One Young World Scholars past recipients

Ahmed is a medical doctor and public health practitioner who has been working in the sector for five years -currently as a consultant with the WHO to improve the quality of health care and patient safety. Earlier, he worked at Imperial College London as a researcher in public health, with a special focus on tobacco control and self-care.

Ahmed founded a youth initiative ‘School without walls’ which aimed to improve health literacy for youth aged 12-18 in Egypt. This was chosen as one of the most promising initiatives in the Arab world by the French Institute (Safirlab) program in Paris-2014 and Tunis-2015. Ahmed was recognized as one of the best science communicators in Egypt in 2014 by Famelab International Competition; has represented Arab youth in the First International Forum for Renewal of the Arab World in Paris-2015; and is a Chevening Award Alumnus 2017-18.

Alejandro is originally from Venezuela but now lives in Colombia where he studied Government and International Relations and volunteered widely, including for three years with AIESEC. 

He is the licensee and director of TEDxUExternado, the TEDx event of his university, and National Coordinator of The Right To Disobey, a social platform which aims to empower civil society in Colombia to create social change and influence public policy around issues such as clean air, migrants rights and citizen security.  

As a founding member of the National Citizen Network for Clean Air in Colombia Alejandro organizes
debates in public spaces and demonstrations gathering together activists, local governments, citizens and
academics to share their worries, knowledge and proposals to improve air quality in their cities and carry
out symbolic protests. Here you can see an example of our work. 

Andrea has been working for the past three years with FUNDANA, and she extended their services to vulnerable children by developing and launching the program that she now runs - NutriFamilias. The programme - which will be expanding this year through a partnership with UNICEF - operates in the Headquarters of FUNDANA, in an urban centre, and five rundown communities of Caracas.

As Head Dietitian Andrea’s role is to lead the team of dietitians and professionals working with vulnerable families by providing food rations and nutrition treatment for six months to children and pregnant and nursing women. 

Bagja started advocating for tobacco control in Indonesia in 2015, becoming a member of the Youth Movement for FCTC in 2016 when he ran the Children’s National Funwalk and a march with children and youth to commemorate Earth Day at his university with a focus on tobacco control.

Bagja went on to run FCTC shadow puppet shows in 25 cities to promote tobacco control to government officials. He also worked on the successful “Letters for the President (Surat untuk Presiden)” campaign.

Citra is part of the Youth Movement of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and hit the headlines in 2016 when she was filmed protesting to the Jakarta governor for allowing tobacco sponsorship in child-friendly parks. That worked and the sponsorship stopped in all 306 parks. From then she has gone on to other anti-tobacco advocacy, gathering over 11,000 signatures from young people to encourage the government to sign the FCTC and enforce tobacco control.

In addition to her work in YHP Indonesia Citra co-founded the Traditional Games Returns Community, a nationally acclaimed campaign to preserve traditional local games and so promote healthy outdoor physical activity. Around 10,000 people have been encouraged to play these games and so reduce their risk of contracting NCDs.

David is an international footballer from St Lucia and the senior youth coordinator at the Sacred Sports Foundation Inc the only non-profit organisation of its type in the Caribbean. The Foundation uses sport as a tool to promote inclusion and to tackle issues confronting youth today such as drugs and alcohol consumption, gender equality, employment, skills training, bullying and harassment, child rights, equal activity and poor mental health.

David has trained over 50 junior youth mentors island-wide to deliver all-inclusive sports sessions and to reach out to vulnerable youth living in remote and often violent communities. He has also pioneered partnerships with a wide range of organisations and as a result 30,000+ more young people are participating in physical activity and exercise on the island.

David trained as a primary school teacher, an IT specialist and expert mentor who also works as a peer-educator in Kibera and has been a very active member of the local community - enabling 250 children to go to, and stay in, school through his fundraising efforts.

David now uses his IT skills to reach out into the wider community with health-promotion messages and is very keen on the power of repetition to encourage understanding and long-term behaviour change. Not a day goes past without reminders about how to avoid NCD risk behaviours.

In Tijuana food in orphanages tends to be either scarce or poor quality – canned or processed foods high in sugars, fats and sodium and low in fibre. For the last three years Edith has been working with a group of individuals to create a successful, replicable and sustainable Garden-Based Learning Programme to teach orphans and vulnerable children living in orphanages about urban agriculture and nutrition, while helping them also to develop life skills that will help them thrive after they leave the orphanage at the age of 18.

