This Month's Projects in Numbers:
- 2,215 young people engaged in leadership and civic participation
- 2.2 million kilograms of marine litter recovered
- 50,000 people with disabilities connected to meaningful employment
Nur Shahada - Israel
(He/Him)
Nur is the founder of Building Hope Through Community Action, a community initiative established after attending the One Young World 2025 Summit. Inspired to turn the ideas and connections from the Summit into meaningful local action, he launched the initiative to support vulnerable families in his community. Its first project focuses on helping a widowed mother who has raised her children alone for more than 15 years, providing the resources and community support needed to complete a safe and dignified home. Before undertaking each project, Nur carefully assesses a family's circumstances and long-term needs to ensure support creates lasting change.
To date, the initiative has raised 40,000 ILS towards its 200,000 ILS fundraising goal, bringing together volunteers, friends, relatives, and community members to support the project. Major infrastructure works, including water, electricity, communications, internet, and TV systems, have already been completed, with the remaining stages focused on flooring, windows, plastering, painting, and other finishing works before the family can move into their new home. Looking ahead, Nur hopes to expand the initiative to support more vulnerable families and mobilise additional community resources.
Connect with Nur on linkedin
Mohamed Elhout - United Arab Emirates
(He/Him)
Mohamed is the Senior Buyer for External Manufacturing Operations at Reckitt, managing procurement and supplier partnerships that support the production and delivery of health and hygiene products used by millions of consumers. Growing up in Egypt between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, he developed a strong connection to the environment, particularly marine ecosystems. That perspective continues to shape his approach to sustainability today, creating impact through smarter material choices, responsible sourcing, and collaboration across global supply chains. Through his work, he helps build supply chains that are not only efficient and resilient, but also more sustainable and future-focused.
One of the projects Mohamed supported involved optimising packaging specifications through material reduction initiatives, saving more than 35 metric tonnes of paper. He also supported the transition to 100% FSC-certified paper-based packaging, strengthening responsible sourcing and improving traceability across the supply chain. Beyond these initiatives, he continues to embed sustainability into supplier engagement, sourcing strategies, and external manufacturing partnerships by identifying opportunities that reduce environmental impact and support circular thinking across the value chain. He hopes more people recognise that procurement is one of the most powerful functions for driving sustainability within a business
Connect with Mohamed on linkedin
Reuby Mae Angeli Mindo - Philippines
(She/Her)
Reuby Mae is the founder of Love Angel PH, a community initiative established in 2017 in Romblon, Philippines, that supports underprivileged children and low-income families through community outreach. Recognising that many children struggle to access basic school necessities, what was inspired by a family tradition of celebrating birthdays by spending time underprivileged communities and giving back through outreach activities including school supplies at the start of each academic year. Love Angel PH now delivers a range of programmes supporting education, food security, and access to clean water
To date, Love Angel PH has provided back-to-school supplies to more than 600 students, supported approximately 300 families through its Rice to Rise food distribution project during the COVID-19 pandemic, and reached around 800 children through annual Christmas outreach programmes. The initiative has also facilitated the installation of water pumps in schools, improving access to clean water for approximately 600 students, while extending clean water access to a further 20 families within the local community.
Connect with Reuby mae on linkedin
Ran Saeki- Japan
(She/Her)
Ran leads the Rainbow Project, an initiative in Thailand that empowers stateless children affected by the Myanmar civil war and border conflict between Thailand and Myanmar. Through creative workshops, she helps stateless children build confidence, develop self-expression, and access greater opportunities. She also raises awareness about statelessness by speaking at international youth forums, schools, and webinars. Having lived in Thailand for 11 years as a Japanese student, Ran witnessed firsthand how conflict and lack of legal status severely limited children’s access to education and future opportunities. At the age of 16, she founded the initiative, drawing on her background in musical performance to create workshops that empower students.
To date, the Rainbow Project has engaged 40 stateless children through its workshops and reached youth audiences across more than 12 countries. Ran has spoken to more than 100 young people through international webinars, and her photography was recognised in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan's Global Festa Photo Contest 2025. The experience has shaped her work in Japan, where she now studies International Relations with a focus on conflict in the Asia-Pacific, co-founded the RISE Initiative, and continues creating opportunities for young people through education, dialogue, and the arts.
Barbara Kramar- Slovenia
(She/Her)
Barbara is a scientist and project manager committed to making STEM more inclusive by supporting women and inspiring the next generation of researchers and innovators. Through mentoring, panel discussions, and educational outreach, she encourages young people, particularly girls and young women, to pursue careers in STEM. She also co-founded HERHub, an employee resource group dedicated to empowering women, raising awareness of unconscious bias and gender stereotypes, and promoting a more inclusive workplace where everyone has equal opportunities to contribute and lead.
