Ambassador Spotlight: March 2024

One Young World Ambassadors are leading projects in every country of the world, creating substantial social impact across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Every month our Coordinating Ambassadors select someone from their region who has created significant social impact locally, regionally or even worldwide.

This Month's Featured Projects in Numbers

16 k+

people impacted across the spotlight projects

10 k+

people educated about disability inclusion

100 k

meals provided

Children
Brighton Kaoma

He/Him

Brighton Kaoma - United States of America

 

Brighton Kaoma is the Co-founder of Amano So, a Global Membership-based Mentorship Community for Leaders focused solely on group mentorship among very senior executives and emerging talent. At the core of Amano So's approach are our Mentorship Huts - carefully curated mentor groups that provide a distinctive framework for interaction and knowledge exchange. Amano So diligently assigns each participant to the most suitable mentor group to optimize learning and contribution. Every group is led by an experienced facilitator who ensures that all members can access and benefit from the collective wisdom and diverse experiences of the professionals within the group. These groups are designed with the express intention of fostering diversity and inclusion; with different age groups, genders, ethnicities, and backgrounds represented in each group.

To supplement the focused interactions within the Mentorship Huts, Amano So organizes a series of virtual and live in-person events that unite the entire community. These events play a vital role in fostering collaboration, opportunity exchanges, and building a strong sense of community among members and industry luminaries. Since its inception in Fall 2023 during the United Nations global goals week, Amano So has become a convergence point for luminaries, bringing leaders from distinguished organisations like P&G, Hilton Foundation,  World Bank Group, WWF, and leaders from business schools. The next Amano Leaders Event is taking place in May 2024 at the United Nations in New York.

Kokeni

She/Her

Chintia Octenta - Indonesia

Chintia Octenta is the Co-founder and Community Head at Koneksi Indonesia Inklusif (KONEKIN), a women-led impact platform established in November 2018, envisions an inclusive Indonesia through education and disability empowerment. Their core missions include disseminating disability information, promoting involvement of individuals with disabilities, and fostering cross-sector collaboration. Konekin has three primary programs: To raise public awareness about the rights of PwD and their empowerment to eliminate stigma, they are producing content through social media, community activities, and inclusive events. Furthermore, they run a Disability Equality Training (DET), a participatory learning approach that aims to sensitize participants to the implications of disability issues and introduce organizations to the essential tools and concepts for equal participation by PwD in workplaces, public service, and policy processes. Lastly, KONEKIN provide Upskilling Bootcamp in leadership, English province, and career readiness for Students with a disability.

KONEKIN has impacted more than 10,000 people through their events focused on disability inclusion. 36 companies in the Jakarta area joined the Disability Awareness Workshop and engaged with 3 companies and 75 disability communities as an inclusive business collaborator. They have also collaborated with an FMCG to produce 5 picture book series with disability characters for children from 5 - 9 years old. The picture book was a project collaboration with three writers and an animator with a disability and distributed to 20 literacy communities in several areas of Indonesia, such as Sumatera, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, and more.

Daniela

She/Her

Daniela Baena Salazar - Colombia

Daniela Baena Salazar is the Founder of Wom-en, an organisation that addresses the nexus of social inequality and climate change, focusing on empowering women and youth through education and leadership. Wom-en provides educational programs on climate change, equity, and sustainable living, promoting social mobility. Leadership development is paramount, empowering women and youth to influence decision-making processes locally and globally. It advocates for behavioral change, recognizing that sustainable societal transformation requires shifts in attitudes and practices.
 

Wom-en has led more than 9 projects allowing training, making visible and connecting more than 400 people throughout the national territory, and having spaces for diffusion and conversation with an impact on more than 2000 people. For the last 6 years they have worked on strengthening the exercise of leadership, understanding human behaviour and social impact in response to the climate crisis and social inequality facing the world. Daniela has been part of different national and international communities such as One Young World, Acumen, Yonus & Youth, Salzburg Global Seminar, Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership, Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business, among others.

