The Emerging Leaders Initiative brings together the next generation of social entrepreneurs from around the world. Selected and supported in partnership by the Skoll Foundation and The MasterCard Foundation, the Emerging Leaders represent the great potential and passion existing in social entrepreneurship’s future leaders, addressing a wide range of issues like energy access in sub-Saharan Africa and the links between corruption and natural resource exploitation.
Cohorts are selected from those already demonstrating leadership qualities and making significant efforts to bring social change in their communities. The primary goal of the Emerging Leaders Initiative is to create a tailored learning experience to develop relationships and resources that extend well beyond the Forum that will help grow their impact on the communities they serve.
Currently, only Skoll Foundation awardees and MasterCard Foundation partners are eligible to nominate individuals to participate in the initiative. We continually evaluate new partnership opportunities and content ideas. If you have any questions about the Emerging Leaders Initiative, please submit your inquiry to emergingleaders@dev.skoll.org .
Dorcas Amoh-Mensah Postgraduate studying Africa and International Development, Edinburgh University
Dorcas Amoh-Mensah
Curious about why Africa is still wallowing in poverty and under-development, I decided to pursue a Masters’ degree in Africa and International Development to uncover the puzzle and figure out how I can contribute to the change I want to see on the continent as a child of the land. I am a Ghanaian with an undergraduate degree in Business Administration obtained from Ashesi University College. My time at Ashesi, liberal arts college, unlocked unparalleled opportunities for me which helped me build enormous passion for Africa and its development as well as heightened my interest in social impact.
Over the past four years, I have been involved in innovative activities aimed at improving rural education (Starfish Aid) and eradicating child poverty and streetism in Ghana (Future of Africa). With exposure to the business and impact worlds through internships with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Camfed Ghana respectively, I seek a career which would combine business with impact to create sustainable solutions for societal problems. I am also very interested in the economic transformation of Africa, transformational education as well as creating integrity-driven and gender-equal societies. Additionally, I would love a career that provides an opportunity for traveling all over the world as a medium of learning how various societies are internally solving global challenges.
My time here in Edinburgh has made me realize I am a foodie and has exposed me to the essence of celebrating diversity in the midst of the world’s uproar against immigration and migration. Here, I co-run a mini food-tasting and fund-raising event aimed at introducing the university community to foods from different cultures and various countries each month. It’s my dream that this would enhance collaboration, mutual-respect and love across all cultures and nations. I love arts and craft and have a special attraction to origami.
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Through the Sani Foundation, Michelle seeks to facilitate the full inclusion of individuals with intellectual disabilities into Zambian society. A cornerstone of its work is the Sunshine Zambia Project, which provides holistic, relevant training to prepare adolescents and young adults with intellectual disabilities for employment and independence within their community. While employment training services in Zambia typically segregate individuals with disabilities, with few trainees ever graduating to mainstream jobs with fair wages, Michelle pursues a person-centered model that assists those with disabilities in securing and maintaining jobs in the open labor market. Michelle was motivated to research international best practices for addressing the needs of the people with intellectual disabilities as a result of having a brother with Down Syndrome. Through the Sani Foundation, she also advocates for the adoption of more inclusive job market policies, while promoting to employers the commercial benefits of a diverse and inclusive labour market.
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Sam leads Global Witness’s work on data-driven investigative journalism and digital storytelling. His work focuses on the use of data to fight corruption and how to turn this information into change making stories.
He is currently working with a coalition of data scientists, academics and investigative journalists to build analytical models and tools that enable anti-corruption campaigners to understand and identify corporate networks used for nefarious and corrupt practices.
While at Global Witness he has developed a number of innovative web applications and visualizations for a range of campaigns including The Great Rip Off Map, Cambodia Corporates and the DRC Timber Tracker. During the last year he has been working with the Sundance Institute and MIT Media Lab to build an immersive storytelling tool specifically tailored for human rights organizations that need to publish to audiences without access to broadband connections.
He previously worked at the Open Knowledge Foundation leading the organization’s work on data literacy for human rights groups and journalists. He has an undergraduate degree in Philosophy from Cambridge University and a Masters in the History of Ideas from University College London.
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Name: Godwin David Msigwa
Age: 32
Country: Tanzania
Organisation: Tanzania Renewable Energy Association
Title: Chairman, Advisory Board
Email: godwinsolar@gmail.com
I am a co-founder of BLISS UNIVERSAL, a renewable energy company as well as a renewable energy enthusiast and entrepreneur serving as the chairman of the Tanzania Renewable Energy Association advisory board for the last 6 years. In my career in the renewable energy sector, I developed the first solar PV manual for solar technicians in Tanzania which is available in the local language, Kiswahili.
I am also a national solar trainer for upcoming solar technicians, solar dealers and trainer of trainers in Tanzania. So far, I trained more than 700 young solar technicians nationwide including youth under OYE project, (funded by the MasterCard foundation) in Tanzania, SIDA, GiZ, Maxx Solar Academy, Commission for Science and Technology, BFZ.
