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Announcement
We are pleased to announce our 2nd class of OD Impact Challenge 30 under 30 Change-maker list! The Change-maker List is set to recognize and amplify the Impact of 30 change-makers from across the world every year through publicity.
The 30 Changemakers were shortlisted during the OD Impact Challenge 2021. They represent young leaders and entrepreneurs who are taking great steps to solve real problems and add significant value to the lives of people in their communities. Below are their names and profiles in no particular order.
Abdalah Nyambi is the Founder and CEO of Preyo Recycling Group based in Tanzania. He leads a movement that fights plastic pollution to keep the planet clean and green. His company collects plastic waste, sorts them before taking them through the shredding process, to produce plastic flakes and pelletizing materials, which are used for making new useful products such as car bushings.
- Kamasa Dorothy Azimi (Ghana)
Kamasa Dorothy is the Founder and Executive Director of Center for Women and Food Security-Ghana (CeWaFS-Ghana), where she focuses on Advocating for food security and seeking to support the education, empowerment and engagement of rural women in Ghana’s agricultural value chains. She researches into the effects of natural resource management in farm productivity, and addresses knowledge gaps to help rural women achieve household food security, improve agricultural policy and funding. Kamasa is driven by her commitment to Agricultural Development and the wellbeing of Rural Female farmers and one day she hopes to witness a world of restored depleted natural resources, a society without poor and needy people and a world without hunger. Her objectives are to develop an agricultural value chain product-based entity whose goal is to exceed customer’s expectations, increase production efficiency by 10% a year, and develop a sustainable farm business, able to survive off her cash flow and impact more rural lives.
- Mohamed Kamara (Sierra Leone)
Mohamed A Kamara is the Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer Light Salone Innovation. His innovation is a hybrid system of solar & wind mills that are used to supply irrigation water and electricity to farms. The systems are designed to help farmers who are growing seasonal plants to have a full year’s access to water supply for their plants and access to electricity to enable them operate processing machinery to further enable them increase their production, and communicate with the wider farming communities through internet, phones and other communicating devices. They convert scrap yard materials, since they are cheap and readily available, to provide electricity for rural farms in Sierra Leone. Over the last 5 years, they have reached to over 500 poor and far reached communities with the cheapest, sustainable and green energy solution that emit no CO2 to the environment.
- Anigbogu Stanley Alexander (Nigeria)
Stanley Anigbogu is the founder of ArtecHubs Nigeria, which is a leading tech skill acquisition company for young minds in southeastern Nigeria. According to Stanley, well-intentioned mandatory education laws have put a strain on education in primary & secondary schools. As employers struggle to hire, they’ve added unrealistic qualifications & credentials to even the least entry-level jobs making it even harder for people without an education pedigree to find quality jobs. This inspired Stanley to create ArtecHubs; to equip young persons irrespective of financial capability or social strata for the future workforce either as start-up founders or employees with quality pay. ArtecHubs prepares young persons for the fourth industrial revolution and challenges them to become job creators rather than job seekers by equipping them with relevant skills needed for the future workforce and providing support systems for their growing start-ups. Unlike other skill acquisition companies /STEM hubs, ArtecHubs treats students in rural communities with utmost priority given the fear they have that they may not be able to withstand the competition from their folks who grew up in the urban areas with access to facilities like theirs. These do this through hands-on inclusive training sessions, Industry 4.0 boot camps, and group community projects/exhibitions.
Ogechukwu Alexis is the Founder of Bodylikemilk; a natural skincare brand that provides powerful, affordable, rejuvenating Organic skincare and cosmetic products. Her products are currently available in over 3 countries, have been shipped to over 50 countries globally and they have a webstore meeting the shopping demands of millions of Africans, Non Africans and diasporas around the globe. Their main goal is providing sustainable and affordable self care products that give VALUE for money spent. Bodylikemilk’s aim is to improve the patronage of their “Made in Africa” products and increase the demand and trade for their products globally hence creating jobs , improving the lives of the people and adding to her country’s economic growth.
