Kagisho co-founded Matric Live, an e-learning application for grades 10-12, in 2020 to provide underprivileged students from South Africa’s townships with educational support during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Matric Live emerged as a collaboration from Kagisho’s first project, CynC, and his co-founder Lesego’s own platform, as a hybrid to aggregate the educational resources they wished they had access to in their youth. Inequality in South Africa massively impacts the country’s education system. For every 100 learners, less than 50 pass the matric exam necessary to attend tertiary education, and only 14 make it to university. 

Kagisho attended the One Young World Summit in Ottawa, 2016, which inspired him to take his first social enterprise, CynC, from an idea into a tangible product. He credits the One Young World Community in South Africa for helping to spread awareness of his work and extend his reach. He has also worked with fellow Ambassador Mandy Munchnick on her mental health platform, with the two collaborating on a campaign hosted on Matric Live for it. 

Kagisho and his business partner decided to make Matric Live free during the first COVID-19 lockdown, and the platform quick;y grew to 630,000 users. As of 2022, the app has had over 1.1 million learners. The platform includes a learning component, and was the first to gain access to 57 government-approved study guides. It also includes a gamified learning component and exam simulations. Matric Live has partnered with South Africa’s Department of Basic Education, and has also launched learning tools for teachers, seeking to expand their reach to impact not only students.

“Had I not gone to the One Young World Summit in 2016, my project would have stayed an idea and MatricLive would not be what it is today. The Summit helped me do justice to my potential, I came back as a different man.”

Gracian was motivated by the impact that sports had on him as a young person to co-found Play Malawi in 2015. The organisation aims to educate young Malawians on sexual and reproductive health, and non-communicable diseases through the vehicle of sport. In Malawi, people under the age of 35 make up 80% of the population. Initially, Gracian’s efforts centred on table tennis due to his extensive personal experience with that sport, but Play Malawi has since expanded to include lawn tennis activities to teach more young people about health issues. 

Gracian attended the One Young World Summit in London, 2019, on a scholarship from the Z Zurich Foundation. He made valuable connections with fellow Ambassadors working on similar projects in different parts of the world. He was able to visit another Ambassador’s organisation and learn about their model, part of which he adapted to use at Play Malawi. Following the Summit, and emboldened by his experience, Gracian successfully applied for a position working on sports development in the northern region of Malawi. Gracian continued to collaborate with Z Zurich Foundation after the Summit to scale his work further. 

Play Malawi’s impact has grown steadily over the years, directly impacting 8,000 young people in primary schools across Malawi. In addition to organising tournaments and training, Play Malawi offers services such as HIV testing for those involved in their educational activities. In partnership with another NGO, Gracian and his team developed a manual combining approach of playing games and education. From his students, 15 young people have made it to Malawi’s national team for table tennis and lawn tennis over the past five years. Gracian’s work has helped diversify sports education in schools in the country.

“When I remember the Summit, the first thing that comes to my mind is the invaluable connections that I made with fellow Ambassadors that are doing projects similar to mine. I got to visit the organisation of one of them, based in London, and learn from their model for better practices to implement at Play Malawi. Those connections still continue.”

Wondr was founded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands by One Young World Ambassadors Flory Achammer and Emma Hoch, along with their colleagues Nina Hoedlmayr and Ella Adam. Based on the experiences of people, especially students, in isolation during the country’s lockdowns, the team looked to tackle loneliness and mental ill health by helping people connect and establish social interactions to build communities. Loneliness is increasingly a leading cause of mental health in Europe, with around 10% of people over 18 experiencing symptoms.

Flory and Emma attended the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021, where they were able to interact and establish connections with fellow Delegates. Their experience meeting young leaders from different countries and backgrounds inspired and empowered them to continue expanding their initiative with Wondr. After the Summit, Emma managed to connect with another One Young World Ambassador in the Netherlands Community and they have since launched a different project together, Periodic.nl, to increase access to menstrual hygiene products in the country.

The first iteration of Wondr was Wondr Walks, in which people were introduced to each other based on location and shared interests, with the Wondr team providing conversation starters during socially-distanced walks over the course of four weeks. The Wondr team then pivoted their strategy to continue enabling human connections by developing the Wondr app, through which users get to know each other via engaging questions and activities. Wonder has so far directly impacted over 2,100 people, and the team have also launched a desktop version. They have also released their own podcast to help young professionals develop better communication skills in their leadership journeys. 