The orphans, however, were not able to change much about their own diets because they were not allowed to choose their own meals - so Edith has also helped to create a Caretakers Programme, to teach orphanage caretakers and kitchen staff basic nutrition and gastronomy principles and how best to use the food they have available to them at their orphanages.

In 2018 Edith helped to set up Create Purpose Mexico AC to take this work forward and in 2019 received the "Valuable Citizen" Award by the Kybernus Collective for the work she has done in Tijuana.

In 2008, Ferdy’s beloved aunt died from complications of diabetes and he helped to carry her corpse for burial in the village. 

Ferdy was inspired by the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs (2008 -2013) and, with his Director’s support, started building the first comprehensive national NCD Prevention and Control Program in Cameroon. 

Ferdy leads an awareness and screening campaign in ten health districts in seven regions of the country that has now screened 50,000 people for NCD risks, and persuaded the Ministry of Health to complete the National NCD strategic plan, deliver a statement at the 3^rrdd UNHLM on NCDs and run a national STEPS survey in 2019 

Children and the youth will determine the future world - and mobilising healthcare policies for them paves a smooth route towards future healthy communities across the world. 

Our non-profit,  itetero iwacu, strives to provide a preschool education in vulnerable areas of the country, refine nutrition, advocate for people with NCDs, and mobilise NCD prevention and control policies especially for children and young adolescents.

I also help run NCD Child Youth Voices Connect, an online conversation among young advocates interested in getting more involved in Non-Communicable Diseases advocacy for children, adolescents, and young people.

For the last three years Kalaumari has been leading a research group of students in projects including novel biosensors for diabetes monitoring and nanostructured systems for the delivery of cardioprotective and antitumoral nutraceutical compounds.

Whilst at the CIDETEQ, a Mexican research centre, he participated on the coordination of two research projects to develop a system for the destruction of biological and chemical pollutants in water in rural communities.

As a PhD research student, he is working on the development of a novel device to deliver more precise diagnosis and monitoring of cancerous cells in patients. If this device is successful, it could improve the quality of life of a large number of people with cancer. He is also research trainee in BWH, Harvard Medical School.

Kamal-deen Kassim holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, is an alumnus of Young African Leaders Initiatives (YALI), a Mandela Washington Fellow and a 2018 UNLEASH multi-awardee. He is also a member of the Global Shapers Community, Lagos hub, an initiative borne out of the World Economic Forum where he currently serve as the Regional Lead (West Africa), Climate and Environment Steering Committee.

At Project Gaia Inc., a multinational non-profit organisation which focuses on bio-renewable energy projects in Africa, he has been working to improve indoor air quality by developing and promoting clean cooking technologies.  The pilot project has led to a partnership with Shell Nigeria and Forte Oil PLC with 2,500 biofuel-powered stoves estimated to take 150,000 people in Lagos out of energy poverty.

Katrina is a Senior Writer at MindWise a mental health project which has become a hub for mental health advocacy in the Caribbean and an Executive Committee member in the Movement for Global Mental Health peer network.

For the last ten years Katrina has been involved in grassroots activism with her advocacy  focusing on inclusivity, particularly for people with disabilities and those along the LGBTQIA spectrum. With SOW Young Adult Foundation She has provided one-on-one mentorship, spoken word mentorship, concerts, worked in homework centres and developed and run peer building workshops

Laura is Estonian but lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. As a committed sportsperson she was Secretary-General of the Estonian Judo Association for three years whilst completing her Masters Degree in Law, and now works as a project manager at the International Sport and Culture Association, promoting physical activity through 200 member organisations.

Laura is also very active in her private life as an International Olympic Committee Sport and Active Society Commission member and Young Leader , and European Non-Governmental Sport Organisation Youth Young Delegate where she is responsible for magnifying the voice of youth in the grassroots sport sector in Estonia and Denmark.

Mary has grown up in the informal Kibera settlement in Nairobi, where she works as a peer-educator for the Young Health Programme, particularly using poems, plays, singing and sketch work to involve young people interested and involved in looking after their own health.

