#grantrecipients

[alumnities]

Africa Alumni TIES – Addis Ababa Small Grants Competition

Congratulations to the winners of the Africa Alumni TIES – Addis Ababa Small Grants Competition! Thank you to everyone who submitted a proposal. Please find below the winning proposals, team members, and project descriptions:

CONGRATULATIONS TO: Organizing a Business Idea Competition on Low Cost Energy Solutions Team Members: Tawetu Abreha Zerue, Mizan Welderufael Massa Country: Ethiopia Organizing a Business Idea Competition on Low Cost Energy Solutions aims to encourage recent graduates in electrical power engineering and mechanical engineering of Mekelle University to become engaged in energy business entrepreneurship, enabling them to be catalysts for further entrepreneurial developments in Ethiopia. Participants will be offered mentoring and training workshops on business model development. The project team will organize a competition in the country to create awareness and raise interest in energy business entrepreneurship. This initiative will be co-organized with community stakeholders, including the Ethiopian Institute of Technology-Mekelle’s (EIT-M) Entrepreneurship Office, the Ethiopian Entrepreneurship Development Center, the Energy Institute at Mekelle University, and the Tigray Energy Agency Office. CONGRATULATIONS TO: Formation and Training of Smart and Green Energy Clubs in Ghana’s Technical Universities for the Promotion of Renewable Energy, and Energy Efficiency and Conservation Team Members: Prosper Ahmed Amuquandoh, Michael Kwabena Mireku, Akosua Afriyie Osei-Appaw, Hannah Kabir Country: Ghana This project aims to create awareness about renewable energy, energy efficiency, best practices in conservation, and improved cooking technologies in the three northern regions of Ghana. To reach a larger audience, at a relatively low cost, it will adopt the “training of trainers” approach, starting with the training of 150 students in three technical universities located in each of the three northern regions of Ghana. The students will be trained on renewable energy, energy efficiency, and conservation. They will also be empowered with the leadership, entrepreneurial, and communication skills to effectively promote and implement renewable energy and energy efficiency practices. This will help increase access to clean energy for businesses, institutions, and households in the three northern regions of Ghana. To help sustain the project, the students will expand the projects to educational, religious, corporate, and community-based organizations. CONGRATULATIONS TO: Driving Top of the Mind Awareness and Advocacy Campaigns in Energy Access for All Team Members: Admore Chiumia, Hastings Mkandawire Country: Malawi The overall goal of the project is to conduct awareness and advocacy campaigns to increase access to energy and build a nation-wide constituency of advocates for green and inclusive energy. Malawian households are currently facing energy poverty. The implementers will leverage the skills attained at Africa Alumni TIES so that a wider community in Malawi will encourage youth to promote clean energy access for every Malawian. The project will involve energy fares in six selected institutions, presentations from students, games, poems, traditional dances, songs, quizzes, and a study tour to three mini grids in three regions of Malawi. The project hopes to reach 1500 youth from technical schools and universities in three regions of Malawi. CONGRATULATIONS TO: Malawi Off-Grid Energy Markets Outreach Project Team Members: Hastings Mkandawire, Morongwe Malebye Country: Malawi The project’s goal is to develop a 100 megawatt off-grid business via 10 potential marketplaces targeting 3,500,000 prospective customers (comprising cooperatives, farmers clubs, schools, clinics, village loan groups, businesspeople, and other individuals) in the rural areas of Malawi. Through the creation of a rural energy business association, this project will create marketplaces for different products and services such as pico hydro turbines, solar water heaters, solar electricity, wind turbines, and smart meters produced and marketed by companies such as Turbines Development Enterprise, Ditilopele Development, LEE Enterprise, Practical Action, dVentus, Mawerera Enterprises, Yankho Solar Company, and many others. This project will engage the rural people to identify their energy gaps and take a leading role in selecting the off-grid systems that best suit their needs. As the rural people begin to employ these systems, the process will create jobs for technicians and grow potential business for off-grid manufacturers and suppliers from Malawi and the greater continent. CONGRATULATIONS TO: Nigerian Energy Ambassadors Team Members: Azizat Olusola Gbadegesin, Oluremi Hamid, Olakunle Owoeye, Prosper Ahmed Amuquandoh Country: Nigeria This project seeks to build a network of young energy ambassadors and entrepreneurs by creating awareness and sharing basic knowledge on energy efficiency, energy conservation, and renewable energy. This project will also provide training and skill acquisition in the design, installation, and operation of small solar PV systems. These activities will help to catalyze local energy innovation, encourage interest in renewable energy, enhance institutional involvement and development, increase energy access to unserved and underserved areas, improve energy efficiency, and reduce reliance on conventional fossil fuels. It is expected that at the end of the modules, the energy ambassadors have gained sufficient knowledge to continue the activities of the energy club for subsequent sessions with the assistance of their facilitators. CONGRATULATIONS TO: Solar Micro Businesses - Promoting Productive Use of Energy in Nigeria Team Members: Owoeye Olakunle, Tshegofatso Neeuwfan, Fadekunayo Adeniyi Country: Nigeria This project aims to promote the productive use of energy among the micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) community through the design and construction of 1000 innovative solar powered systems by 2020, customer education on PUE opportunities, and business development service delivery for start-ups and established businesses. The project activities will also facilitate access to efficient and high-quality end-use equipment via a sensitization workshop and awareness raising project, media propagation, and improved access to long-term micro credits. The Alumni TIES small grant will fund phase three of the project: a sensitization workshop on the productive use of energy in rural and urban parts of Lagos State in Nigeria. CONGRATULATIONS TO: The Engaged Youth in Energy Conservation Project Team Members: Lydie Umubyeyi, Mutabazi Rita Clemence Country: Rwanda This project will address the issue of energy inefficiency in schools, focusing on five Rwandan technical schools. In addition, the project will tackle the issue of “using less energy for the same services/work” through energy conservation programs, such as developing tools on how to use energy more efficiently. Students will learn how to conduct energy audits and teams from the schools will compete with one another to determine which school succeeded in being the most energy efficient. By engaging these schools, the students will take the lead in finding solutions appropriate to their energy challenges.     CONGRATULATIONS TO: Energy Day and Related Events for Awareness of Solar Energy Team Members: Morongwe Malebye, Azizat Olusola Gbadegesin Country: South Africa Rural communities in South Africa often lack access to sources of sustainable energy and the associated job opportunities, such as in the rural village of GaMphahlele, Lentin. The long-term plan of this project is to install solar energy (capacity of a minimum of 500 kilowatts) by 2019 in the rural village of Lentin and surrounding areas through collaboration with strategic stakeholders. The objective is to replicate this model in neighboring villages, which fall under the monarchy of Mphahlele, and throughout the Limpopo province. The project will provide a platform and act as a catalyst for stakeholder collaboration in addressing challenges faced by the school and the community. The small grant will fund activities in nutraceutical farming, agro-processing, wood manufacturing, mining, and waste recycling will be leveraged in promoting renewable energy job opportunities to community members. This three-month project is comprised of three-day events, including site visits to local companies, and will culminate in an “Energy Day” event in Lentin, where a stakeholder charter will be established. CONGRATULATIONS TO: STEM for Energy Team Members: Kakoma Mutenda, Kabwe Musonda Country: Zambia The main objective of STEM for Energy is to work with and connect two communities in Zambia in solving their energy-related problems. The team has identified three technical high schools in Zambia where they will pilot this initiative. Select participants will be those with an expressed passion for and interest in JETS (junior engineers, technicians, and scientists) fairs. The project will bring seasoned engineers and scientists to high schools to teach and demonstrate how basic high school level science principles can be used to solve energy access challenges, improve efficiency, and create sustainability. The project will provide schools with training materials, instructing 50 students at each technical school. The project will demonstrate how science can be used to solve local energy challenges, motivate students to pursue careers in STEM, and help them solve local community energy challenges.