I am an advocator for environment and renewable energy locally and internationally whereas through radio and TV programs, he advocated and was successful in lobbying for tax waiver of renewable energy components in Tanzania.
Currently, I am in the process of establishing a renewable energy technical school where young underprivileged Tanzanians skills will be developed through technical secondary education biased in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
My efforts in the renewable energy sector include waste management from slaughter houses as a means of income generation where waste from slaughter houses will be used to produce gas that will be stored in containers as a cooking energy.
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Olivia is the Executive Director of B Lab East Africa. In her role, Olivia is working on building a community of people using business as a force for good in the region. Prior to this role, Olivia was the Global Partner Manager at B Lab supporting its network of regional partners. She also worked as a Standards Analyst helping companies going through the B Corp Certification process, and supporting impact investors to measure and report their social and environmental impact.
Olivia has 7+ years experience of working with public and private enterprises across the globe on monitoring and evaluation. Prior to joining B Lab, she worked with Microfinanza Rating (MFR) as a Junior Analyst in their African Regional office. During her time with MFR, she worked with Microfinance Institutions located in Sub-Saharan Africa in rating their social impact. She also worked at Deloitte Kenya, in their internship program on Audit and Assurance.
Olivia is currently in the process of completing her MBA in Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise from United States International University – Africa. She graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Finance and International Business from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.
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After receiving her bachelor’s degree from University of California-Los Angeles and her master’s degree in clinical psychology from Pepperdine University, Yamin returned to her home country to lead Proximity School, a corporate university that provides technical and soft skill trainings to hundreds of staff across rural Myanmar. Yamin has prior experience providing mental health services to individuals, couples, and families in California and in Myanmar. Whether it’s providing mental health counseling, or conducting trainings on a larger scale, Yamin’s passion lies in making a personal impact on people’s minds and paths, and helping maximize individuals’ potentials.
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“The surest way to keep people down is to educate the men and neglect the women. If you educate a man you simply educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation" James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey - Ghana
Delilah Anita Owiti, Kenyan, is a young professional and enthusiastic leader passionate about the environment and its sustainability. She holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science from Egerton University, Kenya, and is currently pursuing a Masters in Environment and Development at the University of Edinburgh as a MasterCard Foundation Scholar; the first of its kind in the UK. She is also a registered Environmental Impact Assessment expert, carrying out feasibility studies prior to project developments in environmentally sensitive areas to measure the potential environmental damage and where possible, provide mitigation measures.
Growing up as a member of the Girl Guide society, courage and assertion were her pillars in inculcating responsibility. Her passion is being at the fore front in environmental protection and conservation in all spheres. Embarking on tree planting and solid waste management activities in her community, she was awarded the “most environmentally sensitive student during her undergraduate studies. This developed her interest to further investigate why the environment is usually neglected and find ways to move communities towards sustainable development.
She has developed her skills over internship periods at National Environment Management Authority and Kenya Marine Fisheries Institute, where she was actively involved in community awareness programmes and compliance related issues. As a volunteer events’ organiser at Food sharing Edinburgh, she has managed to interact with the wider Edinburgh community. These events have also taught her money saving skills through planned food shopping and storage. Being in the spotlight has enabled her gain valuable leadership and communication skills over time as she strives to be a transformative leader.
Her time in Edinburgh has enabled her realize multifaceted approaches towards life in general. The number of friends she has made through social events have greatly exposed her to a diversity of cultures while appreciating and embracing them. Especially at a time when the whole world seems to be unstable politically. Nonetheless, she believes that if change is to happen, then it would start with/ by her. You will always catch her doing what she knows best, playing lawn tennis, during her free time. She also has a great affinity to music and hopes to be a professional pianist in future.
Her greatest desire is to create an impact wherever her foot steps on. Making Kenya and Africa as a whole develop sustainably are part of her plan by helping her peers, tomorrow’s leaders, rise above her and make lasting impressions amongst generations to come in all spheres of life.
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A descendant of refugees that survived genocide, Antranik Krikor Ozanian, 27, Switzerland, was born to Armenian parents in Bulgaria, as the cold war was ending in 1989. Blessed with new opportunities, Antranik grew up in U.K. with a strong desire to pursue a career helping to prevent future violations of human rights. He completed a Bachelors and Masters in Laws at the University of Manchester, followed by both working in Atlanta, USA protecting prisoners’ rights on death row and working in The Hague assisting the prosecution of war crimes at the UN ICTY. In 2014, Antranik was called to the Bar of England and Wales at Middle Temple, receiving the Dean’s List Award for highest score in advocacy. Drawing on his advocacy skills and armed with creative ideas for justice reform, Antranik immediately began working at International Bridges to Justice where, in addition to fundraising, events management and programme monitoring and evaluation, he is currently spearheading the IBJ JusticeHub, an innovative technology platform that supercharges networks of justice stakeholders around the world.
