Promoting black opportunity in the racing industry with Lewis Hamilton, Formula One World Champion, George Imafidon, CEO, Motivez & Izzy Obeng, Managing Director, Foundervine introduced by Halima Aden, Activist & Humanitarian
The fourth and the final day of the Summit had a fantastic start with an insightful conversation with Formula One Champion, Sir Lewis Hamilton and One Young World Ambassadors George Imafidon and Izzy Obeng.
Lewis Hamilton has stood as a groundbreaking leader and has spoken on issues of racial equality and discrimination. For a long time, he was known as the only Black F1 driver in UK motorsport. Sir Lewis was disheartened by the lack of black representation in the motorsport industry and instead of waiting for someone to take any action, decided to take matters into his own hands. He started ‘The Hamilton Commission’ alongside The Royal Academy of Engineering, a dedicated research project to understand the barriers faced by Black students in pursuing STEM careers.
There is racism and unconscious bias and there need to be Black role models in the STEM Education space. George also spoke about the rejection and discrimination he faced in his Engineering career. Together Lewis, George and their team are making great efforts in improving the accessibility to motorsport amongst underrepresented minorities.
Free the Wild - Kaavan's Rescue with Cher, Singer, Activist & Co-founder of Free the Wild & Mark Cowne, Co-Founder of Free the Wild
Cher is known for her beautiful voice and her evergreen persona on the Big Screen. She is also a leading authority on animal rights, humanitarian issues, women rights, LGBT issues, inclusion and politics. Cher is a passionate animal lover, and upon hearing about the plight of Billy the Elephant in the Los Angeles Zoo and Kavaan the elephant in Islamabad Zoo, she wanted to get actively involved in their suffering and also other wild animals’ release, rehabilitation and care.
Cher is the founder of ‘Free The Wild’, which is committed to ending the suffering of wild animals in captivity and ultimately find a way to release them into sanctuaries or better-equipped zoos. FTW is has huge ambitions at eliminating animal trafficking altogether. Joining Cher, we had Robert Crowne, Conversationalist and Co-founder of ‘Free The Wild’ who believes that “Young leaders already are aware of what they must do, now they must do it. Whatever idea you may have, stick to it and never accept defeat.”
Cher also shared the importance of working with like-minded people, never saying no, and most importantly on her quest for saving animals “Save one animal at a time, and each animal is a great victory.”
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO
It was a great pleasure to have Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO on our One Young World platform.
He had a very important message to share. “I’m often asked when the Pandemic will end. The Pandemic will end when we choose to end it. We have the tools but they are not used consistently or equitably. More than 3 and a half billion vaccine doses have been administered globally, but just 75% have gone to 10 countries. The longer this discrepancy persists, the longer the Pandemic will drag on. WHO’s goal is to help every country to vaccinate 70% of its population by mid-2022. Your choices to avoid crowds, to wear masks and to have clean hands could be the difference between life and death for you, for a loved one or for someone on the other side of the planet.
Use your voice on social media to demand vaccine equity and create awareness.” To young leaders and OYW ambassadors, Dr. Tedros advises that “As the world recovers, we will need your ideas. So, build a healthier, safer and fairer future for everyone everywhere.”
The future of Colombia's peace is in the hands of young people with Former President of Colombia and Nobel Peace Prize 2016, Juan Manuel Santos & The Compaz Scholars, Nevis Cadena, Head of Frutichar, Diana Cortes, Pacific Dance & Laly Fernando Riascos, Guapi
In the session, ‘Future of Colombian reconciliation’, we had Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, who shared about the non-profit organization he founded - ‘Compaz Foundation’. This foundation is supporting peacebuilding and reconciliation in his country of Colombia.
Accompanying President Santos, on stage were three Compaz scholars, Nevis Cadena, Head of Frutichar, Diana Cortes, Pacific Dance and Laly Fernando Riascos, Guapi who spoke about how they are contributing to peacebuilding in their own territories in the Colombian Pacific, the challenges they face and the valuable and inspiring lessons about the role of young people in the path towards peace.
Angela Hwang, Executive Team and Group President of the Pfizer Biopharmaceuticals Group
Over more than one and half years now, the entire world is still in the grip of the Coronavirus Pandemic, destroying lives and reshaping economies like never before. Facing this monster right in the face is the pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer. One Young World had the pleasure to have Angela Hwang, Executive Team and Group President of the Pfizer Biopharmaceuticals to share with us some of the most powerful moments in Pfizer’s history when they experimented and manufactured their vaccine in early March 2020 when the virus broke out.