[alumnities]

Middle East North Africa TIES: Casablanca Small Grants Competition

Congratulations to the winners of the Middle East North Africa TIES: Casablanca Small Grants Competition!

Thank you to everyone who submitted a proposal. Please find below the winning proposals, team members, and project descriptions:

CONGRATULATIONS TO: Youth Leadership Program Team Members: Mostafa Mohamed Kamel El Sayed, Amr El Selouky Country: Egypt The goal of the project is to create a capacity building program that enhances professional skills for youth (aged 16-22) in the cities of Alexandria and Cairo. The project will recruit and select participants from active working groups, student activity clubs, and student-run NGOs at universities in Cairo and Alexandria. The training program will be a 45-hour program, including six topics to be delivered during six training days. Each of the three training programs will include 25-30 participants, 75 participants in total. The training programs will develop the participants’ business and leadership skills and provide them with tools to train their colleagues at their organizations and businesses.

CONGRATULATIONS TO: Entrepreneurs and Businesses Boosting Center Team Members: Murtadha Al-Ibraheem, Faez Ahmed Country: Iraq The project is designed to assist and provide Iraqi young entrepreneurs with advice and coaching they need to start their own businesses. The first objective of the project is to implement training workshops for aspiring entrepreneurs in Basrah, where they will understand how to perform market research and how to identify opportunities in local markets. These aspiring entrepreneurs will finish the training with a toolkit to help them start their new businesses. A second objective is to target and train senior business school students and graduates to be consultants and trainers for local businesses. These students will have the opportunity to meet and visit local companies and businesses to assist businesses to overcome their challenges, increase revenues, start a new product line, or enter new markets. The third objective of the project will be to provide career services to selected graduates of universities in Basrah. The “Entrepreneurs Boosting Center” will lead workshops for these university students on resume writing, job search strategies, and interview techniques.

CONGRATULATIONS TO: Iraqi Youth Returnees Development Program (IYRDP) Team Members: Salar Brifkani, Aryan Yaba Country: Iraq Iraqi Youth Returnees Development Program (IYRDP) will train and prepare 20-25 displaced youth (aged 18-35) who are living outside of the IDP camps in Erbil through five-day seminars once a month for a three-month period. The training program will help them to start their careers again, whether they plan to work for a preexisting organization or start their own business, when they return home. The training program includes workshops on economic development, public speaking, teamwork, networking, and business law by mentors and entrepreneurs. Mentors, experts, entrepreneurs, and activists will train, motivate, and prepare displaced young Iraqis on how to think, how to plan, and how to be more productive after returning to their home cities in Iraq.

CONGRATULATIONS TO: Tying Entrepreneurs Team Members: Abeer Qumsieh, Malak Al Akiely, Abdallah Al Raggad Country: Jordan This project intends to support entrepreneurs in transforming their innovative ideas into startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). As youth constitute half of Jordan’s population, they need support and empowerment (especially women) to successfully contribute to the country’s economic growth by establishing their own businesses that address specific challenges in their communities. This project will attract young women and men, who are entrepreneurs from Amman and neighboring cities and university graduates. The project will train 15 aspiring entrepreneurs from Jordan and incubate four to six of these entrepreneurs. The project team and professional mentors will continue to support these entrepreneurs and scale their enterprises up to provide employment opportunities for Jordan’s youth.