Maria

She/Her

María Gabriela Paz Jaramillo - Ecuador

María Gabriela Paz Jaramillo is the Legal Coordinator and Co-founder of AquaAyuda Foundation an initiative with a group of young professionals committed to fighting inequality and ensuring that mental health is not a privilege reserved for the few. Our mission is to promote free or low-cost mental health and legal services and to provide assistance to those facing economic barriers and disabilities. AquaAyuda offers a range of services including therapy sessions, legal assistance, and workshops and they also partner with various organizations such as sports clubs, gyms, drug banks, universities and high schools to not only benefit patients, but also raise awareness about the importance of mental wellness.

AquaAyuda also address social and legal issues, advocating for victims of violence, the discriminated, adolescents and children. They have also established a medical bank to address mental and psychiatric issues, ensuring that the necessary resources are available to those in need. AquaAyuda has more than 65 young professionals who volunteer in different areas working for the functioning of the Foundation. In less than a year they have helped more than 100 people by providing them with their mental health and legal services, specifically we have given more than 660 psychotherapy sessions and positively influenced and motivated more than 500 students of schools, high schools and universities.

Noor Azizah

She/Her

Noor Azizah - Australia

Noor Azizah is the Co - founder and Director of the Rohingya Maìyafuìnor Collaborative Network, an organisation that is Rohingya, women and refugee led. An initiative with a mission to support and advocate for refugees using her deep understanding of the community’s needs as a refugee herself. This initiative is a vibrant and dedicated network of Rohingya women who are experts in various fields of human rights work and specialty deeply committed to tackling the urgent human rights challenges that the Rohingya community faces, positioning themselves as trailblazers in the fight for justice, gender equality, education, and global solidarity.
 

At their heart, Rohingya Maìyafuìnor Collaborative Network is dedicated to advancing the human rights of the Rohingya people, who have faced and continue to face severe persecution and displacement. Their fundamental values revolve around inclusivity and empowerment, and we place a particular emphasis on elevating the voices and autonomy of Rohingya women. To this date, they have completed 215 projects with over 350 stakeholders and participated in 36 conferences.They have fundraised $23,000 in the last year, aiding Rohingya refugees in Aceh.

Nilufar

She/Her

Nilufar Murodova - Tajikistan

Nilufar Mirady is the Local Lead of NASA Space Apps Challenge, an inittiative part of the global community of NASA’s Earth Space Division program called the NASA International Space Apps Challenge. It is a hackathon for coders, scientists, designers, storytellers, makers, technologists, and innovators around the world to come together and use open data from NASA and its Space Agency Partners to create solutions to challenges we face on Earth and in space. Space Apps Challenge teams use these resources to solve challenges written by NASA experts, featuring topics ranging from storytelling to software development, astrophysics, climate change, space exploration, and more.

Each year thousands of teams submit projects that demonstrate creativity, collaboration, and potential to solve challenges we face on Earth and in space. The projects go through multiple rounds of judging to determine the NASA International Space Apps Challenge Global Winners. NASA Space Apps is the only global initiative presented in Tajikistan with a record number of community members which is over 1000 people. Under Nilufar Mirady's leadership Tajikistan’s section had over 400 participants and for the first time, a team from Tajikistan won one of the 10 global prizes in the Art & Technology category out of over 5.500+ teams worldwide.
 

Nilza Costa Baptista

She/Her

Nilza Vanessa Costa Baptista - Angola

Nilza CostaBaptista is the Founder & Director of Angola Hunger Relief, a Community Interest Company in the UK with a mission to end to hunger in Angola. The organization is rooted in the vision of changing the way the world perceives the world of solidarity. Education plays a vital role in this transformation, as we work to enlighten communities on the most effective approaches to eradicate hunger. Currently their primary initiative involves raising funds for a Communitarian Kitchen project in Huambo, Angola.

A significant milestone for Angola Hunger Relief is the provision of 100,000 meals reaching 800 young and elderly individuals with quality food meals. Nilza seeks to expand their reach further, ensuring that every pound contributed to the cause goes directly toward supporting programs that efficiently and effectively address the urgent issue of hunger in Angola.