To date, Barbara has mentored seven early-career professionals through structured mentoring programmes and represented women in science at numerous speaking engagements, including AmCham events, Trilateral Slovenia, and three International Day of Women and Girls in Science events. Since co-founding HERHub in 2025, she has helped organise two well-attended events that created a platform for dialogue on inclusive leadership, unconscious bias, and gender equality. She has also engaged hundreds of young people through career fairs and outreach activities, encouraging them to pursue careers in science and technology.
Connect with Barbara on linkedin
Lefteris Arapakis -Greece
(He/Him)
Lefteris is the founder of Enaleia's Mediterranean CleanUp, an initiative that empowers fishing communities to become part of the solution to aquatic plastic pollution. Through its Fishing for Litter programme, fishers bring ashore marine litter recovered as bycatch during their daily fishing activities. The initiative also organises large-scale clean-ups with divers to remove waste from heavily polluted areas and collects end-of-life fishing gear before it enters the sea or is sent to landfill.
To date, the project has engaged more than 7,000 fishers, recovered over 2.2 million kilograms of marine litter and end-of-life fishing gear, and distributed more than €400,000 in additional income to participating fishers. The initiative has also helped avoid significant carbon emissions by giving recovered marine plastic a second life. Working with circular economy partners, Enaleia ensures that most recovered materials are recycled or upcycled into new products, including kayaks and furniture, and has implemented projects across eight countries.
Connect with lefteris on linkedin
Aileen Noonan- France
(She/Her)
Aileen is a sustainable fashion lecturer at ESMOD Paris and a sustainability consultant whose work focuses on advancing sustainability and the circular economy across the fashion and luxury sectors. Through teaching, research, and consulting, she equips students and business leaders with the knowledge and practical tools to address the environmental, social, and commercial challenges facing the industry while accelerating the transition to more sustainable business models.
To date, Aileen has consulted the Ellen MacArthur Foundation on their Fashion ReModel project, advising on the scale-up of circular business models across the fashion industry. She was a Management Consultant at KPMG Ireland. She has also worked with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership on sustainability governance and leadership for the green transition. Through executive education programmes with Cambridge Judge Business School and the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, she has advised thousands of business leaders on integrating sustainability into business growth strategies. Lecturing at ESMOD Paris, she has taught hundreds of students about sustainable fashion, guiding the next generation of leaders in the fashion industry. Her research and consulting work have also contributed to sustainability thought leadership, including publications in California Management Review and reports for the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.
Connect with Aileen on linkedin
Hugo Noe Flores - Honduras
(He/Him)
Hugo is a civil engineer and youth leader from Honduras whose work is centred on Youth Leadership and Social Transformation in Honduras, an umbrella initiative dedicated to empowering young people from rural and Indigenous communities who have historically been excluded from decision-making. During his time as President of Movimiento Juvenil Lenca, Hugo partnered with municipal governments to promote youth participation through local public policy. He currently serves as Regional Coordinator of Movimiento Juvenil Revolucionario de Honduras (MOJUREH), where he collaborates with youth organisations, schools, civil society organisations, and international partners to strengthen leadership and democratic participation among young people.
To date, Hugo has directly engaged more than 1,500 young people, strengthened over 30 youth organisations, and organised regional and national forums that promote leadership and democratic participation. He has signed cooperation agreements that resulted in the adoption of local public policies promoting youth participation. Gender equality is a central pillar of his work. He has facilitated participatory processes to design local strategies for preventing gender-based violence and promoting equal opportunities for women and girls. The most meaningful impact of his work has been seeing young people who once believed their voices did not matter become community leaders, social entrepreneurs, public servants, and advocates for democracy and human rights. Many of them are now leading initiatives in their own municipalities, multiplying the impact of his work.
José David Berrio Betancur- Colombia
(He/Him)
José is the founder of REM Online, a communications and social impact initiative dedicated to strengthening communities across the Northeast of Antioquia, Colombia. Through information, education, and community engagement, the project promotes initiatives that enhance collective wellbeing and support local development. By producing journalistic, cultural, social, and community-focused content, REM Online gives visibility to local stories. The project also develops campaigns and programmes centred on culture, mental health, youth leadership, and social responsibility, creating opportunities for learning, inclusion, and community empowerment. More than a media platform, REM Online serves as a bridge between people, organisations, and ideas.
