming to scale digital learning resources, with a Work Readiness pilot programme planned in South Africa
- an initiative from the 2022 Ambassador cohort strengthening the attractiveness of the rail industry to women
- diversity breakfasts for members to exchange ideas and experiences
- an awareness campaign for corporate volunteering opportunities at Siemens
- a project tackling period poverty by providing free, sustainable menstrual products at Siemens locations and reducing stigma around menstruation
- an initiative seeking to embed the Inner Development Goals within the company culture.
- siempact is also a founding member of the Alliance 4 Corporate Change (A4CC), a forum for grassroots sustainability initiatives in companies based in the DACH region to foster cross-industry collaboration and share best practices. In 2022, the A4CC organised a cross-company panel on LGBTQ+ experiences during Pride Month, and an Earth Day challenge campaign. The A4CC focuses on sustainable pension fund investing, creating safe spaces, and regenerative retreats.
The company culture at Siemens supports the kinds of initiatives that siempact members have launched, as well as its grassroots structure. The movement currently has 56 active members and 81 passive members in over nine countries. The siempact newsletter regularly reaches around 300 people within the company. Both the number of siempact members actively driving impact projects, as well as the reach of siempact newsletter and events are growing on a monthly basis. In 2022, siempact also organised its own summit. By driving topics, including the following – technology with purpose, why sustainability is important, what members can do, and the potential role of AI in fostering purpose – siempact is accelerating a sustainable mindset into every facet of the Siemens organisation day-by-day.
“As a One Young World Ambassador you learn how to call it. You learn how to discuss. You learn that your actions do actually have an impact. On a personal level, if I look at my peers, where we were at One Young World in Munich and if I look at them now, I would say it contributed to tremendous personal growth, especially in becoming a leader.”
Smart Cheli
Pratiksha is the CEO of Smart Cheli, a female-led social enterprise that aims to balance the gender gap in STEM fields. Smart Cheli’s programme is targeted towards young girls between the ages of 8 and 18 years. The programme works by connecting education with STEM hands-on learning experiences in coding, critical thinking, and electronics. Pratiksha’s aim is to enhance critical thinking, cultivate the imaginations and problem solving skills of young girls, and expose them to STEM from an early age.
With backing and assistance from Bristol Myers Squibb, Smart Cheli successfully scaled their business over the course of the Lead2030 programme. The organisation plans to reach more than 500 young girls this year and has already grown its team with two additional staff joining the Smart Cheli team. The organisation has also extended its work with local government in Nepal, and updated its STEM kit with three new projects, bringing the total to five.
The funding Smart Cheli has received from Bristol Myers Squibb helped the team execute a new plan, and the mentorship they received sharpened their leadership abilities. The organisation is planning to develop a STEM lab in its own space where girls can come and experiment with STEM-related subjects and technologies. Additionally, Smart Cheli’s STEM kit has become more market-centric, which has contributed to the overall growth of the organisation and its social impact. Lead2030 has allowed Pratiksha to continue building her organisation and expand its long-term vision to increase the participation of young women in STEM fields.
“Being a Lead2030 challenge winner has helped me gain a new identity. It gives me exposure to other work. This identity helped me to connect with other organisations in Nepal. Overall it helped open a gate for new opportunities and scale up our initiative.”
- 500 young girls will be introduced to STEM subjects
You Got This!
You Got This! - Caribbean [coordinating region]
Tamara Tanis
Business for Social Good
Tamara Tanis was working at KPMG in the Cayman Islands in their financial risk department when she first learnt of One Young World. Passionate about mental wellbeing and cognizant of the pressures often associated with those working in financial services, Tamara set about enhancing and elevating KPMG’s pre-existing wellness initiatives in her aim to help remove the stigma surrounding mental health which is so evident worldwide.
Delegates to One Young World from KPMG create an initiative that they present to internal leadership as part of their application process. Tamara’s plan for an enhanced wellbeing initiative was warmly received and supported by KPMG internally, but also as part of a bigger, island-wide initiative. The initiative, “You Got This!”, now supports other mental health projects across the Cayman Islands through the means of awareness and advocacy. At the One Young World Summit in London, 2019, Tamara was able to develop her ideas alongside her peers from other corporate delegations.
Her first step was developing a set of initiatives, partnering with KPMG’s Wellness Committee across the firm’s workstreams. While KPMG already had pre-established wellness drives, including access for every employee to local mental health experts, annual health checks and a range of in-office wellness facilities, the group organised their first Mental Health Awareness Month in 2021, bringing in psychologists and mental health experts to deliver workshops for KPMG’s employees, as well as offering training for employees to become mental health advocates.
Managers at the firm were taught how to spot the signs of mental health challenges, and You Got This! organised massage therapy sessions for employees. The initiative also distributed snacks and supplements at the height of KPMG’s busiest period. Tamara worked with leadership to secure a larger wellness budget, ensuring longevity for the initiative to run throughout the entire year and embed it into the future of the firm.
During the COVID-19 lockdown in the Cayman Islands, the You Got This! team organised online workshops and information sessions on mental health, with their dedicated Wellness Wednesdays. These projects all contributed to a positive atmosphere across the firm, and helped boost the morale of Tamara’s colleagues during what was a difficult time for many around the world.
Prior to You Got This!, KPMG was supporting local organisations in the Cayman Islands, particularly those working with young people. Tamara’s work has scaled this further, encouraging the partnership with community groups to sponsor a mental health symposium and organise panel discussions. The initiative has maintained partnerships with non-profit organisations and government entities to raise mental health awareness across the island. You Got This! has helped bolster the company’s dedication to mental health awareness, with over 400 people actively participating in its projects or attending presentations. Tamara hopes to expand the initiative across the Caribbean region.
“A lot of us went to the Summit that year thinking, okay, we want to really do our own non-profit with mental health. But I remember in one workshop with about 15 of us, we realised, well, many people are facing the same issues. It really pushed me to make a difference, and pushed me to be more of a leader in my career.”
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.