Nátaly

She/Her

Nátaly Christiane Silva Santos - Brazil

Nátaly is an associate director in the Business Risk Office in a bank. She is the co-founder of a diversity group in the company, focused on the inclusion of people with disabilities. Nátaly is a supporter of CaminhaDown and BikeDown São Paulo in Brazil. CaminhaDown and BikeDown are projects created by Rosana Bignami and Rosana Ernani, both initiatives are focused on defining strategies to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities and to promote the practice of physical activities among the neurodivergent community.

The two initiatives have joined forces to try and reach a higher number of families who have neurodivergent members, the main objective now is to promote more events and reach more families. The most recent CaminhaDown and Bike Down event was in March 2023. It consisted of a bike ride and walk in a public park to promote inclusion and accessibility for neurodivergent , autistic and Down´s Syndrome. More than 2000 people participated in the event and 120 volunteers were involved.

Robert

He/Him

Robert Godfrey - United Kingdom

 

Robert Godfrey is the Co-founder of Treeconomy, a London-based earthtech startup using remote sensing and machine learning technology to more accurately quantify, track, and deliver value from and for nature by measuring and monitoring the climate impact of nature restoration projects. Working at the intersection of technology, ecology, and finance, Treeconomy is on a mission to combat climate change, promote biodiversity, and improve rural livelihoods.

Treeconomy's tools, insights, and partners network are equipping corporate sustainability leaders and investors to confidently engage with high-quality nature restoration projects, channeling much-needed private finance to close the $700B annual nature funding gap while ensuring that nature-based carbon removal scales with integrity. Treeconomy now works proudly with a global group of rural landowners and project developers, collectively holding and managing more than 1.5 million hectares for reforestation and ecosystem restoration across 12 countries and 4 continents.

Renata Penchova

She/Her

Renata Penchova - North Macedonia

Renata is the co-founder of a local NGO Further Together, university lecturer of Macedonian language at Beijing Foreign Studies University, and Young European Ambassador/ YEA on the platform WeBalkans. She is also a current curator in the Global Shapers Skopje hub. Through non-formal education Renata is advocating for topics such as human rights, culture, and the environment.

In her current role as a curator at the Global Shapers Skopje hub, she has been leading various initiatives centered on the domains of youth and mental health, financial literacy, and media literacy with the aim is to continue to work on these three topics and to build the capacities of young people in the local communities. Her involvement in the Young European Ambassadors network ( WeBalkans, where I was selected by the European Commission) includes activities such as educational outreach, advocacy, and community-building efforts, all of which contribute to raising awareness about climate issues and fostering sustainable practices in the region.

Talita

She/Her

Talita Honorato-Rzeszewicz - Poland

Talita Honorato-Rzeszewicz is the Ops & Engagement Associate at Pfizer. DEICE is an organisation within Pfizer, that run primarily by employees volunteers. Through DEICE's Talita is actively engaged in an awareness campaign aimed at enhancing understanding among stakeholders across Europe regarding the importance of diverse participation in clinical trials. The ultimate objective is to foster the development of treatments that are not only effective and safe but also inclusive, ensuring that no patients are overlooked based on factors such as country of residence, skin color, gender, ethnicity, or disability status. 

DEICE has organised aawareness campaign including live presentations or webinars for colleagues in France and in Italy and in the process of organising webinars for Greece, Ireland, Sweden and Belgium. Their strategy is to spotlight the important of diversity in clinical trials and educate stakeholders to achieve equitable representation inin clinical research to diminish health disparities

Vinodh Kumar

He/Him

Vinodh Kumar Veerabadiran Ramamurthi - India

Vinodh is the founder of #TheSDGVizProject. An initiative with the aim to use social media and data visualization to raise awareness and promote the Sustainable Development Goals. In their work, they measure and report on progress towards the SDG’s, provide insight into quality of life inequities around the globe and provide opportunities for their community to contribute locally in achieving the SDGs.


#TheSDGVizProject also provides data with Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX). Vinodh also has an initiative with a focus on Climate Action titled #Viz4ClimateAction. The projects from #Viz4ClimateAction were featured in the UN Climate Change Conference online gallery for #COP26 by the Tableau team