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Kpetermeni is a native of Liberia but spent his formative years between Liberia and Ghana during the civil wars in his home country. Whilst a MasterCard Foundation scholar at Ashesi University, Kpetermeni helped combat the Ebola outbreak by drastically shortening the time it took health officials to get actionable data from the field.
Additionally, his contributions to developing his university’s cashless cafeteria and an electronic library and social platform to connect students and teachers with educational resources without Internet connection, among others, helped earn him the President's Award, the highest honour at Ashesi.
Upon graduation, Kpetermeni returned to iLab Liberia where he supports the training of medical residents and has developed numerous tools, including a platform for tracking child labour in Liberia, robust payrolls for social cash transfers to low-income and Ebola-affected households, and an anti-corruption platform for the government of Sierra Leone.
He is also currently helping set up an innovation campus in Liberia (iCampus). Kpetermeni also volunteers to manage the infrastructure at the Liberia Internet Exchange Point Association (LIXPA).
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Zeeshan has been contributing to India’s development sector for over 12 years and currently heads the program division of Educate Girls, an organization focusing on holistically tackling issues at the root cause of gender inequality in India's education system. He is responsible for designing and managing the program strategy of Educate Girls that reaches out of over 600,000 children in over 12000 schools in India. He is also a member of the core team implementing the World’s first Development Impact Bond in the Education sector. Prior to Educate Girls, Zeeshan has worked with numerous national and international developmental agencies like the Aga Khan Development Network, Magic Bus India Foundation and the Times Foundation. With a Master of Business Administration degree in Social Entrepreneurship, he also mentors and serves on the board of two growing non-profit organizations: Srujna and Darwesh, and is helping them in strategic management and sustainability.
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Fhazhil is a passionate educator and a budding social entrepreneur in Information Technology and energy systems. He is currently the partnership director of M-Soma Institute, a social venture preparing young people in East Africa for successful careers in Information Technology and entrepreneurship. M-Soma Institute offers pre-university training in computer programming and software development and general technical entrepreneurial training to high school graduates through boot camps as well as through its online and mobile platforms.
Fhazhil is also the founder and managing director of Disa Energy Management (DEM), a start-up in renewable energy systems. The current work of DEM is design and installation of renewable energy systems (majorly solar and wind) and offering consumer education on energy efficiency with a focus on efficient technologies, efficient energy system operations and energy behaviour change. The objective of DEM is to promote access to clean energy in rural Africa and spur economic growth.
Besides his professional engagements, Fhazhil is also a passionate youth mentor with a focus on education and holistic development. He is an Equity Leaders Programme (EPL) alumnus and currently mentoring with Wings to Fly programme (an education and leadership programme run by the joint partnership of Equity Group and MasterCard Foundations) in Kenya, Mamelodi Initiative in the Mamelodi township of South Africa and Stars EBIT mentors at the University of Pretoria. Fhazhil is a MasterCard Foundation Scholar at the University of Pretoria; currently writing a thesis on optimal control of renewable energy systems.
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Amanda is Medic Mobile's Director of Impact. She determines what metrics to measure across Medic's project implementations and builds systems to accomplish it. Amanda is passionate about leveraging data to design and scale technologies and workflows that have increasingly greater impact in the communities in which we work. Using principles of Human Centered Design, she also leads the organization's efforts in piloting new use cases. Previously, Amanda spearheaded the organization's data visualization efforts, designing and building dashboards to support operational decision making and impact monitoring for CHWs, clinics, and ministries of health.
While working at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Amanda became passionate about using mobile data collection for information and decision support during a disaster. After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, she led the analysis on a large, multi-sector needs assessment and saw firsthand how access to real-time quantitative information could enhance aid distribution and prioritization decisions. Since then, Amanda has found a new passion in applying a similar philosophy to health systems, using access to information and communication to positively influence health outcomes. She has worked with Partners In Health to design and implement an mHealth system to manage a cholera vaccination campaign in rural Haiti. Amanda studied applied physics and astronomy at Cornell University.
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Valerie is originally from Haiti and responsible for managing corporate and foundation partnerships for Kiva. Prior to joining Kiva, Valerie managed corporate partnerships for the Pan American Development Foundation in Latin America for three years where she developed regional multi-sector alliances. In 2008, Valerie was a Kennedy Fellow with the Haitian American Organization for Women where she focused on youth entrepreneurship and arts education. Valerie holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Stanford and a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Cambridge.