- Muhammad Iqhrammullah (Indonesia)
Muhammad Iqhrammullah is one of the leading young scientists in Indonesia whose works cover various sustainability research topics, ranging from heavy metal to citizen science. He has successfully developed renewable materials from biomass and bioresources. In 2020, he proposed a novel polycondensation mechanism of a polyurethane prepared from green algae. His method offers a shortcut to the manufacturing of the material as it does not require polyol extraction. The polymeric materials he has prepared are used to control and monitor the heavy metal contamination in the water by using adsorptive removal and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy techniques, respectively. He is a part of a team, formerly led by Prof. Dr Ir. Marlina, M.Si, that received a grant from WWF Netherlands to conduct a citizen science project in Aceh Jaya Regency, Aceh Province, Indonesia. The project has been conducted for more than a year to empower the community in combating mercury pollution. The area was infamous for the threat of mercury pollution released from the artisanal gold mining. The citizen science project helps the community be aware of mercury’s dangers by involving them in the pollution assessment. It has successfully engaged various stakeholders (regent and provincial government agencies, gold miner, religious leaders, local leaders and youths) to end the use of mercury in the artisanal gold mining.
Peter Yawe is the Founder of Healthy Livercare Initiative (HLI), a non-profit organization initiated in response to the high prevalence of viral hepatitis and other preventable liver diseases in Nigeria. The public health enterprise leverages mobile technology, community outreaches, social and mass media to impact communities at risk. Since its inception two years ago, HLI has been organizing outreach and medical missions reaching over 7 communities in 3 States and impacting over 2000 young people and adults within Nigeria. Peter also led a team within the organization to develop and launch an electronic Application: LIKITA which is based on telemedicine modalities to help people locate and reach hospitals and health facilities around. The App has had over 200 downloads in the last 4 months.
Johnmary Kavuma is the Founder and CEO of Upcycle Africa; an organization that tackles the problem of plastic waste in Uganda. They construct homes out of plastic waste while promoting capacity building and entrepreneurship in green businesses. Upcycle Africa has recovered over 3,000,000 plastic bottles and they have built 117 eco houses for families. They also train unemployed youths and women, teenage mothers and widows on the skills of turning plastic waste into eco-friendly building materials to construct eco homes for poor communities at affordable prices in Uganda. These groups are employed as waste collectors, sorters, compactors and constructors. they also sensitize local communities on dangers of plastic waste and offer practical solutions. Since their inception, they have educated an estimated 20,800 students in 52 different schools.
- Sulaiman Tanu Bah ( Sierra Leone)
Sulaiman Tanu Bah is the Founder of Transparency Helping the Needy-Sierra Leone (THIN-SL); an organization that focus in placing women and children above poverty, sufferings, and all forms of injustice faced in the society. Through his organization, Sulaiman is currently helping to reduce the digital-divide rate in his country Sierra Leone- a country where access to computer and internet services are very expressive. He established a computer training center where young people around his community are capacitated with computer literacy skills and have access to Internet at affordable cost. In the past year, 200 young people graduated successfully from their training program.
- Jim Chapman (Australia)
Jim Chapman is the founder of Nice Coffee Co – an Australian social enterprise that sells coffee to offices and cafes, using profits to build classrooms in Kibera, Africa’s largest slum in Kenya, not far from where his family lives. They believe education is a powerful tool in helping kids break the cycle of poverty. To date, they have built 9 classrooms, employed 11 teachers and supported over 450 students. They hope to grow their business and impact in 2021.
Growing up as a child, he has always been passionate about the health and well being of the people in his community. That burning desire, pushed him to start seeking for possible solutions on how to tackle common diseases in his society. In 2011, he was elected the speaker of Taraba state children’s parliament. That afforded him the opportunity to help a lot of children health wise, through his various projects. He went further to start an NGO to continue with this work. One notable project he carried out is the END MALARIA PROJECT where he and his team, gave 1000 women and children free malaria test and treatment. Smart Israel has carried out many other projects inclusive is the annual Beyond Africa Conference where he mentors about 200 young change makers from across the country. Moreso, is his social impact work in the field of education where he has helped 207 girls return back to school.
Ichor Joshua is the Founder and CEO of Geopika, a ground water exploration company. Geopika is an impact centered organization that is giving safe water to water stressed communities, thereby helping them stay safe from waterborne diseases. His long term vision is to make clean water available to communities, throughout sub-Sahara Africa. Solving the problem of water scarcity has been Joshua’s lifelong dream and personal obsession. This has led him to establish Geopika free water project, a charity wing of Geopika Integrated Services, tasked with providing water for communities. In the last 3 years, Joshua has put into use his geotechnical skills as an undergraduate student to carry out exploration on ground water in communities under water stressed conditions. They carry out free hydro geophysical surveys to identify the best yielding points in the ground which will supply water without drying off. The water is then extracted through hand dug wells. This has helped communities access clean ground water all year round. In other communities where deeper extraction is required, they crowd fund and drill free boreholes for them. They have been in partnerships with organizations such as civic innovation lab and The Nhub foundation. They plan to drill one thousand boreholes for rural communities by the end of 2022.