“It's extremely empowering when you’re in the Summit and you're like okay, you're part of this. You can also do this. You're part of this community meaning you can do this. If there are so many people driving that change, I can drive this change as well.”

Khamutima is the founder and Executive Director of the Young Farmers Champions Network (YOFCHAN). The organisation was established in 2016 as a member-based non-profit organisation focused on representing the voices of mostly marginalised young people to engage in the agricultural sector profitably and sustainably. The mission of YOFCHAN is to equip young farmers with the knowledge, tools, and resources they need to start, grow, and scale their agribusinesses. This is achieved through advocating for an enabling environment for the engagement of young people in agriculture, capacity building in agronomy and agribusiness skills, creating linkages to financial support, and markets for the young farmers. 

Khamutima attended the One Young World Summit in The Hague, 2018. He subsequently built a strong network in Uganda and in the East Africa region with fellow Ambassadors. Khamutima believes that such networks are instrumental for young entrepreneurs looking to make social impact. The One Young World Community in Uganda holds regular meetings where Ambassadors support each other with ideas on how to improve their work and discuss their experiences. After the Summit, Khamutima was shortlisted for opportunities through One Young World to support YOFCHAN’s development.

Through their Youth Champion Model, which inspires and encourages young people in Uganda to join agriculture as an attractive and profitable business, YOFCHAN have developed a network of 1,500 young farmers. These champions act as leaders of young farmers groups in their communities, receive financial advice, leadership, business management and agronomic training, and access to markets and common-user value addition facilities through YOFCHAN. These champions then take their knowledge and skills back to their communities and replicate YOFCHAN’s model locally. Through this method, YOFCHAN has indirectly impacted over 45,000 young farmers throughout Uganda.

“The contacts I made during the Summit, both from Uganda, East Africa and internationally, have been very helpful in terms of sharing ideas and being able to put those ideas into action to improve my work. In Uganda we have meetings often between the Ugandan One Young World Ambassadors to share our experiences, and these types of networks as an entrepreneur are very important.”

Bevon is an agripreneur and founder of Akata Farms, a company that has focused on sustainable agriculture through tailored farm building in rural communities in Grenada since 2016. Though Akata Farms is a for-profit company, it has a non-profit branch that focuses on skills development in partnership with the government, providing education on crop development, climate change adaptation measures, and job opportunities. Akata Farms also harvests vegetables, fruits and spices through various agricultural systems, including hydroponics, greenhouses and traditional methods.

Bevon attended the One Young World Summit in Munich, 2021, where she built a global network that has given her recognition in Grenada and the Caribbean as a young leader. As a One Young World Ambassador, Bevon has encouraged ten young people from the Caribbean region to apply for One Young World Scholarships and other international programmes. As a result of her One Young World experience, Bevon has grown in her confidence as a young leader.

Akata Farms has built a network of over 1,500 farmers across the region with the goal of reducing Caribbean agricultural imports and food insecurity by developing agricultural alternatives for both local consumption and, eventually, exportation. The organisation has assisted ten farmers to successfully obtain grant funding, and has provided technical support to an additional five people to start their own farms. Through its production side, Akata Farms feeds over 10,000 households annually and sells its produce to supermarkets and hotels across Grenada. In 2023, Bevon and her team’s main goal is to create at least 10 new enterprises working on sustainable agriculture, employ 100 new people, and train an additional 100 on farming techniques.

“The exposure I’ve received since becoming a One Young World Ambassador has allowed me to position myself at the negotiation table and charge forward. One Young World has opened a lot of opportunities for me to be at that table.”

Ruth founded the Association for Care Leavers Network in Africa (ACNA) in 2021 to develop a regional network for young people who have left care, motivated by her own experience as a care leaver. Care leavers are a marginalised group in society, with a lack of policies and programmes designed to support them. With this, they are left behind in terms of development. ACNA provides a platform for young care leavers to be heard, included, and advocate for their rights, while engaging with local and national governments to design policies and frameworks to support them, and decrease their vulnerability and marginalisation in society.