Angela said that this scientific journey became possible due to three important principles - Pfizer’s ability as proven over the decades, taking huge risks and scaling operations, and lastly re-examining their work to perform better. A vaccine like that would generally take years to be made, Angela said they made it happen in 248 days. Her message is very simple - “When you set a bold goal and you have no other choice, you will do it.”
Plenary Session: Covid-19
In the Plenary session, Covid-19- Lessons from the Pandemic - The Road to Recovery, we met some of the most incredible delegates who have faced health-related issues directly and after realising the extent of the unawareness regarding those issues, decided to step up and create a global impact.
Delegate Yulie Qiao after being diagnosed with Covid-19 and multiple complications created an app called ‘Virufy’ for Covid screening, which is now being used by people all over the world. Yana Panfilavo shared her heartbreaking story of being ostracized because she has HIV. Since then, she has stood up in support of all those vulnerable adolescents in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Sukhmeet Singh Sachal, an award-winning social entrepreneur, speaker, author, and public health activist aiming to improve public health interventions in South Asian communities across Canada. Mamello Makhele, a Gender Activist from Lesotho is standing up against the rising Rape Culture in her country. She says that “it is not women but men who should be agents of change.”
We were also joined by Lavau Kwalam Nalu from Papa Guinea, highlighting the struggles faced by small countries in combating Covid-19 Pandemic. He urged Large Economies to help the smaller countries to face this Pandemic, “No country beats Covid until the whole world beats Covid.”
Plenary Session: Conflict Resolution
Authoritarianism is on the rise; how can we de-escalate tensions?
The Keynote speech was delivered by Belarusian Politician & Human Rights Activist, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya who stated, “Only unity and solidarity can make authoritarian regimes fall. They will crumble under the power of peaceful protests all over the world.”
Following this speech, delegates shared their harrowing experiences of living under authoritarian regimes, the violence they saw at a very young age, the pain and trauma of losing homes, and coming out as strong leaders who now fight for human rights around the world.
One of the delegates was 22-year-old, Nujeen Mustafa who spoke about the misconceptions created around disabled people, “See the person behind the disability, and shatter the image of what is considered as normal”.
On the Digital Platform
Eradicating White Supremacy & Racial Inequality
In the session focused on ‘Eradicating White Supremacy & Racial Inequality’, One Young World Counselor and journalist Ilia Calderon joined One Young World Ambassadors Bjorn Ihler, Vincent Egunlae, and Mike Omoniyi to discuss on white supremacy and its effects on the global community. Vincent expressed how social media plays a major role nowadays in spreading misinformation that causes large groups to participate in public discourses.
White Supremacy has hopes of being vanished if we give more room to conversations and foster a deeper understanding of what it is like for black people to grow up in the western world. To combat White Supremacy on the public stage and reverse it, we need to begin attacking racist policies and not people.
Lead2030 Showcase
AstraZeneca is supporting Lead2030 Challenge SDG 3(Good Health & Wellbeing) winners Edith Soria, co-founder of Create Purpose Mexico and Diana Quintero, founder of BIVE. AstraZeneca is committed to creating a future where everyone has access to sustainable health solutions for life-changing treatment and prevention. Their goal of building stronger and more resilient health systems can further be met due to their partnership with Edith and Diana.
Edith works with orphanages to prevent non-communicable diseases and shares that the help received from AstraZeneca has helped their organization in focusing more on the groundwork and set higher goals rather than looking for funds.
Diana’s organization works to provide high-quality healthcare facilities to low-income rural communities in Colombia. She said the support from AstraZeneca helped her run the second phase of the BIVE project.
We also met the Lead2030 Challenge winners for SDG 12 and SDG 13 and their ambitious projects that aim to touch upon various Sustainable Development Goals. The winner of Lead2030 SDG 12(Responsible Consumption and Production) is Luna Yu, Cofounder of Genecis Bioindustries and is supported by Mondi Group. Genecis uses Biotechnology to make compostable plastic from food waste. This ambitious project backed by scientific research, Mondi as a global paper and packaging company have goals that align.
Javier Kuri, founder of Xilinat is the winner of Lead2030 SDG 13(Climate Action) and his project is supported Asahi Breweries. Xilinat uses Biotechnology to upcycle agricultural residues and transform them into Xylitol, a sugar substitute. Javier shared how important it is to collaborate and form healthy relationships in order to achieve goals together.
The Closing Ceremony
