https://reasonstobecheerful.world/shark-tank-youth-social-entrepreneurs/
"Christelle Kwizera was still a teenager and hadn’t even graduated from her
engineering studies when she decided to tackle an urgent problem in her home
country: safe water sources for local villages in Eastern Rwanda. “Crocodiles
had migrated into the local lakes, and their only source of food was people and
animals,” Kwizera learned. She had a serious crush on MacGyver, the 1980s TV
hero and genius problem solver who outsmarts his enemies with scientific
knowledge. He inspired her to study mechanical engineering in Oklahoma, and in
the summer of 2014, at 20 years old, she raised $75,000 to dig 13 new boreholes
in Rwanda with a team of young locals. She initially thought of it as a summer
project, but fast-forward 10 years, and her social enterprise company, Water
Access Rwanda, has secured safe water access for over 165,000 Rwandans through
a network of boreholes, purified clean water microgrids and irrigation systems
for farmers.
Kwizera could not have started her company without the support of investors
including the Clinton Global Initiative, the Sierra Club and the WHO, but among
the investors to believe in her were the founders of Resolution Project.
Resolution also granted $3,000 to Kwizera for another venture, Ingabo Safe
Sites, which is a program for youth by youth, working to provide affordable and
confidential access to sexual and reproductive health.
Resolution Project CEO George Tsiatis and his co-founders started the nonprofit
in 2009 to support young changemakers like Kwizera. They focus on college
students who have a brilliant idea but lack the means to implement it. “We’re
looking for young people who are ready to be leaders, who know the problem
really well and are willing to commit to building solutions,” Tsiatis says via
video conference from his new office in The Hague, Netherlands.
The idea for Resolution Project grew out of the Harvard World Model United
Nations, a prestigious annual international conference for students to discuss
the most pressing issues facing their generation. Tsiatis, who majored in
Byzantine studies at Harvard, was one of several alumni who noticed, “All these
energized young people gather in one place for five days, ready to change the
world, but the most that comes out of it is a few Facebook friend requests.
That’s such a missed opportunity.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