CONGRATULATIONS TO: Women BeeBuzzers Team Members: Malak Al Akiely, Omar Al Busaidy Country: Jordan Women BeeBuzzers is a project that aims to introduce beekeeping as a main or secondary source of income for women in rural areas in Jordan. Beekeeping can provide a sustainable and growing source of income for these women. The practice is environmentally friendly and fits the social context in these areas where women are not easily allowed to work outside their homes. The project team’s goal is to train and provide all the required equipment, as well as the necessary follow up, to enable four women to become beekeepers and start their small apiaries. The products from these apiaries will be marketed through a partnership with Arabia for Bees and Honey Products, a well-established Jordanian company specialized in trading and marketing honey and other bee products, who will volunteer their time to support this rural women development project. This project will empower women in the targeted areas by providing financial independence and stability to these women and their families.

CONGRATULATIONS TO: The Entrepreneurship Toolkit for Women and Youth Team Members: Randa Farah, Abeer Qumsieh, Andre Abi Awad, Maysa Safi Country: Lebanon The Entrepreneurship Toolkit is a set of soft and technical skills to prepare entrepreneurs, especially women and youth, and aspiring entrepreneurs at lower levels of income in Lebanon and Jordan to develop their ideas and create their own businesses. A series of workshops covering topics such as “Emotional First Aid,” “Hiring Techniques for Entrepreneurs,” “Innovation and Creativity,” “Moving from an Idea to a Business Plan,” and “Marketing Tips to Launch and Grow a Business,” will provide the necessary tools to empower these women and young entrepreneurs. The training series will fulfill the following objectives: 1.) Establish a strong emotional basis and heal wounds, especially the ones related to failure, rejection, stress and poor self-esteem, to build a strong mindset for starting a business; 2.) Develop technical knowledge on how to form and hire a team; 3.) Improve skills related to creativity and innovation; 4.) Create a business plan and marketing strategy to put the ideas into practice and make it profitable; and 5.) Build a relationship with a mentor for coaching and feedback and learn how to network with fellow entrepreneurs.

CONGRATULATIONS TO: Hands Across the Mountain (HAM) Team Members: Soufiane Moudden, Al-Khansaâ Nammas, Atika Loualidi, Youssra Bensouda Country: Morocco This project’s goal is to empower approximately 3,000 young women from rural areas in Morocco such as Ouarzazate, Nador, and Hoceima by providing them with the necessary tools and training to develop their soft skills to make them fully capable to join the workforce. It is the hope of the project team that after the training workshops, the women will gain employment or start their own businesses. This training program will consist of online training sessions followed by three, four-day training camps in Nador, Ouarzazate, and Hociema. During the program, the women will engage in interactive games to increase their knowledge and skills in: work culture, leadership, team building, and communication through an online learning platform and in training workshops held in their home communities.

CONGRATULATIONS TO: Life Screen for قريتي (Kariyati) Team Members: Abderrahim Boualy, Jalal Dlimi, Ait Lkouss Abderrahman Country: Morocco Life Screen for قريتي is a training program that aims to create a generation of young leaders by introducing entrepreneurial concepts to high school students and undergraduate students, supporting them with tools, skills, and expertise to develop their academic and life skills. High school students and undergraduate university students are the participants of the project because, although they have skills, their ability to apply those skills to create entrepreneurial projects or look for job opportunities is limited. The project team created the initiative after noticing the lack of orientation and training programs in the field of entrepreneurship and academic life skills for students in the Ouarzazate region. The anticipated result of this project is the creation of a generation of self-motivated leaders equipped with an entrepreneurial spirit and life skills.

CONGRATULATIONS TO: Project Tadreeb Team Members: Sara Ait Ali, Rihab Boutadghart Country: Morocco Project Tadreeb is a three-month training program for the rural women from Ouarzazate, the surrounding villages near Marrakech, and Essaouira. The women will receive training every weekend, in accounting, finance, marketing, and communications. These trainings will enable them to be more competitive in the marketplace. The project will better prepare the women to work in the local market, enhance their ability to communicate properly, and help them to develop marketing strategies and sustainability plans. After the women complete the program, the project team will assist the trained women in delivering training sessions in their villages to share the knowledge they acquired to increase the number of project beneficiaries.  

[alumnities]

South and Central Asia Alumni TIES Small Grants Competition

Congratulations to the winners of the South and Central Asia Alumni TIES Small Grants Competition! Thank you to everyone who submitted a proposal. Please find below the winning proposals, team members, and project descriptions.

Empowering Women through Financial Independence and Gender Equality Team Members: Kalyani Gongi and Divya G. Medar Country: India Empowering Women through Financial Independence and Gender Equality aims to empower women in the North and West Hyderabad communities and sensitize them to the importance of gender equality and financial independence by initiating Self Help Groups (SHGs). The project will improve gender equality and financial independence of low income women living in underserved areas of North and West Hyderabad by providing a five-month training and mentoring program. The project’s long term goal is to create a community of independent women entrepreneurs based around Self Help Groups.