Mary draws on her own experience of sexual and gender-based violence to educate girls on this subject and on sexual and reproductive health, and is a human rights activist speaking up for the rights of young people.

For more than 10 years, Mbulelo has been the Master Coach at Kick4Life, a local organisation aimed at changing young people’s lives through sport, especially football, and equipping them with knowledge on HIV/AIDS issues and broader life skills.

Mbulelo helps to design the youth programming, recruits, trains and observes volunteers as they facilitate youth programming sessions in the communities and schools.

The curricula supports young people in three areas:

• Healthy mind: to help participants develop self-confidence and self-esteem
• Healthy body: to empower young people with knowledge about protecting and enhancing health.
• Healthy attitudes and behaviours: to support participants in developing values and positive behaviours around health, inclusivity, indiscrimination, respect and gender equality.

Rizqi Mahardhika (Indonesia)

YHP Project Assistant, Plan International Indonesia

Rizqi lives in Bogor to the south of the capital Jakarta in an area with a lot of youth smoking, alcohol consumption, teenage pregnancy, child marriage and depression. From a young age Rizqi got active organising three children’s youth groups to stand up for their rights, and now undertakes research qualitative and quantitative research on issues around childhood smoking, running workshops.

Rizqi is campaigning both online and offline to encourage the local government to adopt a long-term action plan to stop the distribution of tobacco products to children and young people, to restrict advertisements, promotions and sponsorship activity, and to enforce smoke-free regulations.

Sakina Abdul (Kenya)

Peer Educator, Plan International Kenya

Sakina has been working with the YHP as a peer-educator since 2016, in addition to her job as a social worker, with a focus on the marginalised Muslim communities of the Kibera townships where she visits the madrassas and mosques to carry the message about NCDs. Among her many messages is persuading Nubian women to reduce the amount of oil in their cooking – which they were afraid to do in case their husbands divorced them.

When she was denied a visa to attend a side event at the World Health Association 71^st congress in Geneva Sakina shot a video of herself challenging world leaders to engage seriously with young people – which was then played at the event.

Samuel is the founder of Food and Genes Initiative- a non-profit organization aimed at improving the wellbeing of humans through advocacy and research.

Samuel is currently the campaign director of 365 DAYS (Drug Abuse Youth Sensitization) in Nigeria and the team lead of the Teenager Against Drug Abuse Campaign going on across the country. He facilitated National Drug And Alcohol Facts Week  organized by National Institute on Drug Abuse across six states in Nigeria. He is a volunteer with sustyvibes, a member of Sustainable Development Goals group for Youths Corps Members in Lagos, Nigeria and the Project Manager of Get Education Get a Skill, Nigeria.

Samuel is presently taking a diploma course on Drug Addiction Management at University of British Columbia, Canada.

Siddhaarth co-founded LonePack, one of India's first youth-led mental health non-profits. His vision is to make mental health accessible to every young person in India and over the last three years he has facilitated mental health awareness and emotional well-being workshops at colleges, corporate offices and schools across India. Close to 7000 people have taken part in these events with attendance steadily increasing.

Siddhaarth has coordinated an awareness campaign, LonePack Letters in collaboration with Google, Uber Eats, Freshdesk and others which has reached over 70,000 people across India and beyond, and co-created LonePack Buddy, an online, anonymous, peer-to-peer support system.

Stephen is a Population Health expert and the founder and CEO of Stowelink Inc,. Stowelink is a youth-driven social enterprise using innovative and disruptive approaches to spread messages focusing on non-communicable diseases . It uses art for health, youth-led medical camps and technology for health through MyHeart_Ke and MCure Apps. Its messages have reached to an estimated 2.5 million people.

Stephen is a Young African Leaders Initiative fellow and a Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership programme fellow. In 2018 he represented East and Central Africa during the World Obesity Patient Summit organised by the World Obesity Federation in London.

Surbhi works on evidence-based advocacy, researching on sexual and reproductive health and rights, and non-communicable diseases. She is currently working on enhancing access to mental health services for sexual minorities by integrating gender in medical education in India. She understands the importance of actively engaging with the health system and has facilitated the training of nearly 60 health care professionals on the topic of 'Health and Human Rights'.

