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NEW GENERATION, NEW SOLUTIONS

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2021 YOUNG ACTIVISTS SUMMIT

The 2021 edition honoured six young individuals and their solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. Through their ground-breaking initiatives, innovations, or inventions, the 2021 laureates demonstrated that young people are paving the way for a more sustainable and equal world.

#YAS21 brought together youngsters from at least 140 countries and gave them a platform to discuss, rally and act together – thus fostering peace, cultural tolerance and international cooperation.

WATCH THE OFFICIAL SUMMIT

English, عربي, Español

WATCH THE GLOBAL DISCUSSION

Français, عربي, Español

ACTIVISTS

GITANJALI RAO

15 YEARS OLD, USA

Anti-cyberbullying service

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JOSE QUISOCALA

16 YEARS OLD, PERU

Bank for children’s education

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LUAL MAYEN

26 YEARS OLD, SOUTH SUDAN

Video games for peace

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LOUISE MABULO

23 YEARS OLD, PHILIPPINES

Sustainable Farming & Climate Resilience

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TITOUAN BERNICOT

22 YEARS OLD, FRENCH POLYNESIA

Super-corals for ocean conservation

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Stacy Dina Adhiambo Owino

21 YEARS OLD, KENYA

Female Genital Mutilation prevention app

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VISIBILITY

  • • The #YAS21 hashtag reached over 16 million people around the world (65M impressions) on social media.
  • • The online session gathered around 7,000 people live from 140 countries, including Bangladesh, Chile, Gambia, Libya, Malawi, Maldives, Mozambique, Pakistan, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago, Yemen etc.
  • • The Young Activists Summit was covered by prominent media, i.e. The Guardian, TV5MONDE, SkyNews, FranceInfo, Agencia EFE, ARD, Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS), Le Temps, swissinfo.ch, UN News, etc. #YAS21 laureate Titouan Bernicot was invited to take part in the 19.30 TV news programme which is followed by over 300,000 people every day.
  • • The teaching kit was downloaded by 201 educational actors from 59 countries including Canada, DRC, Haiti, India, Ireland, Kenya, Morocco, Niger, Pakistan, South Sudan, USA, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

  • • Driving concrete impact through the One Right, One Action, One Tree initiative: 2,000 trees and corals were planted through this initiative which invited the audience to advance the laureates’ causes in concrete ways. For each commitment received, a tree or coral was planted either in Switzerland, or in Brazil, French Polynesia, Kenya or in the Philippines.
  • • Empowering the activists through significant media coverage, capacity-building, training, fundraising & networking: Many positive outcomes were reported following the strategic meetups and the VIP dinner with the activists and decision-makers/experts. Lual Mayen was invited to take part in President Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy following his #YAS21 award. Angelina Jolie offered Gitanjali Rao to organize workshops in Cambodia.
  • • Fostering intergenerational dialogue & building bridges
  • • Reaching millions of young people all around the world

DONATIONS

A donation was granted to each of the 2021 Activists to carry out a field project, thus enabling the Young Activists Summit to have a concrete and long-lasting impact on the ground.

CO-ORGANIZED BY

dev.tv, non-profit NGO of media professionals

United Nations Office at Geneva

Radio Télévision Suisse and its GenèveVision label

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies

MEDIA

TV5MONDE

Swissinfo

GenèveVision

FOUNDATIONS

Fondation Hélène & Victor Barbour

Fondation Botnar

Fondation pour Genève

Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung

Switzerland for UNHCR

GOVERNMENTS & PUBLIC ENTITIES

Swiss Confederation, Republic and State of Geneva, City of Geneva

Permanent Mission of the United States of America

European Union

Permanent Mission of Canada

Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom

Institute of Genetics and Genomics, University of Geneva (iGE3)

NGOS & ASSOCIATIONS

Loterie Romande

Global Citizen

International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH)

NORDESTA Reforestation & Education

Geneva Youth Call (GYC)

Eduki

Step into Action

RightsTech Women

OneAction

UN AGENCIES

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

UNESCO’s International Bureau of Education (UNESCO-IBE)

United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

UN Women

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR)

International Trade Centre (ITC)

UNESCO Green Citizens

PRIVATE SECTOR

Almighty Tree

Fred Didon Créations

OS Objectif Sécurité SA

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Gitanjali rao

Anti-cyberbullying service

15 YEARS OLD, USA

… is a scientist and the first ever TIME Magazine’s ‘Kid of the Year’. Gitanjalihas developed various tools to detect the amount of lead content in water, to help the early diagnosis of prescription opioid addiction, and to counter cyberbullying. Gitanjali developed a problem-solving methodology, which she has socialized to over 50,000 students around the world, including in Afghanistan and refugee camps.

Photo credits: Sharif Hamza / TIME

MORE ABOUT GITANJALI

Jose Quisocala

Bank for children’s education

16 YEARS OLD, PERU

… founded the ‘Banco del Estudiante Bartselena’, a bank for children and the environment, at the age of 7. With the recyclable waste that his children customers pick, they earn money on their bank accounts in order to pay for their food or school tuition. Jose’s initiative won UNICEF’s International Prize in 2014 and the Children Climate Prize in 2018. To date, 2,500 children aged between 7 and 18 have used this bank to buy food and/or study, and 4,000 more are in the process of being enrolled.

MORE ABOUT JOSE

LUAL MAYEN

Video games for peace

26 YEARS OLD, SOUTH SUDAN

… developed ‘Salaam’, a video game which allows players to adopt the role of a refugee who must flee falling bombs, find water and gain energy points to ensure the character’s survival as the player’s country journeys from a war-torn present into a peaceful existence. Through inapp purchases, players support NGOs working on the ground to provide refugees living in camps with basic necessities. As a newborn in his parents’ arms, Mayen endured a 225-mile trek from his war-torn home in South Sudan to a refugee camp in Northern Uganda. He now lives in the United States, where he also founded a foundation to train refugees and provide them with game development skills.

Photo credits: 1) Catie Dull/NPR – 2) Lual Mayen

MORE ABOUT LUAL

Louise Mabulo

Sustainable Farming & Climate Resilience

23 YEARS OLD, PHILIPPINES

… is the founder of The Cacao Project, an initiative that provides farmers in the Philippines with cacao plant seedlings and teaches them how to responsibly and sustainably produce cacao. The project aids reforestation efforts has helped with the revival of two water sources from increased water retention in soil, has planted 70,000 trees, and trained over 200 farmers. She was recognized as a Young Champion of the Earth 2019 by UNEP and by Forbes in its ‘30 under 30’list.

MORE ABOUT LOUISE

Titouan Bernicot

Super-corals for ocean conservation

22 YEARS OLD, FRENCH POLYNESIA

… founded ‘Coral Gardeners’, an association is revolutionizing ocean conservation and generating a collaborative action to restore the reefs of Moorea, French Polynesia, and beyond. As a child of the ocean, Titouan knew something had to be done to save the lungs of the ocean and the future of our marine ecosystems when he was 20. The association has three main missions: raise awareness, restore and innovate. To date, more than 15,000 corals have been replanted.

MORE ABOUT TITOUAN

Stacy Dina Adhiambo OWINO

Female Genital Mutilation prevention app

21 YEARS OLD, KENYA

… developed a ground-breaking app called ‘iCut’, together with a group of four other young Kenyan girls called ‘The Restorers’. The app allows girls who are facing imminent FGM to alert the authorities by clicking a distress button on their mobile phone. It makes it easier for young women to seek help and find a rescue center.

MORE ABOUT STACY

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