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Makafui Borbi Mastercard Foundation Scholar in Food Science, Michigan State University USA
Makafui Borbi is from Ghana, and is pursuing a Master's degree in Food Science. Growing up in Ghana, she realized how much agricultural produce is wasted during bumper harvests. This realization spurred her to seek solutions to this problem. Currently, Makafui is pursuing the feasibility of setting up a food processing factory in her community to process and preserve fresh agricultural produce in order to minimize post-harvest waste. Before coming to MSU in 2014, she was a teaching and research assistant at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Together with other teaching assistants, she helped to found Dynamic Research Access Media (DRE-AM) in 2013. DreAM is a registered NGO based in Ghana with the mission of communicating science and technology, and health-related research findings to local communities. DReAM’s major goals are to promote primary prevention of diseases; provide a vehicle through which to communicate science and local research findings to communities; support and promote science and research in Ghana; and to educate local communities on science and technology.
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Eye-opening experiences in her young days in Thailand and a strong sense of empathy led Anouck to engage in humanitarian work from a young age. In her work with the UN and grassroots NGOs across continents, she's had diverse roles from monitoring and evaluating social developments programmes in rural India, to advocating for the rights of refugees vis-à-vis governments and international donors in Iran and Rwanda.
Since she joined Crisis Action in 2012, Anouck has contributed to impactful campaigns involving diverse coalitions of 100+ NGOs and civil society members to protect civilians from conflict in the Central African Republic, Mali, and Israel- Palestine. She currently co-leads Crisis Action's international campaign on Syria. In this role she helps broker collaboration between Syrian civil society and humanitarian, human rights & conflict prevention organisations to foster conditions to bring the 5-year conflict to an end.
Anouck joins the Forum as part of the Skoll Foundation's Young Leaders' Programme. She is fluent in French and English, and dabbles in Swahili while trying to learn the ukulele.
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Antonio Fonseca joined Imazon as a trainee in 2008. In 2010 he graduated in environmental engineering and was hired as an assistant researcher to work at Imazon's deforestation monitoring program. In this program, I have quickly gained remote sensing end Geographic Information System (GIS) skills that led me to assume a technical coordinator of Deforestation Alert System (SAD). As current attributions, I am responsible to run SAD every month, coordinate the team and prepare the reports that are evaluated by the program supervisors. I have also gained experience in communicating SAD results to the general media in Brazil. In 2016, I will be seeking for graduate program in US Universities to strength my academic skills and expect to return to work in the Amazon region in the field of forest monitoring.
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Diana N-Peline Kombui is a member of CAMA (Camfed Association) – the pan-African network of educated young women. She is a graduate from Central University, where she studied B.Sc in Banking and Finance. She was supported by Camfed in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation during her tertiary education. Diana was the President of the University’s CAMA Campus Club and the Secretary for the Camfed Ghana-MasterCard Foundation Scholars Leadership Program. Diana has worked as an intern with Camfed Ghana to help organize leadership and enrichment activities for senior high school and tertiary students.
Diana is passionate about helping others. She is a role model, motivating and inspiring those who have little or no hope of pursuing their dreams. Building on her own experience and her passion for education, she provides vital community services in the Upper West Region of Ghana, where she organized voluntary vacation classes for junior high school students in her community. Diana also visited a number of senior high schools to encourage girls to study hard in spite of the challenges faced, and carried out a two-day advocacy program on teenage pregnancy and school drop outs for junior high school pupils in Lambussie – directly addressing some of these challenges. She currently serves as a member of an advisory group called, the Transition Advisory Group (TAG). Where she provides vital support to young girls to transit from High School to the Tertiary. Diana aspires to be an Auditor and eventually a Chief Executive of a financial institution. Education is her uppermost priority in life, and she hopes to pursue it to the highest level possible.
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Joseph Munyambanza Co-Founder, COBURWAS International Youth Organization to Transform Africa Uganda
A 25-year-old from the D.R. Congo fled from his home country to Uganda at the age of six due to conflict. With his friends, Munyambanza co-founded the organization COBURWAS International Youth Organization to Transform Africa (CIYOTA) at age 14 to educate refugee youth from Congo, Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda, and Sudan. Munyambanza excelled in his studies in the refugee camp in Uganda and graduated from the African Leadership Academy in 2010. He is a member of the British Council Global Changemaker network and a fellow at the African Leadership Network. Munyambanza is one of 15 young people chosen to serve as advisors on international education to the UN Secretary General. He graduated in biochemistry at Westminster College a MasterCard Foundation Scholar. He is the force behind different new initiatives in innovative education to empower young leaders in the Congo and Uganda. He was recognized along with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia as one of four Global Citizen Award winners of 2013. He was recognized named one of The 99 most influential Foreign Policy Leaders under the age of 33 by the Diplomatic Courier magazine. Munyambanza also awarded the Trailblazer Award by the African Leadership Academy in 2014
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Jean Bosco is the Founder and CEO of HABONA Ltd, a company that provides integrated waste management services and further processes the waste into affordable and environmentally friendly fuels such as biogas and biomass briquettes. Jean Bosco oversees the overall company management, public relations and fundraising. Upon founding HABONA, he was crowned as the 2014 Top Young Entrepreneur of Rwanda and he received the 2015 young achiever award by the First Lady of Rwanda. He has also won a number of other prizes, including the African Innovation and the India-Africa Young Visionary prizes. Jean Bosco holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Rwanda and is completing his final papers of CPA. He was selected as the 2015 Mandela Washington Fellow through the flagship program of the President Obama for Young African Leaders. Public speaking appearances include at the 2014 Pan-African Youth Conference and the 2014 Rwanda Day Celebration in Atlanta. He has also been invited by HRH Prince Andrew to pitch his business in Buckingham Palace, UK.