FINE (Finance, Innovation, Networking, Entrepreneurship) Skills for Girls Team Members: Firuza Nabieva and Aziza Pulatova Country: Tajikistan The goal of FINE: Finance, Innovation, Networking, Entrepreneurship Skills for Girls is to empower and build the capacity of young women in rural areas through financial literacy trainings, developing of their entrepreneurial and networking skills using innovative financing and mobile technologies. During a six-month period, 180 teenage girls from four rural regions (Spitamen, J. Rasulov, Buston, B. Gafurov) will gain “FINE” skills during five-day trainings. This will include networking with other participants, as well as alumni mentors. The project will also partner with news media to raise public awareness of the empowerment of women and girls in Tajikistan.  

Girl Empower: Biz Bootcamp for Girls Team Members: Zaure Uvaliyeva and Talgat Ayapbergenov Country: Kazakhstan Biz Bootcamp for Girls is a three-month learning program, designed to educate girls, ages 13-18, on the essentials of business and entrepreneurship and introduce them to the soft skills of leadership and teamwork. Biz Bootcamp for Girls will consist of twelve workshops across seven cities in Kazakhstan. During a three-month period, 420 young girls in seven cities will participate in the training program. The educational program will inspire young girls that it is never too early to pursue a dream of becoming an entrepreneur or business owner.  

Her Story: A Movie Making Workshop for Young Women Team Members: Surath Giri and Narayan Adhikari Country: Nepal Her Story: A Movie Making Workshop for Young Women is a week-long residential workshop on movie-making for women between the age of 16 and 29. The workshop will train at least 20 young women of diverse backgrounds on communicating their ideas through visual media, namely movies, documentaries, and videos. The sessions of the workshop will be conducted by well-known figures of the Nepalese movie industry. Following the workshop, participants will be asked to make four or five short movies in teams as their final assignment. The short movies will cover pertinent topics such as women entrepreneurship, discrimination against women, women's economic and social empowerment, and government accountability from women's perspectives.

Nursery Management Training to Women Agri-Entrepreneurs of Nepal Team Members: Anuroop Manandhar, Rumyana Mihaylova, and Archana Shrestha Country: Nepal Nursery Management Training to Women Agri-Entrepreneurs of Nepal will provide training to women to establish plant nurseries. The plant nurseries will grow a variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and non-timber trees, such as bamboo and olive trees. The goal of the project is to ensure that healthy plants are locally produced and available for farmers. The agricultural trainings will include approximately 60 women agri-entrepreneurs from Kathmandu, Jhapa, and Makwanpur. The women will receive educational and practical trainings on nursery management, plant propagation, plant cultivation, and marketing of plant products. The trainings will enable women to establish their own plant nurseries, increasing the availability of diverse plant samplings for farmers in the three districts.  

PakW2E2- Pakistan Wireless Women Entrepreneurship & Empowerment Team Members: Durreshawar Mahmood and Naveera Waheed Country: Pakistan The Pakistan Wireless Women Entrepreneurship and Empowerment is an Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) capacity enhancement and advocacy program for the rural women entrepreneurs of underserved districts of Pakistan. These entrepreneurial development activities will take place in the province of Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa (KPK), Baluchistan, including the independent states of Giligit Baltistan (GB) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). The project will enhance the capacity of rural women entrepreneurs on information communication technology in collaboration with Cygnus Solutions through training, mentoring, and business interactions between prominent international and national IT professionals and local women business leaders. The program will contribute to the entrepreneurial development of women, assisting them in effective business management and providing them with tools to address socio-cultural challenges due to poverty and restricted mobility. PAKW2E2 aims to mobilize Pakistani citizens to address the gender gap in digital communication and strengthen the business ties between the United States and South Asian countries.

Women Economic Empowerment in Tajikistan (WEET) Team Members: Nekruz Asmatilloev and Muhammad Bodurbekov Country: Tajikistan Women Economic Empowerment in Tajikistan (WEET) will contribute to the knowledge and capacity of women who are engaged in entrepreneurship in selected remote rural areas of Tajikistan. The project will be implemented in the district of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO). Potential women entrepreneurs will be provided with capacity-building opportunities, such as trainings and site visits. The women will have the opportunity to learn about the business environment of Tajikistan and discuss challenges they have faced when starting or developing their businesses with other women entrepreneurs. Women business leaders will serve as mentors and advisors to these new women entrepreneurs.

Women’s Economic Empowerment through Creation of Market Linkages Team Members: Lal Bano and Sulatana Aziz In the northern area of Pakistan, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), a social-economic revolution is slowly igniting, with the formation of numerous small scale enterprises and startups run by local women (e.g. dry fruits packing and sale, handicrafts, cabin-restaurants, apricot production). The women who live in Gilgit-Baltistan are new to the concepts of entrepreneurship and are now slowly entering the market. The main purpose of this project is to build capacity and address saturated business domains through the promotion of alliances and cooperation among the business women of Gilgit-Baltistan. This project aims to sensitize business women to form a chamber of commerce to consolidate their decision-making at the government and corporate levels, developing beneficial business policies. The planned activities will be implemented in collaboration with the organization, Women Excellence & Empowerment Initiative (WEEI).

[alumnities]

U.S. Alumni TIES Small Grants Competition

Congratulations to the winners of the U.S. Alumni TIES Small Grants Competition!

Thank you to everyone who submitted a proposal for the U.S. Alumni TIES Small Grants Competition. We received many strong proposals. Please find below the winning proposals, team members, and project descriptions.