To date, the initiative has trained more than 15 young leaders from the region in digital content creation, with a focus on territorial transformation, youth empowerment, and peacebuilding. It reaches more than 500,000 people every week through its digital platforms and social media channels. Through consistent coverage of local news, culture, community initiatives, and social impact projects, the platform has also contributed to positive local economic outcomes, reflected in increased sales, job creation, and greater financial resilience for local businesses, supporting the sustainable development of the region.
Connect with Jose on Instagram
Keely Cat-Wells - USA
(She/Her)
Keely is the founder and CEO of Making Space, a talent and learning platform closing the disability employment gap. Making Space connects disabled professionals to good jobs, higher incomes, and long-term economic opportunities through a suite of tools built specifically for their community. Members have free access to a curated job board featuring disability-forward employers, a free library of accessible self-paced courses, and a peer community where disabled professionals can connect and share opportunities. The platform also includes a Skill Translation tool that helps members translate their lived experience of disability into recognised, transferable professional skills, alongside an AI-powered benefits navigation tool that helps remove the fear of losing benefits when earning more.
Making Space currently supports more than 50,000 disabled professionals and works with organisations including Microsoft, Salesforce, Red Bull, Coca-Cola, and Netflix to build more accessible workplaces. Through their Ascend Fellowship, the organisation has generated more than $220 million in projected lifetime economic impact and achieved a 75% job placement rate, while training more than 200,000 employees through enterprise partnerships.
Connect with Keely on Instagram
Sebastián Pilla - Galápagos Islands
(He/Him)
Sebastián is a youth leader and advocate from the Galápagos Islands. Of Otavalo and Salasaca Indigenous heritage, he began his journey through cultural development, education, and youth leadership as tools to strengthen the relationship between communities and nature in one of the world’s most iconic conservation regions. His initiatives began with dance and artistic expression to reconnect ancestral roots and promote appreciation for cultural diversity, demonstrating how culture can serve as a powerful tool for transformation and community empowerment. This experience exposed him to the gaps faced by children and young people living in isolated territories and reinforced his commitment to creating opportunities for future generations. Between 2019 and 2023, he served as President of the Santa Cruz Youth Advisory Council.
To date, Sebastián has supported more than 700 young people through environmental, cultural, and educational programmes across the Galápagos. He led one of the first youth initiatives in the islands focused on integrity, anti-corruption awareness, and environmental stewardship, delivering more than 100 hours of leadership and experiential learning to 30 young participants. He also co-led the first student participation programme, empowering more than 30 young people to become agents of change committed to the sustainability and future of the archipelago. In addition, he has contributed to conservation and citizen science initiatives involving giant tortoises, sea turtles, sharks, mangrove ecosystems, and coastal clean-ups. Today, he uses digital storytelling to highlight island identity, promote environmental education.Today, he uses digital storytelling to highlight island identity, promote environmental education.
Connect with Sebastián on Linkedin
Norah Kimathi - Kenya
(She/Her)
Norah is a robotics engineer and one of the founders of Zerobionic, an assistive robotics company that transforms plastic waste into solar-powered humanoid robots. Through an inclusive approach to technological innovation, she is advancing the circular economy while revolutionising STEM education for learners with hearing impairments. In 2026, Norah launched AF1, the first autonomous humanoid robot capable of communicating through sign language, which is now being piloted across Africa.
To date, Zerobionic has created more than 120 green jobs, repurposed over 10,500 kilograms of plastic waste into robot components, and reached beneficiaries across seven countries. Norah's work has earned her the Presidential Award, the Commonwealth Trust Honorary Award in memory of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and recognition as the first African recipient of the Young Engineering Award at Hannover Messe in 2026. Looking ahead, Zerobionic aims to open-source billions of data parameters to expand inclusive access to assistive robotics and make sign language technology more accessible for deaf learners worldwide.
Connect with Norah on linkedin
Wanghley Soares Martins- Brazil
(He/Him)
Raised on a pig farm one hour from Brasilia, Brazil, Wanghley is an Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD student at Rice University and a Karsh International Scholar graduate from Duke University. His work spans multiple projects at the intersection of advanced computing and humanitarian engineering, using Edge AI and TinyML to analyse health and environmental data in real time without relying on expensive cloud infrastructure. In healthtech, his work has focused on platforms that improve patient mobility tracking and clinical workflows; in climate and agriculture, his work brings low-cost environmental monitoring to climate and agricultural adaptation.
To date, Wanghley's work has reduced the cost of remote Parkinson's disease diagnostics by 90%. He also develops environmental monitoring devices that cost less than $30 to manufacture through the integration of artificial intelligence with custom hardware and software engineering. His mission is to transform artificial intelligence from a resource-heavy corporate luxury into a decentralised, resilient, and open utility for the communities that need it most.
Connect with Wanghley on linkedin