Surbhi believes that adolescent health is greatly influenced by social determinants and actively participates in advocacy by the India chapter of the People's Health Movement.

Victor Ugo is a 29-year-old medical doctor and founder of Nigeria's largest mental health peer network, one of Africa’s largest youth mental health networks, Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (MANI). 

MANI won the 2017 Nelson Mandela-Graca Machel innovation award for the best civil society organization and Victor has been inducted as one of the 100 Sparks of Hope across the world by The Elders (an organisation of past world leaders founded by Nelson Mandela). Victor pioneered the setup of the most active distress hotline in the country with over 10,000 interventions in 18 months using only limited resources. He is also the Nigerian representative for the Global Mental Health Peer Network.

Vinicius is a fourth-year student at the University of Sao Paulo and has set up Meu Amigo Medico an online site that provides advice and support for young people, to help them to manage their own health through a series of short videos. These are mostly produced in cooperation with the academic staff at the university, with engaging and practical content.

Vinicius set this up as a result of his own experience of the Brazilian health system in which patients sometimes do not take responsibility for own wellbeing and care – the site explains why and how to do this and engages young people in a simple and familiar way. 

Effective healthcare for children and adolescents not only benefits an individual, but also benefit the countries’ prosperity and well-being from generations to generation. As a Medical Student I am passionate about this kind of “sustainable health”.

I run “CALM – Children and Adolescent Life Matters”, which comprises an online platform for youth to ask healthcare experts confidential questions; an online blood registry; a social platform promoting healthy lifestyles; and a constantly updated source of adolescent health information available in three languages (English, Sinhala & Tamil).

Gajarishiyan Rasalingam
Founder CALM
Sri Lanka

I have supported a project called Hayaan the aim of which is to raise mental health awareness in the Somali community. Mental health is still a taboo subject in my Somali community, so much so that a Somali word for mental health illness does not exist.

As a PhD candidate at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London my primary interest lies at the intersection of global health and social justice. I have a particular interest in understanding the mechanisms of health systems strengthening in fragile states.

Hamdi Issa
PHD Student
UK

I know first-hand what it means to live with a mental illness. I got lucky. I got care, I got hope, I got love and I got support. But over 40% of youth are rendered unproductive because of mental, psychological and emotional health challenges.

So I started my organisation, “She Writes Woman”, a movement of love, hope and support for women living with mental disorders in Nigeria. This set up the first 24/7 mental health helpline in the country; Safe Place, a monthly women-only mental health support group; and Hope Visits providing support and skills for patients at psychiatric hospitals.

Hauwa Ojeifo
Founder & Executive Director, She Writes Woman
Nigeria

We will never have a progressive society when its majority population (young people) are not living healthily – managing this must be cost effective as a majority of the entire humanity come from humble backgrounds unable to afford/raise funds for treatment.

I am a volunteer village person in the Young Health Programme and a community health volunteer (CHV) with the ministry of health and myself own a blood pressure machine which I usually offer free screening services to my community, and through this a lot of people have known their blood pressure status and many more have been referred for further treatments. 

Ibrahim Hassan
Plan International Volunteer
Kenya

Poor access to emergency services causes one out of three deaths in Africa and other third world countries. I nearly died from a ruptured appendix and so set up Usalama, a mobile based platform that links victims of emergencies to service providers at the tap of a button. We now have thousands of downloads from more than 15 countries and have processed many emergency distress messages via our platform.
I believe that participation in the One Young World Summit will enable me to keep innovating and create better solutions to save more lives.

James Chege
Marketing Director - Usalama Technology Limited
Kenya

My dream is that no young man or woman ever faces an STI, sexual abuse, or teenage pregnancy that could affect their health and plans for the future.

In 2013 I co-founded the Student-Led Federation BIDESIDA UANL (Search, Diffusion of Information and Education about AIDS, is the acronym in Spanish) aiming to reach the 174,000 students of the UANL, the third largest university in Mexico.

Working alone is not enough - through the One Young World Summit I want to keep learning from other leaders who are making a change in their communities and implementing best practice. 

Jose Manuel Besares Lopez
International Health Consultant & Co-Founder of BIDESIDA UNANL
Mexico

Young people have all the energy, and innovative and disruptive thinking, needed to change the world.  But to create the world we want, they need to access their rights, especially the essential ones, such as health rights.