Augmented Reality for Urban Engagement and Sustainability Team Members: Julia Beabout, Peter Bittner, Nels Nelson, Ben Parker Augmented Reality for Urban Engagement and Sustainability will engage San Francisco Bay Area city-dwellers in urban sustainability reporting, problem solving, and action using digital communication tools in a fun and social way. To facilitate this climate action and digital technology intersection, the project will design and implement a training and competition event that results in “Big Ideas: New Creative Visions for Augmented Reality (AR)” apps that engage and excite citizens in urban sustainability. This Big Idea-athon event will connect the local tech, urban sustainability, and public engagement communities in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Building Capacity for Habitat Conservation and Pollinator Education for Youth in Alamos, Sonora, and Tucson, Arizona

Team Members: Nicole DiSante, Kim Franklin Building Capacity for Habitat Conservation and Pollinator Education for Youth will bring together bi-national conservation organizations of the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum and Nature and Culture International – Mexico, to educate youth in ecological education through field skills, butterfly identification, plant identification, critical thinking, and mapping. Data collection through the “Inaturalist App” will be will be used by the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum, NCI Mexico, and other conservation organizations to understand the behavior of native pollinators. The team’s fieldwork will be primarily conducted in the newly-formed public Eco Park, Parque La Colorada, which will bring value to this space as an environmental asset for the community.  

Building Soil and Community: An Educational Composting Pilot Team Members: Erika Mork, Maria Nathan Building Soil and Community: An Educational Composting Pilot is a partnership between two higher educational institutions, a nonprofit urban farm, and local volunteers to (1) reduce the production of greenhouse gases while restoring the nutrient cycle and encouraging carbon capture; (2) engage and educate the community on composting and whole-systems thinking; and (3) tell stories about the project and its purpose through traditional and digital media that can be shared around the world. The project will take place in Lynchburg, Virginia, where no commercial composting services for household waste are currently available to area residents. This pilot could serve as a model for similarly-sized cities that have not yet reached the point of offering municipal or other commercial composting services.

Code Blue: Water Security, Climate Change and Solutions Team Members: Alex Cornell du Houx, Marchell Archer The project team of Code Blue: Water Security, Climate Change and Solutions will film short videos and a documentary on the impact of climate change on water security, and demonstrate how clean energy is part of the solution. The goal is to raise public awareness about the issue and to inspire leaders to take action on climate change through value-based communications and hands-on training. The team believes that the best way to create empathy on an issue is through a good story. The first video will be on the composite and offshore wind technology being used in Maine to create affordable clean energy. This video will be shown to a group of community leaders, including U.S. Department of State alumni, and lawmakers, followed by a series of trainings that will generate policy initiatives.

Digital Legal Training to Protect Chinese Environmental Rights Team Members: Scott Wilson, Yan Xiang Digital Legal Training to Protect Chinese Environmental Rights will develop digital tools and training seminars to empower Chinese environmental activists to defend the rights of local communities against illegal polluters. The project leaders will draw on the expertise of Chinese environmental lawyers and Chinese non-governmental organizations to assemble a basic environmental legal manual, including model documents, e.g. for use in applying for government information on local pollution, and use webinars to train grassroots nongovernmental organizations. The project has three related overarching goals: (1) to empower citizens to protect their environmental health and interests; (2) to extend the network of environmental NGOs with some environmental legal capacity; and (3) to curb climate change by activating citizen mobilization against polluters, including those that emit greenhouse gases beyond regulatory limits.

On Fertile Ground: Integrating Perspectives Toward a Collective Future Team Members: Natalie Zimmerman, Nancy Mancilla On Fertile Ground aims at bringing together a group of select female thought leaders from both indigenous and western perspectives in California for two and a half days to gain insight into perspectives and traditions related to environmental stewardship. The conference will be initiated by a science-based climate talk describing the effects, predictions, and implications of climate change. This discussion will serve as a primer for broader group talks. Following the session, leaders will be assigned a mentor from each respected community and work as resiliency advisors for fostering change throughout the broader community. Discussions will be recorded in written and visual form and converted into pedagogical tools that may be used to facilitate diverse community discussions and actions. The goal of this project will be to reframe the discourse stemming from climate change – from one that marginalizes vulnerable indigenous communities, to discourse that stresses life-long adaptation techniques for resiliency in an ever-changing world brought by local, indigenous perspectives.

Supporting Restoration of San Dieguito River Park Marsh from the Sky Team Members: Christopher Knight, Akana Noto Supporting Restoration of San Dieguito River Park Marsh from the Sky provides community-supported, high-tech monitoring of the restoration of the San Dieguito River Park Marsh, a natural recreation and wildlife observation park in the greater San Diego, California area. The project team will utilize drone imagery and a technique known as photogrammetry to create high-resolution models of the marsh, while establishing citizen science infrastructure to sustain a continuous data collection effort. This will be one of the first times such a project will be undertaken for biological monitoring and land management with an outlook of understanding climate change effects. This initiative will provide crucial data into understanding how climate change effects, such as sea level rise, will impact the marsh plant community and topography structure, allowing managers to carry out informed mitigation efforts.

Underwater Robotic Detection of Abandoned Fishing Traps Team Members: Sean McKnight, Gloria Li The goal of Underwater Robotic Detection of Abandoned Fishing Traps is to use a semiautonomous submersible robot to explore the relatively undeveloped techniques of robotic detection and removal of abandoned fishing traps. The project team will partner with the University of Florida Machine Intelligence Laboratory and the Nature Coast Biological Station, using a submersible ROV to scan for, map, and disable or remove abandoned traps off Florida’s Gulf Coast. The project, in addition to addressing the issue of abandoned traps, will raise awareness in the general public about this relatively neglected issue and unite engineering and ecology expert groups into a larger problem-solving community.