- Precious Okereke (Nigeria)
Precious Okereke is the Founder of AccountHub Global Institute; where they train small business owners with vital skills that are needed for smooth operations. They organize skills training programs at least once in every quarter of the year to help small businesses scale up. Their free training helps business owners properly utilize and manage their business finances and make informed financial decisions.
- Seyi Bolaji (Nigeria)
Seyi Bolaji is the Founder and Team Lead of ProjectEAC, Educate a Child Campaign, a movement in Nigeria providing less privileged children the necessary support and motivation they need to stay in school as well as access to better education and opportunities to develop their talents and skills. With this, she has been able to reach over 1000 children in Northern Nigeria with educational materials. They are on a mission of changing the world, reaching one child at a time. The over 1000 kids they have reached are still in school and making the most use of the materials distributed to them. Other kids via this project have been motivated to go back to school since reading and writing materials has been provided.
- Oluwadamilola Akintewe (Nigeria)
Oluwadamilola Akintewe is the Founder of Forbidden Topics, a feminist platform amplifying female voices against social injustices, breaking the silence of gender based violence and inequality. With over 4 years in social impact projects management, Oluwadamilola is actively involved in feminist organizing and movement building, disrupting and dismantling systems of oppression against women’s rights in Nigeria and beyond. Oluwadamilola Akintewe has provided career mentorship and skills acquisition to over 3000 women and girls, creating avenues for financial inclusion and equality for women through entrepreneurship.
Lëmnec Tiller is the CEO and Co-founder of Wayuuda Foundation; whose social objective is to improve the quality of life of communities in vulnerable situations, and especially the Wayúu indigenous community. Thus far, they have impacted the lives of almost 3,000 people, always focusing on the generation of Social Fabric by combining the latest technologies with ancestral knowledge to address some of the most urgent challenges faced by indigenous communities, attacking the main problems from different scenarios such as the implementation of productive projects based on sustainable agriculture and livestock, technification of handicraft manufacturing processes, ethno-tourism, the creation of a pilot ethno educational institution. In 2018 he designed and implemented the Automated Solar Pumping System which supplies more than 3,000 people with groundwater. By 2020 he has installed 3 prototypes.
Yetunde Fadeyi is passionate about the duality between energy and climate change and has spent the last three years providing sustainable solutions to energy poverty and environmental deficits in Nigeria. Her yearn for responsibility led to the establishment of REES Africa – a youth-led non-governmental organization positioned to redefine lifestyle by enabling energy access and promoting environmental sustainability through advocacy and actionable projects. Through the projects, eleven rural communities without prior access to electricity have been electrified via a model approach. REES Africa (Renewable Energy & Environmental Sustainability for Africa Initiative ) is on a mission to solve environmental issues and eradicate energy through advocacy and enterprise solutions. They aim to redefine the actions of Africans, ultimately their lifestyle towards environmental sustainability- one country at a time. They aim to do this through a range of their initiatives. They solve these energy and sustainability issues by focusing on the most vulnerable to deliver inclusive service- they electrify rural areas without prior access to electricity via solar micro-grids and they ensure knowledge transfer through advocacy campaigns on environmental sustainability.
Ngunan Ioron Aloho is the Executive Director of Red Dots/ Samuel Ioron Foundation. Red Dots works to use illustrative arts to share information on menstrual health management and partners with Period Movement and Organicup to provide access to alternative safe and sustainable menstrual products such as menstrual cups to women and girls. Additionally, the project works to train girls on how to make safe makeshift pads using soft cotton materials for reusable pads. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of women and girls were vulnerable, and in need of essential menstrual products. They mass-produced reusable pads and partnered with Organicup and Period Movement to distribute over 455 menstrual cups to women and girls, including 150 women and girls at the IDP Camp in Benue, Nigeria. They also documented a menstrual health management booklet and shared it via WhatsApp to reach over 1000 menstruators and non-menstruators.
