One Young World Ambassadors are leading projects in every country of the world, creating substantial social impact across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Every month our Coordinating Ambassadors select someone from their region who has created significant social impact locally, regionally or even worldwide.
This Month's Featured Projects in Numbers
44 k+
people impacted across the spotlight projects
400 k
hectares monitored across three countries
Meet the Ambassadors
She/Her
Gaby Mariela Perales Quito - Perú
Gaby Mariela is the Founder of Caravana Cartonera, where she promotes reading and writing through the elaboration of cardboard books. The books also serve the purpose of creating conscience on reducing inorganic waste. Caravana Cartonera directly addresses SDG 4 and 13 at once. Through Caravana Cartonera, Gaby has impacted 54 children. Meanwhile, with Educación Rural con STEAM (Rural Education STEAM), she has impacted 46 students.
Gaby is also the Founder of Educación rural con STEAM (Rural Education STEAM), where she promotes science through projects designed to address the background and needs of the students. In the rural communities where she worked, Gaby focused on reading comprehension and ensuring that learning about science was fun.
She is also the Co-Founder of Enseñanza TIC (Enseñanza TIC), a company founded in the beginning of the pandemic to support teachers nationally and internationally on their use of ICT. With Enseñanza TIC (Teaching TIC), the team impacted approximately 13,000 teachers.
He/Him
Dr. Pedro Fernandez - Spain
Pedro works as a postdoctoral researcher in the Biogeography Conservation Lab of Professor Tobias Kuemmerle at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Here, he is working on a project analysing the impact of different land systems on biodiversity across Tropical Dry Forests.
Pedro is also the co-founder of Terratio, which provides cattle ranchers with a platform that estimates remote environmental and productive performance using spectral and climatic data from satellites and field registers. The software allows them to digitise the production process, estimate improvement scenarios, analyze climate risks, and measure carbon footprints. Terratio is also helping them overcome barriers to adopting more sustainable practices by promoting financial mechanisms such as carbon credits to increase carbon sequestration through improving grassland management or restoring tree cover.
Terratio is currently monitoring 400,000 hectares in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. The plots analyzed have the potential to increase productivity by 50% on average, through the increase in water distribution and the reduction of grassland degradation. The organization will restore 5,000 hectares of native forest in the next few years.
She/Her
Grace Braimah - Ghana
United Way is the world's largest privately-supported non-profit organization, with nearly 1,100 community-based United Ways in 37 countries and territories. The organisation helps communities globally by focusing on education, income and health - the building blocks for a good quality of life. United Way's Ghana branch currently has community impact activities across the country. United Way Ghana has been instrumental in providing relief to people affected by flooding caused by the Akosombo and Kpong hydro-dams. About 25% of those affected have found refuge in other communities in Ghana, with 12,000 people displaced from their homes.
As the community coordinator of United Way Ghana, Grace works on the ground to assess the needs of the community and help provide relief support for the people who are badly affected. The impact of the Akosombo Spillage is profoundly felt in Mepe, the community hardest hit by the flood. The severity of the situation surpasses what has been depicted in news reports. Through this, Grace and United Way Ghana gave been providing humanitarian assistance including shelter, food and medical care.
He/Him
Khalid Hossain - Bangladesh
Khalid is the co-founder of Inkam, a digital distribution platform for products and services, connecting businesses directly with consumers. Inkam’s aim is to reduce the digital divide that is perpetuating disparities in Bangladesh, recognising the vast potential of the digital economy remaining inaccessible to many and their rapidly growing informal economy market. The first platform of its kind in Bangladesh, they enable users to become active agents by reselling digital products and doing micro jobs with a limited skill set.
As of October 2023, Inkam serves a community of over 14,000 active agents and covers 99% of Bangladesh. For the next year, they want to raise that number to 50,000 active agents on their platform.
At Inkam, they want to continue democratising digital access across the country, as well as creating income opportunities for low-skilled and unemployed individuals to empower them and provide them with an opportunity to achieve financial freedom.
She/Her
Lina Alvarez - Colombia
Lina is the Founder and Director of El Cuarto Mosquetero, a communication organisation that aims to amplify the multicultural voices of those living in the outskirts and rural communities from the Amazon and Orinoquia regions in Colombia. El Cuarto Mosquetero is a young women-led media team that works around four axes: peace, gender, land and culture.
El Cuarto Mosquetero offers empathetic journalism, and education to people on communication skills. Through their Reporteritos and Reporteritas Populares project, they have formed more than 800 children and young people that are from marginalised communities. Their Escuela Itinerante de Comunicación para la Paz has impacted 150 children, young people, farmers, and former FARC members since 2021. Additionally, they have impacted 100 people through their volunteering process.
El Cuarto Mosquetero also has a media agency, where they offer design, communications, audiovisual and sound production. They have created 2,250 articles and media content amplifying the voices of the aforementioned populations. The team is currently working with 300 people to amplify their voices and help them generate impact.
She/Her
Şadiye Işısal - Cyprus
Şadiye is dedicated to fostering positive and transformative changes to her divided island, Cyprus. She is passionate about the reunification of Cyprus, becoming an activist at eight years old on the reunification referendum protests. She has in-field expertise in conflict resolution and peacebuilding. Şadiye is currently working on the grant programme established for the economic development of the Turkish Cypriot community, as part of the EU Innovative Entrepreneurship (IE) project implemented by NI-CO.
She is a United Nations Youth Champion for Environment and Peace, raising action and driving action within the fields of Environment and Peace, fostering youth engagement in decision-making processes.
Şadiye was also featured in the multi-city action called Peace Begins With Me by Inside Out Project along with activists, advocates, and diplomats who helped their countries navigate the difficult path from war to peace. Şadiye’s innovative idea on PeaceTech has recently been accepted for an accelerator programme run by UNDP Cyprus and SocialTech Lab.
She/Her
Maria Fernanda Ribeiro - Brazil
Maria Fernanda is a YouthLead.org Ambassador in Brazil, a programme designed for young changemakers positively impacting their community through service, activism, advocacy, education, and entrepreneurship. The network members are focused on finding solutions by connecting people, ideas, and resources to tackle critical issues affecting young people at home and around the world.
She is also the General Manager of Vote for Her Fortaleza (Vote Nelas), a national project created in 2018 aimed to increase female representation in politics. Maria Fernanda focuses on the Fortaleza chapter, and attends to regional necessities.
Globally, YouthLead.org has almost 800 projects registered by 17,186 members. Besides that, the platform offers more than 7,000 funding opportunities and resources, including mentorship opportunities, campaigns, and events. Vote for Her Fortaleza during the last regional elections, interviewed approximately 40 female candidates, launched two campaigns about the importance of representation in decision-making, and promoted five workshops open to the public.