The Urban Revival Project Team Members: Jessica Srun, Madeline Ruid The Urban Revival Project will consist of a series of workshops on overarching themes of climate change and food security, provide hands-on experience by creating an outdoor living laboratory, and raise awareness through digital storytelling at the Emma Lazarus High School for English Language Scholars in New York City. The Urban Revival Project will use an innovative approach to engage students by incorporating 360 videos into the workshops to build a deeper connection to climate change issues. By the completion of the project, 250 students and community members from Chinatown will utilize the outdoor living laboratory (a green space) for recreation. This green space will have the long term effect of contributing to increased air quality, reducing storm-water runoff, and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in the Chinatown community.

[alumnities]

YSEALI Alumni TIES Small Grants Competition

Congratulations to the winners of the YSEALI Alumni TIES Small Grants Competition!

Thank you to everyone who submitted a proposal for the YSEALI Alumni TIES Small Grants Competition. We received many strong proposals. Please find below the winning proposals, team members, project descriptions, and YSEALI YOUnified Day events. YSEALI YOUnified will take place throughout ASEAN on December 3, 2016.

YSEALI YOUnified locations:

Brunei

Farm Up Your Life! Farm-to-School Project Team Members: Pg Mas Dino Pg Radin Hanafi and Jodi Lim Farm Up Your Life! will connect two of the YSEALI themes, Education and Environment, and target 50 elementary school students aged 10-12. At present, there are not any commercial/large-scale farms in Brunei. This project will present a unique opportunity to introduce farming methods to Brunei by engaging with young, eager minds to inspire a generation of empowered and sustainable youth. Students will achieve a better understanding and appreciation of food and, by extension, the people behind it. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: “Fruits of their Labor”: Elementary school students, teachers and parents will meet at a local organic vertical farm to share what they learned about sustainable food production from the October and November workshops. 

Integral Learning Workshop for Children with Autism, Access to Education Team Members: Ak Mohamad Izwan Shafuan Pg Md Daud and Rasyidah Samah Integral Learning Workshop for Children with Autism, Access to Education will train pre-school and elementary teachers about how to support students with autism. This training will not only give the teachers credibility, but also will safeguard the children with autism from further isolation and neglect. The team will hold training workshops for teachers from October to December 2016. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: Project Launch at a local mall for the public. The goal of the launch is to raise awareness about autism, giving the public basic knowledge about this developmental disorder by distributing pamphlets and questionnaires.

Burma

Capacity Building Training for Rural Youth Team Leader: Kyaw Kyaw Min Hlaing Capacity Building Training for Rural Youth is a leadership and literacy training program for youth from the Myothit Township, Magway Region, Myanmar. In the rural areas of Myanmar, youth do not have easy access to educational or career opportunities. The program will consist of sessions on educational opportunities, university experiences, leadership trainings, and problem solving activities. The culminating activity of the project will be an “Awareness and Stimulating Reading Habits Campaign" in early December. This campaign aims to promote reading habits in students, young people, and villagers so that they will utilize the new library, which will open in late November 2016. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: “Why Reading is Important”: The project team will have a literacy awareness event for 100 people at Youth Power Library, Ta Loke Pin Village, Myothit, Magway.

We Cure Our Future Team Leader: Su Sandar Koe We Cure Our Future is a community re-greening initiative at the school compounds of middle and high schools in the Central Dry Zone area of Mandalay. The first phase of the project will include an environmental awareness-raising workshop led by environmentalists and health specialists in three schools in Mandalay. The second phase of the project will include tree planting activities for students at the three schools. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: We Cure Our Future will hold a seminar at an elementary school in Mandalay. An environmentalist and health specialist will advise students on how to sustain the young trees in their community.

Cambodia

Youth and Community Team Members: Sokgech Heng, Kimsru Duth, Ratana Oeurn, Se Chhin Youth and Community aims to gather youth, build their capacity, and empower them to engage actively in their community, developing projects contributing to the YSEALI themes of Civic Engagement, Education, and the Environment. This project consists of five objectives: 1) To increase young people’s understanding of their roles and those of local government so that they are empowered and encouraged to implement development projects in their communities; 2) To inspire over 500 high school students to make an informed future career choice through a job and study orientation; 3) To increase the knowledge of youth volunteers about the environment and involve them in the planting of 1,000 trees along a district road connected to a national road; 4) To increase the knowledge of youth and school teachers about sustainable agriculture and improve nutrition and vocational skills through the creation of environmentally-friendly vegetable gardens in two primary schools; 5) To create possible networking opportunities through the organization of a YSEALI YOUnified Day of Service. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: Team members will present the outcomes of the projects that they implemented in October and November to 200 youth from the Siem Reap province. Their presentations will help motivate youth to engage and support local communities.

 Indonesia

AKSARA JATIM (Aksi dan Kontribusi Sosial Remaja Jawa Timur) Team Members: Ganendra Awang Kristandya, Rizky Ashar Murdiono, Rina Rachmawati, Mujiburrohman Bakri Aksara Jatim’s goal is to increase youth participation in the East Java community through the development of community projects. The program will consist of two events: a Leadership Camp and Social Project Planning. The Leadership Camp will provide training and motivation that will be used as tools for implementing participants’ social projects in their communities. Participants will explain their ideas for projects that they will implement after they return to their hometowns during the Social Project Planning workshop. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: Leadership Camp for 20 youth, aged 15-18 in Malang, East Java that will provide training on how to implement projects in local communities.