Entrepreneur, Co-founder and partner of Casa Origem, the 1° zero-waste chain restaurant in Brazil, that aims to show the world that is possible to be a profitable company that changes the world positively. Origem is the first Zero Waste restaurant chain in Brazil. They serve food with less environmental impact and more social impact. They serve agroecological and local goods, a plant based and organic menu; always with reusable or compositable packaging; fair prices; engaging their customers and suppliers, urging them to apply the Origem method in their operations; and through producing content by passing on what they have learned. They are supported by 3 pillars: Sustainability, localism and networks.
- Joshua otei (Nigeria)
Joshua Otei is the Founder of Hope Assured Foundation; an organization aimed at tackling teenage and young adults crisis in rural communities using innovative strategies like proper sexuality and reproductive health education, leadership skills, personal development, self awareness and entrepreneurial skills. Since its inception in 2016, they have reached out to over 4000 young people in different rural communities across Africa both remotely and off-line. His organization runs 4 sets of programs to reach out to its target communities.
- Steven Setiawan (Indonesia)
Steven is a waste management enthusiast who empowers waste pickers and youth through environmental education and an organic waste management start-up. Through eLarvae, Steven has recycled more than 24 ton of organic waste from more than 600 citizens. Through Baramoeda, Steven has educated more than 10,000 people across Indonesia about how to live with the principle of environmental sustainability. His dedication made him to be awarded as one of the EE 30 Under 30 NAAEE Batch 2020. According to Steve, lack of environment education is the main reason people destroy the environment. For example, almost 150 people in Steve’s hometown, Cimahi, died because of waste landslide from Leuwigajah Landfill in 2005. Eco Learning Camp Foundation (Eco Camp) solves that problem by providing customized non-formal environmental education with experience based learning method for diverse groups. Eco Camp provides offline activity, online activity, and community service to Ciburial village. For their offline activity, they conduct various one day / multi day training concerning how to recycle your organic waste, how to start a permaculture, and how science is related to environment.
Babtunde Bale is the co-founder of The R.E.T.I.N.A (Restoration of Eyecare Through Innovation and Awareness) Initiative. A non-profit organization that focuses on eradicating avoidable blindness in African communities. Babatunde has a keen interest in community eye health and has been involved in different community-based interventions that have impacted the lives of more than 1,000 people in Nigeria. Some of these projects include; Mobile Eye Clinic project, World Sight Day Community Eye Health outreach (by Lions Club International), HEAL (Healthy Eyes Awareness Literacy) the World campaign, Sickle Cell Retinopathy Awareness (by Sickle Cell Aid Foundation), iCare4Africa Project among others. Through their initiative, HEAL the World project, which focuses on not only increasing awareness about preventable blindness among high school students but also training teachers about first aid treatment for eye injuries, they have increased response to emergency eye injuries which drastically reduced vision loss by more than 70% in Edo and Lagos State.
- Anusiem Jenny (Nigeria)
Anusiem Jenny is the Founder and Executive Director of Jenny Uzo Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) founded to support the Girl Child by Educating and Empowering her academically, socially and through mentorship, thereby fostering gender equality in the society. At the foundation, they are focused on advocacy, health & nutrition, education, entrepreneurship and empowerment – all targeted at the Girl Child and the women at large. Her foundation runs a female football club called Imo Angels Football Club based in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. Their activities at Imo Angels Football Club are not limited to simply training and deploying players for tournaments and competitions. Rather, they uphold the vision of using football as tool for skill and capacity development, social impact campaigns around the health and wellbeing of the girl child as well as a form of entertainment and relaxation. Imo Angels Football Club is a platform where the less privileged young and talented girls are groomed to become useful to their families and society at large.
- Silvana Jimanez Hurtado (Colombia)
Silvana Jiménez Hurtado is a Colombian citizen who is passionate about cultural exchange, Law, the promotion of human dignity, the better understanding of the person and human rights. She is currently studying Law at Universidad de la Sabana and is part of the Legal Clinic of the University that works for the protection of human rights, children´s rights, women rights and the importance of family in today´s society. In the legal clinic from the line of Person and Family they try to help persons, organizations and families with their human rights in all the situations where their aid are needed. They solve the problem of lack of protection from the Government, and they try to help them in their journey, mostly from a legal point of view. Some of the cases they handle include: the right to conscientious objection (medical, military, etc), Surrogate motherhood, the right of women who are victims of sexual abuse in the midst of the Colombian armed conflict, adoption, etc.