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Angela Nzioki Co-Founder & Country Manager, Pluspeople Kenya Limited Kenya
"Angela has a background in business and information technology from Strathmore University in Kenya. She is currently the Co-founder and Country Manager of Pluspeople Kenya/ Uhasibu, an IT company that has been recognized and awarded for its focus on empowering SMEs in East Africa by offering them IT solutions to manage their businesses more professionally.
Prior to Pluspeople, Angela co-founded Metro-Mobile a software development company that gave students a detailed summary of their university’s e-learning systems and co-curricular activities on their mobile phones. She is passionate about technology, small businesses in East Africa and the start-up scene in Sub- Saharan Africa. Angela is a strong advocate for mentorship, a champion for women in technology and volunteers in various mentoring programs in Kenya; one that focuses on mentoring young under-served girls, another for mid-level career women and another for older less privileged micro-business women owners.
For her leadership and social entrepreneurship work with Pluspeople Kenya and as an individual, Angela has been recognized as a Zambezi Prize Finalist presented by the Legatum Center at MIT and the MasterCard Foundation; She is a 2016 Skoll World Forum Young Leader; a 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow as part of President Barack Obama's Young Leaders Initiative (YALI); and a finalist of the McKinsey Next Generation Women Leaders award."
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Nica Santiago currently oversees the iFIGHT program at Visayan Forum Foundation, which seeks to empower youth as a driving force in fighting human trafficking and other forms of exploitation. As iFIGHT Coordinator, she works to develop partnerships with schools, colleges and local government units and is primarily responsible for leading major events, delivering speeches and seminars on human trafficking, and developing iFIGHT chapters. Nica is also a filmmaker, having been recognized at various festivals both domestically and internationally. Her short film, “Sa Wakas,” which discusses the right to reproductive health, won prizes at Cinemalaya 2013 and the Active Vista Film Festival 2013 and received selections at festivals in Poland and Australia as well. She is also an Artist-Teacher at the Philippine Educational Theater Association, where she conducts workshops regarding children empowerment and community resilience. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Mass Communication from Far Eastern University, Philippines.
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Sarah was born in France to a Tunisian father and a French mother. Influenced by her father who worked for years in the nonprofit sector, Sarah got involved in social causes at a young age to build youth centers, computer labs and public libraries in Tunisia’s marginalized communities. During her time at the Sorbonne, Sarah founded DREAM, an incubator for social and environmental students projects in Paris. In 2011, following the Tunisian revolution, Sarah, who had been leading a very comfortable life in Paris, decided to go back to her homeland of Tunisia. In Tunisia, Sarah saw that the levels of rural poverty, resulting from land desertification, were rapidly increasing. This eye opening experience led Sarah to her conviction that desertification and environmental degradation, leading to rural poverty, was the most pressing issue facing her community. She started by organizing a program called "Castle of Knowledge" in her grand-parents village (Bir Salah), offering women and youth the opportunité to get access to cultural and educational activities. Then she started planting trees with this community and created Acacias for all. Sarah is an Ashoka Fellow and Echoing Green #Climate Fellow.
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Lashon faced tremendous obstacles in his life, meeting racism, getting involved with the criminal justice system, and losing his father to street violence. These adversities caused him to become apathetic about education and ultimately led him to drop out of high school. He enrolled in YouthBuild, where the staff there empowered him to want more for himself and consider post-secondary education, leading eventually to enrollment and honors received at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Today, Lashon works at YouthBuild USA as the Student VOICES Coordinator and represents YouthBuild on the National Council of Young Leaders- Opportunity Youth United. In both roles, he serves as a local and national student leader, participating in speaking engagements across the country and connecting more opportunity youth to college and career pathways. He also serves on the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee for the Governor’s office of Massachusetts.
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During my student days, I realized that my business degree needed to be used for something more, besides just making money. I ventured from Serbia all the way to Cambodia to explore how social enterprises really work. Now, I spend my days with the Friends-International teams that save lives and build better futures for children, youth and families around the globe, but mainly in Southeast Asia. Seeing our solutions really work for the people – that’s something worth being part of. My role is to make sure that we have the right people doing the right job, and that they supported with training and tools to make their work outcomes best possible.