Hackmangcon: Hackathon of Mangrove Conservation Team Members: Amrullah Rosadi, Hendra Edison Simanullang, Alve Hadika, Fahmi Abdullah Basyari Hackmangcon’s goal is to implement a training program about mangrove cultivation and conservation for 20 young people living in villages near mangroves in Central Java. The project will recruit and select 20 young people who have existing leadership experience and a concern for environmental sustainability, coastal conservation, and mangrove ecosystems. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: The training program on mangrove cultivation and conservation will take place from December 2 to 4, 2016 during the YSEALI YOUnified Day of Service.  

Recycling Education Project in Lombok, Indonesia Team Members: I Wayan Juliantara and Kris Ayu Madina Recycling Education Project will engage 50 local young women in an upcycling social entrepreneurship project. The project team members will conduct a two-week training on recycling skills, organizational skills, and social entrepreneurship education. The young women will build a social enterprise that sells items made from recycled materials including paper, binders, file folders, pencil cases, and crafts. The products will be branded with the project’s name and quotes to raise awareness of women’s empowerment and nature conservation. From the funds generated, the project team will allocate a certain percentage as an educational scholarship for underprivileged girls in the local village. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: The project team will hold a festival in a local city park in Lombok where the volunteer and training participants will conduct art performances related to sustainable development that showcase the recycled and upcycled products.

Women Can Do: Economic Development through Financial Inclusion Workshop and Micro Business Incubation for Women in the Post-Conflict District of Poso in Central Sulawesi Team Members: Aria Widyanto, Gunawan Primasatya, Suwarti Ningsih Women Can Do will support technical workshops and micro-business incubation in Poso, a post-conflict district in Central Sulawesi. The project will include a skills training on financial inclusion for women through collaboration with Amartha Microfinance. A Grameen Bank model of group lending will be introduced to women members of Sikola Mombine. Entrepreneurial skills for women will be developed through structured training and mentoring throughout the three-month project and by training local champions (local YSEALI alumni and their networks) to ensure the sustainability of the program. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: On December 3, the project team will hold a financial inclusion and micro-business incubation workshop for 30 women in Poso.

Laos

Radio for YOUnified Team Members: Siliphaithoun Xayamoungkhoun, Manisakhone Phaxayavong, Sengkham Thongphataysak, Phonepasith Sotitham Radio for YOUnified aims to increase the awareness of human trafficking and the understanding of safe migration among at-risk groups in the community of Xayabouly Province, where frequent border crossings take place. This information will be communicated through a radio program that will reach less-populated areas where many of the poorest members of ethnic minorities live. During the on-air radio program, audience members will phone in to share experiences related to human trafficking. The team will visit upper and lower secondary schools in the surrounding districts for an awareness-raising campaign and to encourage students to participate in a human trafficking and safe migration role playing event. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: One to two teams will be selected from each secondary school to perform a ten-minute play on the YSEALI YOUnified Day. In addition to the plays, the project team will hold a seminar on the danger of human trafficking, safe migration, and existing alternative agriculture enterprises.

 Malaysia

YSEALI YOUnified Malaysia Team Members: Patricia Bi Yi Wong, Nurul Amalina Binti Che Ariffin, Aaron Denison, Loh Rachel, Netusha Naidu, Muhammad Shafie bin Mukhre The YSEALI YOUnified Malaysia event will consist of ten projects, which address all four YSEALI themes (civic engagement, environment, education, and economic empowerment), and a central event in Kuala Lumpur. Volunteer applications will be open to youth across Malaysia. The goal of YSEALI YOUnified Malaysia is to host ten different community projects from every state to engage 500 youth from different communities around Malaysia. The objectives are: 1) To encourage youth to promote environmental sustainability within their respective communities; 2) To increase access to education for all layers of society; 3) To empower local communities economically; and 4) To increase civic participation among young people. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: YSEALI YOUnified will hold a concert on December 3 in honor of YSEALI’s 3rd Anniversary. The concert will showcase local talent engaged in social causes.

  Philippines

YSEALI YOUnified All In: Empowering the Iraya Mangyan Youth Team Members: John Tobit Cruz, Romcy Madronio, Ma. Paz Baylon, Joemar Agbing, Eunice Ubalubao, Kim Kenneth Morales ALL IN: Empowering the Iraya Mangyan Youth will empower and provide opportunities for civic engagement to the youth of the Iraya Mangyan, an indigenous people’s community in Talipanan Village, Puerto Galera, Mindoro, Philippines. Through workshops on rapid appraisal, project ideation, and leadership, 30 IP youth are expected to develop three community projects that will address important needs in their community. Groups will be mentored throughout the entire process by YSEALI Members from Mindoro and the alumni of the Leadership Communities Program of the Ayala Foundation, Inc. By the end of the program, local youth will present their project ideas to their local government and local youth village councils to lobby for support and resources. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: Leadership camp for 30 youth from Talipanan Village, Puerto Galera, Mindoro, Philippines on how to implement community projects.

YSEALI YOUnified All-In: Panay Island Team Members: Jarrah Brillantes, Angelica Belarmino, Lara Villaruel YOUnified All-In Panay Island will empower young leaders coming from indigenous people’s groups in Panay Island, Philippines. The project will run an incubation program for these youth coming from indigenous communities on the island. It will prepare them to become leaders and catalyzers in their respective communities. Through this project, they will able to take the lead in addressing social issues and share social responsibility practices with other young people. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: Leadership camp for 100 young leaders from Panay Island on social responsibility.

