We are pleased to share the outcomes of our Social Venture Challenge at the Harvard National United Nations in Boston. This was our fourth time partnering with HNMUN to help bring to life their participants’ community-changing ideas for social ventures! We heard terrific ideas from eleven teams. In the end, we selected 12 new Social Venture Challenge winners, representing five exciting new social ventures:
Ria Ellysa, Regina Rima Rianti, and Alya Nurshabrina Samadikun are founding Plastic Vending Machine. This venture aims to reduce plastic waste in Bandung, Indonesia by introducing a reverse vending machine where people can receive money for trading in their used plastic bottles. This will help address flooding that has been exacerbated by plastic waste clogging the city’s drains.
Rejoice Dufe is launching the Explore a New Language Project. Explore a New Language Project is introducing a mobile language lab and a language center to provide English, French, and Spanish language training to orphans in Accra, Ghana so that they can build confidence and skills, and improve their prospects for higher education and employment.
Kobby Afari Yeboah, Hillary Adare, and Harriet Ofori are starting Eureka!, which is building awareness for learning differences and dyslexia in Accra, Ghana. They are working with students in primary school to provide differentiated learning and supportive diagnosis and tutoring to help them unlock their academic potential and boost their self-confidence.
Donny Ramadhan, Fathur Pahman Utomo, and Dinda Arri have come up with DentMOX. Based in Malang, Indonesia, DentMOX is a mobile carrying case for dental equipment that also serves as a UV sterilization kit so that dentists and rural clinics can provide oral hygiene treatment and dental care in remote parts of Indonesia where access is otherwise unavailable.
Julio Sosa and Juan Torres started HPVetoed. HPVetoed works in Caracas, Venezuela to increase awareness of the prevalence and incidence of cervical cancer and the virus that causes it, HPV. They will conduct the first study on the disease in Venezuela and then work to equip doctors with the results of the study to enhance the focus on preventative screening and treatment to avoid preventable deaths.