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Isaac Jonas Co-Founder Executive Director , Impact Africa Trust Canada
Isaac Jonas is the Co-Founder and Executive Director for Impact Africa Trust (IAT), a not for profit organization that was conceived by his inspiring participation at the Skoll World Forum of 2015. IAT is duly registered in Zimbabwe under protocol number MA913/2015. For more information about Impact Africa Trust work please visit our Website: www.impactafricatrust.org. He has also been working at the University of British Columbia(UBC) doing research on Marine ecosystems.In his spare time if nay is left, he reads and writes books. His first book publication is a biography called "The Serendipity of a Great Network", that traces his life journey from Zimbabwe to now Canada. The book is available online
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Natalie Moore Head of Education & Events, CDI Apps for Good England
Natalie Moore is the Head of Education & Events at Apps for Good. She joined the Apps for Good education team in January 2013, and since joining has grown the community of UK Education Partners from 100 to over 1000. Prior to this role Natalie worked for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games as the International Education Programme Coordinator for the Education Team. While in this role she managed an international school linking programme as well as supporting, developing and building relationships with schools that were part of the UK Get Set network. Natalie is particularly passionate about using education and new initiatives to create an environment that allows young people to be inspired and to achieve.
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Regina is co-founder of Asikana Network, an organisation that trains Zambian girls and young women in information and communications technology skills, so that they can find better jobs and realise their potential. Regina is planning to link Network members to mentors in order to develop their skills further in the future.
Joseph is an alumnus of African Leadership Academy and a current MasterCard Foundation Scholar, studying Transnational Studies and Global Social Entrepreneurship at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. Joseph is passionate about youth development and has begun using his skills to empower young people across Ghana through Youth Impact Workshop. In the past, he conducted research working with the MasterCard Foundation Youth Think Tank on effective youth engagement strategies for NGOs in Sub-Saharan Africa. He was also one of four Emerging Leaders to speak at the 2015 edition of Skoll World Forum. He has worked with the West Africa Civil Society Institute, Opportunity International and Simmons Foods. On campus, he serves as co-Organizer of TEDxWestminsterCollege and Founding President of the Westminster Debate Society. Joseph is a Resolution Fellow having won seed funding to implement the Nima Innovation Lab for Girls, a program that will nurture young women to start socially viable businesses in urban poor communities.
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Wiclif Otieno is a former street boy in Nairobi with a deep passion for social justice and a drive to create economic opportunities for young people in Kawangware slums. After becoming an orphan at the age of 7, he joined the streets to fend for himself and survived on the streets of Nairobi for five years. He was rescued by an American couple who invested in him by helping get him to school and other training.
He started Kito to give back to his former colleagues who were still facing the challenges of street life. he has steered Kito to a path of growth and has so far impacted the lives of over 200 youths through skills training in entrepreneurship and job readiness. Close to 50% of these youths have secured jobs or started their own income generating initiatives.
Wiclif has received several awards in recognition for his work. He is a Cordes Fellow, Spark Change maker Fellow, and most recently Laureate Global fellow, an initiative of International youth foundation. he is also a TEDx speaker having spoke at TEDxSanJoaqouin in California and Kibera Nairobi.
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I graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work and minor in Human Services at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, and joined Fundación Paraguaya in 2012. As Poverty Stoplight Coordinator, my responsibilities include the management of relationships with 18 organizations abroad replicating this methodology; communications with Hewlett Packard for software development; supervise methodology implementation at 35 private enterprises, governments and churches in Paraguay; lead team in charge of developing tools and solution strategies to the different Poverty Stoplight indicators. This team trains FP loan officers who in the past 3 years have helped 24000 families overcome income poverty, and 3200 families overcome poverty as measured by the 50 indicators in the Poverty Stoplight.
In addition, I am Project Manager for “Inclusive Microfinance Opportunities” implemented with USAID’s support which seeks to make a business case for financial inclusion of people with disabilities in microfinance institutions, and at the same time improve the living conditions of the participating families through the Poverty Stoplight.
Watch Poverty Stoplight video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVL92-0tVlc
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I am an ordinary woman but lucky enough to start my career in an NGO I’m proud to join at 2010. We nurture those innocent children either orphaned or at risk to reach their full potentials, through affluent programs and caregiver trainings. After having my own baby last year, I devote more with a whole heart to protect those fragile angels.
I just started my fifth year on this adventurous path, and I’m excited that Skoll opens arms to me.
I studied business administration and media production in China and UK in sequence. I was hoping that I could use media as a media to advocate for the weak and the neglected parties, before I came across NGO and non-profit. Then I found a more solid way to help.
I love thinking and am curious as a new-born. I love listening and playing music, which to me is the best communication with all and with the world. I am happy but never content on where I am.
Here I am, Oxford.
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Abigail is a remarkable young woman and a champion of social and economic change in her nation.