YSEALI YOUnified All In: TRIBU (Tribal Recognition through Indigenous Band Upliftment) Team Members: Xyla Mercedita Gualberto, Ernesto Neri, Zuein Guantero, Philip Flores TRIBU is a three-day culture camp for indigenous youth in the Bukidnon Province, aged 17-25. The training aims to cultivate in young people an appreciation for their cultural identity by teaching them traditional arts and music. The training will also create a culture of knowledge-sharing within and among tribes by promoting inter-tribal peace through arts and music and to strengthen inter-tribe collaboration for forest protection. It will gather youth artists, musicians, and leaders from at least three of the seven tribes. This culture camp will take place in the artists’ village of Songco, Lantapan Bukidnon, where the youth will have lessons from the veteran artist and village leader Waway Saway. During the culture camp, the youth participants will share their cultures, increase their skills, and engage in peace-building activities so that they can collaborate to preserve their cultural identity and learn about environmental conservation and protection. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: Training participants will organize an IPeace Arts and Music Festival, where they will exhibit their newly acquired knowledge and skills from the camp.

YSEALI YOUnified All In: YOUnited with Wildlife Team Members: Rhea Jane Mallari, Jonathan Patrick Escusa, Bryan Clark Hernandez, Vermon Timbas, Mary Therese Gonzales YSEALI YOUnified All In: YOUnited with Wildlife will establish a connection between the youth and wildlife, creating a generation that is more likely to respect the existence of all creatures on the planet. The goal is to connect the dots between people, wildlife, and society, learning about wildlife protection and management through collective action. Discussions will focus on the endangered species of flying foxes (giant fruit bats) of Subic Bay. Local young leaders, including indigenous people from Olongapo City, Bataan, and Zambales, will be encouraged to participate in this collective effort to raise awareness and instill values of respecting wildlife. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: On December 3, the project team and participants will showcase the ecological role of bats and their importance in society through visual art, storytelling, and a bat counting activity for the children in the community.

Singapore

Photography for a Good Cause Team Members: Kirthana Ganeson, Norhanna Yumi Ibrahim, Jiaying Chew Photography for a Good Cause is a series of thematic, hands-on workshops to reach ASEAN youth, aged 15-20. The workshops aim to introduce and expose these young minds to current affairs and regional issues through photography. The workshops will provide a platform for open discussions, meetings with other youth, and integration into the YSEALI network. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: Keeping with the theme “YOUnity in Diversity,” a panel of YSEALI alumni, each representing a pillar of YSEALI, will speak to youth in Singapore about their experiences in YSEALI. Following the panel, there will be a Hush Teabar session. Hush Tea Bar is a social movement that aims to bring the world of the hearing and deaf together in a Silent TeaBar.

Thailand

YSEALI Inno-YOUnified Team Members: Methawee Thatsanasateankit, Pondet Ananchai, Teerayut Dowruang, Tanachai Rueangchaisit, Santipap Charadprew, Achitsak Pacharawaronwich YSEALI Inno-YOUnified is an innovation festival involving 500 youth participants from Thailand, which will take place in Bangkok in January 2017. Sessions include workshops, inspirational talks, and exhibitions addressing seven topics: Inno in the Dark, Inno into STEM, Inno with Art & Music, Inno Pitch Stage, Inno of the King, Inno for Social Enterprise, and Inno for Education. The goal of the festival is for young people to be inspired by the speakers, build connections, and create innovative service projects in their communities. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: The project team will hold an opening ceremony to publicize and encourage participation in the YSEALI Inno-YOUnified Festival on December 3.  

Vietnam

Flagship Startup Club Team Leader: Le Tien Hoang Flagship Startup Club is for university students who have creative ideas for startups, but do not possess the skills to make these ideas into reality. Flagship Startup Club creates a friendly and supportive environment in which university students are provided with startup knowledge, business skills, and like-minded friends and mentors in order develop their ideas for innovative startups. The goal of the Flagship Startup Club is to reach students in Ho Chi Minh City who would like to develop as entrepreneurs through startup seminars and startup projects. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: On December 3, Flagship Startup Club will hold its first startup seminar on leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship for university students in Ho Chi Minh City.

Make Science Make Sense Team Members: Le Xuan Loc, Hoang Tuan Anh, Tran Thi Hai Yen, Saleumphon Fongmany, Dang Huynh Mai Anh, Tran Thuy Tien, Nguyen Chi Long, Tran Minh Tam Make Science Make Sense is an educational project encouraging careers in science for Vietnamese high school and university students by creating channels to enable public access to common scientific knowledge. The project will partner with scientists and university lecturers who will share their expertise via social media, offline coffee meet-ups, science camps, and science fairs. MSMS will involve 15 mentors (professors, scientists, researchers), 15 tutors (university students), and 50 tutees (high school or university students). The team will publish five “Science 101” guidebooks, one “Daily Life Science” issue, and 100 Facebook posts (includes 20 videos/infographics/graphic novels); host five coffee shares for 30-50 people each; implement three science camps for 50-100 students in South, Central, and Northern Vietnam; and organize one science fair for 300 students in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. YSEALI YOUnified Day Event: On December 3, the MSMS team will hold the “Make Science, Make Sense Fair.” The fair, held at high schools and universities, will teach students about different careers in science and provide them with information about the steps to pursue these careers.