- Regine Chan (Singapore)
Regine Chan is the Co-Founder of Generation Z, a Singapore-based not-for-profit enterprise, with a core belief that everyone deserves a fair and equal opportunity, and that their ambitions should not be limited by their socio-economic backgrounds, academic performance, or other social Identifiers such as their age, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. Generation Z recognizes two major levers of change in the status quo: supporting the under-privileged to develop skills and knowledge in digital, and empowering them with meaningful economic opportunities from an early age. During Covid 19, youths across Singapore, both students and fresh graduates, faced significant employment challenges with many job offers and internship opportunities being rescinded or postponed indefinitely. In response, Generation Z launched a series of interactive webinars in partnership with the Global Shapers Community (an initiative by the World Economic Forum), where youths participate remotely to learn new skills such as networking, personal branding and building strong relationships and mentorships, and improve their candidacy and find meaningful employment opportunities via resume reviews and employer pitching sessions.
- Ojirot John Paul (Uganda)
Ojirot John Paul is the Co-founder and Assistant Director of Dream House Uganda. They are working to reduce unemployment, lack of life skills, and rapid spread of AIDS. They provide equal access to education for the vulnerable kids to improve their lives, through offering school scholarships, free art, dance, music, Skateboarding and health education to the young people. By doing this, they are enabling them to be part of a learning and developing society. Their programs nurture selfless, residents and leaders.
Oluwatomilola Mustapha is the Founder and Team Lead of the 5 AM Club, which is made up of a community of youths who are intentional about life and ready to take up the winning habits by waking up at 5 AM daily and make productive use of their time while others are sleeping. Members of the 5 am club engage in activities like Career talk, Affirmation, Prayers, Book reviews done virtually on Zoom, Google Meet, and Whatsapp and they are then assigned accountability partners where they set daily goals and inspire each other to achieve them. For sustainability, they charge a one-time commitment fee for each of their new members. Over the past year, over 250 tertiary university students have signed up for the 5 am club.
- Nitesh Bhardwaj (India)
Nitesh Bhardwaj is the Co-founder of Aadiwasi Janjagruti, an initiative under Ulgulan Foundation that works on creating social awareness in Dhadgaon Block of Nandurbar District, Maharashtra. He initiated this project in 2016 with his other co-founders Rakesh Pawara and Arjun Pawara. Aadiwasi Janjagruti is using the concept of hyper local communications to bridge the gap between the government and the people in one of the remotest areas of India. With his initiatives Nitesh has reached more than 1 Million people and has positively impacted thousands. He is working extensively on development communications, citizen journalism and rural media to work on SDG 3, 4, 5 and 6. In his initiative, Aadiwasi Janjagruti, they are making short films, videos and news videos entirely on their mobile phones to create social awareness on local issues, different government schemes and against fake news. Once produced, they screen these short mobile videos in different village meetings on mobile projectors. They also share these videos on different social media platforms. If there are any issues, they raise it to the concerned officials or the government.
- Adan Mohamed Rashid (Kenya)
Adan Mohamed Rashid is the Chief Operations Officer of ACAKORO Football; a community based Organization which provides meaningful sports and skills development activities that are supporting school enrollment and educational achievement for disadvantaged children living in informal urban settlements in Kenya. ACAKORO is based in Korogocho, one of Nairobi’s largest slums with an estimated population of 200,000 people. Through football, they ensure that needy children grow up in a (possibly) child-friendly environment and become role models of their society, to enable them finally master their lives and have a positive impact in their communities. More than 100 ACAKORO project participants (aged 8-18 years old) are supported to attend one of 2 primary schools and 3 secondary partner schools in proximity to the football academy not to only enable their enrollment but also support their educational achievement through the provision of all necessary school items, academic tutoring and social support.
- Angela Busheska (North Macedonia)
Angela is the Founder & CEO of EnRoute, a personalized mobile application that lets users harness their transport, shopping, and household activities to reduce their carbon footprint, rewarding them with real-life prizes for every reduced gram of CO2. The EnRoute app includes several features. The most important one being the ‘Make your daily combination’ which allows people to plan their daily activities and see all the transport options available, buy a ticket on the spot, and of course, get the most environmental combination, tailored to their budget and needs. Next, EnRoute helps them ‘invest’ in sustainability with just one click. It can scan every label on various garments and packages to understand what the product is made of and the sustainability of its producing company.
Congratulations to the 2nd Class of OD Impact Challenge 30 Under 30 Changemakers!