Abigail was born in 1988 in the rural district of Samfya, Zambia. She was orphaned at an early age and subsequently lived with her grandmother who encouraged her to study hard. However, as a result of poverty she struggled to pay the necessary school fees. Fortunately, Abigail was recommended by her school to receive bursary support from Camfed, an NGO that funds girls’ education.
Having lived through extreme poverty and realizing that education is the key to overcoming it, Abigail has acted tirelessly to extend similar opportunities to other young women. She is a leading member of the pan-African Cama network of young women (currently with 14,005 members). She was recently appointed to the position of Camfed Association Coordinator in charge of leadership.
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Rafiatu Lawal is passionate about education and the development of disadvantaged and rural communities. She comes from a family of 11, from a small village called Daboya in the Northern Region of Ghana. She is teaches home economics and general science at Nahadah Islamic Junior High School in Tamale. She is also the past national chairperson of CAMA (Camfed's Alumnae) network in Ghana. Cama is one of a kind in Africa, bringing together young women change-makers. It seeks to break the cycle of poverty in their families. She is deeply interested in education and in working to ensure that every child gets the opportunity of going to school. She is an alumnus of The MasterCard Foundation Youth Think Tank.
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Jenna Wachtel is the Director of Early Learning at the New Teacher Center, a national non-profit organization dedicated to improving student learning by accelerating the effectiveness of teachers and school leaders. After completing her graduate work at Stanford University, Jenna began teaching kindergarten and first grade in East Palo Alto, CA. Throughout her career, Jenna taught in early learning classrooms at regular public and charter schools in both high- and low-income communities. She has earned National Board Certification in Early and Middle Childhood Literacy, was named one of Splashlife’s 30 Under 30 Innovative Educators and participated in the Skoll World forum as an Emerging Young Leader.
In her role leading NTC’s Early Learning initiative, Jenna supports teachers, coaches, school leaders and district and community systems to provide high quality early learning opportunities to 3, 4 and 5 year olds through a comprehensive professional development structure. Her work has focused in California, Oklahoma, New York and Hawaii and continues to grow as NTC scales its support for Early Learning across the country.
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Marcel Fukayama is a Social Entrepreneur, Cancer Survivor and Cathedral Builder. Currently, he is involved with different initiatives in new economy. Co-Founder of Din4mo with the objective to empower entrepreneurs that solve social problems and to develop innovative structures that drive capital to both low income families and social enterprises. Co-Founder of Sistema B Brazil to strengthen the B Corp community and redefine success in business. Board member at Sistema B International and Investment Committee Member at Instituto C&A. Major in Business, MBA and MA in Public Admin at the London School of Economics. He is committed to work with the social society and policy makers and inspire innovation and new public policies. Previously, served as CEO of CDI Global working with a network in 15 countries to use technology for social change.
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While studying Information Systems Management at Ecole Centrale Paris, Ghislain spent a few months travelling through Cambodia where he volunteered with several NGOs and social enterprises. He graduated in 2007 with a major in Entrepreneurship and decided to further get involved: he returned to Cambodia and started to work for Friends-International. During 5 years based in Phnom Penh he advised and trained local teams developing and running projects supporting unemployed young people and caretakers in accessing better economic opportunities to build their futures. His work took him to Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Honduras. In 2013 he became Program Director for Indonesia, leading the development of a new program for Friends in Jakarta.
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Jamiel Alexander was written off as a negative statistic of street life in Philadelphia. He was court appointed to do community service in York, Pennsylvania in 2001. There he completed the Crispus Attucks YouthBuild Charter School AmeriCorps Program; he remains an active alumnus. Jamiel served as Manager of Youth and Family Programs for 12 years and was responsible for a variety of tasks from grassroots organizing to leadership development. Jamiel is always willing and ready to serve the community in any capacity. In 2012 he was appointed to serve on the National Council of Young Leaders as an adviser to policymakers. In 2014, Jamiel’s colleagues on the YouthBuild National Alumni Council elected him as their President. He was also appointed to the Aspen Institute Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund (OYIF). The OYIF is collective impact work that brings stakeholders together from all sectors.
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Julia Corvalan is an international development professional from Paraguay with expertise in South-South cooperation, development finance, and multi-dimensional poverty. In her role as Country Manager of the Fundacion Paraguaya (FP) in Tanzania, Julia led a US$5.7 million south-south cooperation program that is replicating social technology developed in South America, in Africa. The program took to scale the FP's innovative secondary school model, the Financially Self-Sufficient School, which enables schools to offset operating costs through entrepreneurial activities that simultaneously generate income and give youth hands-on business experience.
In 2014, Julia was appointed to the inaugural class of the ‘Emerging Leaders Initiative’ of the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, and in 2016 to the Aspen Institute’s New Voices Fellowship for global development experts. Julia is currently pursuing a PhD in Strategic Management at the University of Strathclyde Business School (UK), where she earned an MBA with distinction in 2015, serving as a ‘Female Leader of the Future’ Scholar.