Ruth first attended the One Young World Summit in The Hague, 2018, and spoke on stage about the rights of children, the experience of care leavers in her region, and her advocacy work. Following the Summit, her activism gained national recognition, which allowed her to work with the Kenyan government and other stakeholders to create the National Care Reform Strategy. This strategy has been implemented and recognizes a child’s right to family. 

Ruth aided her peers in Zimbabwe to create their own country-wide network which now has over 3,000 members advocating for policy change. ACNA is providing technical support for the development of Zimbabwe’s first Leaving Care Bill. In Ethiopia and Senegal, ACNA has 200 young care leavers involved in decision-making processes for policy changes. In Uganda, ACNA through the Care Leavers Network launched the Girls Glow programme to advocate for access to reproductive health services for girls in care. ACNA provides mentorship opportunities to help develop the leadership skills of its members. In total, ACNA is active in 11 African countries and has more than 6,000 members, and will be hosting its first African Conference of Care Experienced Youth in May 2023.

“Being part of the One Young World Community means having the master key to the doors you otherwise would not go through. No other forum for young people is not only visible but where young people including the most marginalised are supported as One Young World. Following my speech at the Summit, more than 60 media houses wanted to interview me. In advocacy, you need this because when you are visible, the decision makers lean in.’’

OOYOO is a leading clean air technology company, based in Japan, that provides ultra-low emission and cost-effective energy. Utilising carbon capture technology based on advanced membranes, OOYOO purifies gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide as well as natural gases. Although purifying gases comes at a cost to industries, failing to do so comes at a lethal cost to the environment.

To distinguish itself in a competitive market, OOYOO has developed technologies that can be downsized, creating a portable feature of its product that other conventional technologies in the market cannot. Furthermore, OOYOO’s commitment to continuously innovate filter materials technology assists in the company’s mission to ensure that their technology will be at the heart of every future device that generates clean energy and clean air.

Treeapp is a global tree planting organisation. The Treeapp mobile app enables anyone to plant a tree for free everyday, in less than a minute. Treeapp offers the possibility for consumers in the UK and Ireland to plant trees all over the world, empowering all to make a change that benefits the planet on a daily basis. Via the app, users can watch an advert featuring one of Treeapp’s 300+ sustainable brand partners, who fund the users’ tree to be planted everyday, and then sell the advertised products directly on Treeapp’s sustainable marketplace.

Treeapp also works with businesses to offset their carbon footprint and plant trees across the world, from South America to the islands of Indonesia.

To date, Treeapp has planted 1 million+ trees in less than two years since launch, and expects to soon reach 100,000 Treeapp users. Treeapp is a certified B Corp - proving their business has a strong ESG impact.

ClearBot is a Hong Kong-based company developing technologies that are assisting in building the future of ocean mobility and resolving environmental challenges. Creating AI-powered electric boats, ClearBot is pioneering efficient and sustainable alternatives to automated marine services, replacing manually operated diesel boats with all-electric, zero-emission, self-driving boats. Through this technology, ClearBot monitors the marine environment and conducts water quality testing and maritime surveillance.
As well as this, ClearBot boats automate surface waste collection, aquatic weed and foam removal, marine patrolling, shallow water dredging, and bathymetric surveys and can move up to 200 kg of cargo autonomously at the press of a button. As waste is being collected, cameras onboard collect and process data using an AI model, tracking the sources of trash every step of the way. As a result, Clearbot can maintain 100% trackability and showcase on a global stage how innovation can solve social issues.

Greenfluidics is a Mexican biotechnology startup founded in 2018 with a vision of a world with green and sustainable cities, where buildings are more energy efficient and provide the well-being and health that people deserve. Greenfluidics’ innovative technology, the intelligent solar biopanel, is a multi-purpose system that generates energy while cleaning the air.

These biopanels are based on the use of microalgae, providing functional and sustainable aesthetics that help clean the air like trees, combining nature and technology in the same system, through a triangular geometry that provides energy efficiency, design and intelligent environmental monitoring that helps to revalue the area.
Greenfluidics has achieved several alliances and recognitions in the UK, Germany, Switzerland and the Middle East, as well as from relevant institutions such as the GGGI, UN, G20, and MIT, in order to accelerate the development of their technology and transform the buildings of the most populated cities into lungs.