I am following what I believe by working for Plan International Brasil as Families That Take Care Project Coordinator  to help youth to access qualified public health services in the Capão Redondo and Grajau regions of Sao Paulo. 

I have been working in close cooperation with professionals, families and the most inspiring young people since I graduated in Public Administration in 2012.

I lost my Grandfather because of his addiction to cigarettes. It was heart breaking, especially as there are more like him, especially youth. So I co-initiated the Youth Movement for FCTC with the help of the Lentera Anak Foundation.

We work to break down the influences that cause youth to smoke: massive tobacco ads, promotion and sponsorship; cheap cigarette prices; loose regulation on cigarette sales and create smoke-free areas.

Our actions range from taking down hundreds of tobacco ads, gathering thousands of letters, playing shadow puppets, conducting theatrical street rallies, and compiling petitions to encourage our president to enforce tobacco control.

Margianta Surahman Juhanda Dinata
Co-Initator and Spokesperson of Youth Movement for FCTC
Indonesia

In developing countries health care could be drastically improved by leveraging existing technologies and practices.

I co-founded ADVIN, a social enterprise, with two entrepreneurs from Bangladesh to make primary healthcare accessible to all, particularly those in rural regions of Southeast Asia.

We have just signed a deal with the Bangladeshi government to roll-out 1000 centres across the country, to serve approximately 4.6 million people.

Using our digital devices we’re able to diagnose health problems sooner and more effectively than through traditional informal care providers or government hospitals, where patients face exorbitant “referral” fees and poor treatment.

Quinn Underwood
Co-founder ADVIN
Canada

As a social worker my passion and duty is to make young people aware of health risks and how to avoid them, so that they can live safely and access youth friendly health services as needed.

I am most passionate working on sexual and reproductive health, tobacco and the harmful use of alcohol.

I have been working in the development sector since 2006 on different issues but, since joining the YHP, I have focused on issues related to SRH - these are still the same for girls now as when I was their age.

Safeena Bano
India

75.7 % of Indonesians smoke before they are 18 years old. We have the third highest percentage of the population who smoke in the world, after China and India.

I have been collaborating with 30 schools in my hometown, with 60 teachers and 9000 students, to increase awareness about smoking or tobacco use being really dangerous.

I have facilitated groups of students who wanted to declare their school to be a “No Smoking Area” and to replace cigarette advertising with educational banners.

We declare that young people refuse to be a target of tobacco industry and now are campaigning with the government.

Siti Syifauún Nufus Zainuddin
Project Coordinator Young Health Project
Indonesia

Access to healthcare must be looked at with a systems-level approach.

For this reason, I have worked to interconnect healthcare with economic, education, and environmental advances that promote a sustainable world. Currently, I am Co-Founder of OSV, a non-profit social impact fund launching shortly that invests capital, resources, and mentorship in young social entrepreneurs working to improve healthcare, promote economic stewardship, and eradicate poverty.

Through this organisation, and other engagements, I look at healthcare as a structure-based system that requires support across all key entry points of medical delivery in order to ensure all individuals achieve their best wellbeing. 

Sohil
Co-Founder, OSV
United States

I am passionate about making information about women's health and bodies easily accessible to women in India. This is the first and crucial step towards healthcare, in which women are currently systemically blindsided and medically under-researched.

I started a FemTech platform, TheaCare: Women's Health Companion, and we use digital media in addition to on-ground work. We are also organizing FemmeCon, which is India's first women's health festival. 

I want to watch, listen and learn about healthcare conversations and innovations taking place around the world at the Summit and infuse fresh, brave thought in the women's healthcare space in India.

Swarnima Bhattacharya
Founder, TheaCare: Women's Health Companion
India

I am a public health enthusiast and am passionate about the prevention of diseases - and the social repression and stigma associated with being diseased. As a health advocate and mentor I run awareness campaigns for the prevention of NCDs and its risk factors (alcohol and tobacco use) for and by the youth in India.

I want to break down the stigma of being diseased. We need patients and health system actors to realise the importance of prevention and early detection even in young people. I want to work towards making people understand that it is the right of the patient whether old or young to get the correct treatment at the right time.

Vindhya Vatsyayan
India