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Born, raised and educated in Malawi, Mphatso Kachule is a growing leader in the NGO/social enterprise sector in Malawi. She has worked in various industries in her 6 year career as a development practitioner, gaining a unique management perspective.
Mphatso started her career as a secondary school teacher in a government institution right after completing her undergraduate degree in Education. She taught Home Economics, Geography, Social Studies and Life Skills Education for about a year and half before joining Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO). Mphatso worked for VSO for close to three years before joining Riders for Health where she works as Programme Manager. She manages Riders Malawi portfolio and works with her team to grow Riders' footprint in Malawi and increase its impact.
Mahdi Atmani Young Leader Initiative- INJAZ El Djazair, INJAZ El Djazair Algeria
Mahdi is the operations officer at INJAZ El Djazair, the Algerian branch of INJAZ Al-Arab, an affiliate of Junior Achievement. While he was in college, he created a [what kind of?] company called Zine Zmen with the support of INJAZ El Djazair. After a year, Zine went bankrupt and Mahdi worked in the foreign guarantees department of the ARAB BANK ALGERIA group. Ten months ago, he returned to his current role at INJAZ El Djazair.
He is an event planner and organizer, working on such events as an international Symposium focused on innovative management, and a recruitment forum with 6,000 attendees. As his final thesis for his Bachelor’s in 2012, he did research on angel investing—the first in the Maghreb region. He has a degree in Business from the Algerian Higher School of Commerce.
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Ph.D, Telecommunication: Intelligent Mobile Health Monintoring Systems (mHealth).
Telecommunication Expert Engineer : ATB (Algérie Télécom Broadband).
Researcher & Service designer : STIC Laboratory. (2010-2012)
Research assistant: CIG Group –Northumbria University at Newcastle, UK. (2012)
Software Engineer & Consultant :Vitaltronix (the pioneer in mobile medical manufacturing in the MENA : Mobile Health apps and Tele-medecine ). (2011)
IEEE , ATA and PNR Member.
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Joseph Ajao is an entrepreneur, engineer and technologist. He is an Alumni of Silicon Valley's top technology community, Singularity University and Stanford's BASES. He co-founded Oacsoft Technologies at 17, a software company that develops low-cost software for schools, SMEs and government agencies in Nigeria and has been featured on Forbes and other technology journals. He is currently an MBA (Finance) Student at the Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University and hopes to create an African-focused venture capital firm that will invest in budding technology entrepreneurs in Africa after completing his MBA. In 2013, Joseph was awarded "Top 50 Global Entrepreneur" by the World Bank/InfoDev in South Africa.
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AKAYEZU Aime Angelique Noela Enterprise Program Support Officer, Rwanda, The MasterCard Foundation/ Young Leaders Initiative - Youth Think Tank Rwanda
Aime Angelique Noela Akayezu holds a bachelor of science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Rwanda, COSTECH (formerly KIST). Her passion for empowerment led her to collaborate with different schools and organizations as a tutor. She completed entrepreneurship training in renewable energy with KIST-TBIF/EWSA. Wishing to empower the community, Noela then joined DOT Rwanda in 2012 as an intern; this gave her the opportunity to empower, exchange and learn from youth in her community. She participated in the 2013 DOT Digital Youth and Learning Unconference to share and learn about youth issues in different countries. She became a 2014 MasterCard Foundation Youth Think Tank member, conducting research on youth in the community for MasterCard Foundation youth programs. In 2013 she became an Enterprise Program Support Officer with DOT Rwanda, to empower vulnerable youth in building small projects to generate income.
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Fredrick Ouko Executive Director, Action Network for the Disabled Kenya
Fredrick Ouko Alucheli is the Executive Director of Action Network for the Disabled (ANDY). ANDY is a national disabled people's organization that invests in enhancing life prospects of children and youth with disabilities through education and sustainable livelihoods. He has also founded a social enterprise that facilitates access to job opportunities for persons with disabilities in Kenya known as Riziki Source (rizikisource.org)
He served on the Disability Rights Fund Global Advisory Panel. Fredrick is a board member of Little Rock Inclusive Early Childhood Education Centre, an educational institution that caters for children with disabilities.
In 2012, he was elected an Ashoka Fellow for his commitment towards issues of disability and employment and Atlantic fellow in 2017.He has BA in political science and sociology from the University of Nairobi, a postgraduate certificate in social innovation management from Amani Institute and currently finishing an MBA in Social entrepreneurship.
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Titus Mawano Young Leader Initiative- Mastercard, Ffene Ltd Uganda
Over 90% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa do not have any form of automation in their business processes. Storage, retrieval and processing are all done manually on paper. This slows down business and also prevents businesses from being able to capture the insights from their data that would enable them to make intelligent decisions. In June 2012, with a year left in college, Titus decided this was the problem he wanted to solve. He left school and has been building ffene.com, a low-cost business management platform for SMEs in the developing world, ever since.
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