Co-founded by Bonny Dave, Trestle Labs is an assistive technology company making schools, colleges and workplaces digitally inclusive and empowering the blind and the visually-impaired community towards inclusive education and employment. Trestle Labs builds hardware and software solutions that help visually impaired individuals listen, translate, digitise and audio’tise any kind of printed,handwritten and digital content independently across 60+ global languages.
Their mission is to ensure that no school, college, or workplace denies/discontinues education or employment for a visually-impaired individual, especially when the individual is capable, but the institution is not.

Trestle Labs’ patented AI-powered product, Kibo, is comprised of three products - Kibo mobile app, Kibo XS device, and Kibo Desk- to address the lifestyle, learning, and earning aspects of a visually-impaired user’s life. Launched in July 2019, Kibo has empowered 70,000+ visually-impaired individuals and has made 500+ institutions inclusive across 25 countries.

Zafree Papers is an Ethiopian company that manufactures paper and paper products using 100% tree-free pulp and agro-waste. Founded in 2017, and working across Ethiopia and Zambia, Zafree Papers is introducing a clean-tech paper solution using unbleached paper pulp from crop residue. From this solution, they can create eco-friendly, carbon-neutral, and 100% recyclable and non-toxic paper. Zafree Papers is a pioneer in the Ethiopian agro-waste market and intends to pursue a pan-African business model. This would enable them to continue establishing strong and reliable relationships with local suppliers and buyers, as well as maintaining existing relationships, rather than relying on raw materials and investments from overseas.

Using agricultural waste from raw materials and employing modern technology, qualified human resources, efficient management systems, and accredited production processes, Zafree has established itself as an undeniable competitor in the Ethiopian agro-waste market.

LiteHaus International is an Australian-based non-governmental organisation which works towards bridging the digital divide and digitising dreams across four countries. In Papua New Guinea, LiteHaus International’s Digital Infrastructure Program has established the first 144 functional primary school computer labs in the country’s history, providing digital learning opportunities to around 105,000 students, teachers and members of the community, 98% of whom had never seen a computer before. In Australia, their Digital Inclusion Program has provided 2,600 high school students across rural and remote communities with their own personal
digital device.

By 2027, LiteHaus International aims to provide digital learning tools and opportunities to millions of students across the Asia-Pacific region to ensure everyone can enjoy a quality education. LiteHaus International and Deloitte Australia have recently signed a three year partnership to continue their collaboration.

Cancer Education UK is a UK-based non-profit, educating, supporting, and raising cancer awareness within the Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Refugee (BAMER) and low socio-economic communities. They work to support individuals with cancer as they reintegrate into their communities, and are driven by their passion to support such individuals as they battle through stigmas, allowing conversations such as cancer to be a norm rather than a taboo.
Thanks to the funding from Roche as the Lead2030 runner-up, Cancer Education UK was able to host a series of community engagement sessions and health screening events across various parts of London; the focus was to teach about signs and symptoms of cancer whilst encouraging individuals to attend screening programmes with the UK National Health Service, such as cervical screenings and more. The sessions also included patients sharing their experience of their cancer journey to encourage others, allow more questions and promote cancer survivorship.
The support Cancer Education UK provides expands into various forms, from assisting with chemotherapy/radiotherapy appointments to lending a hand with grocery shopping. Cancer Education aims to de-stigmatise cancer, in return, allowing individuals from BAMER communities to confidently talk and ask questions about cancer.

Many crops produce residues that cannot be used as mulch or animal feed. These residues can often impede the growth of the next crop, and unfortunately the fastest and cheapest way to address residue removal is simply by setting it on fire in the field. However, the burning of residues has contributed to air pollution that affects the respiratory health not only of the local farming communities, but also of nearby urban areas such as Delhi.
Takachar is developing small-scale, low-cost, portable systems that can latch onto the back of tractors and pick-up trucks to deploy to remote, hard-to-access communities. This system can locally convert biomass residues into higher-value products such as fertiliser blends, biofuels, or chemicals without any external energy input. This is expected to support closed-loop, self-sufficient rural communities, create additional livelihood opportunities in underserved regions, reduce air pollution and carbon footprint associated with open-air biomass burning, and ultimately improve public health outcomes. Through AstraZeneca, Takachar have been piloting with smallholder farmers, demonstrating the ability for the output fertiliser product to improve their yields and income.