We are pleased to share the results of our tenth Social Venture Challenge at the One Young World Summit 2016 in Ottawa, Canada. We saw five teams in the semi-finals, moved five teams on to the finals, and selected five winning teams! Please see below for details about our new SVC Winners and their exciting social venture ideas!
Babur Jahid is the founder of YouSeeClear in Afghanistan. Babur is launching a program to provide vision testing and affordable prescription glasses for children and women (which will be 90% cheaper than the closest option) in Kabul. His venture aims to reduce illiteracy unemployment caused by vision impairment.
Charles Zhang founded Journey Crowdfunding, a social crowdfunding platform based in Sydney, Australia. Journey Crowdfunding—in partnership with shelters and other partner organizations—will share the stories of the homeless and disadvantaged, and raise funds for self-advancement initiatives like occupational training and educational programs. By crowdfunding these “journeys,” community donors will help these individuals achieve important milestones and move toward breaking the cycle of poverty.
Midia Shikh Hassan founded Talent 3D, a venture that will provide Makerspace training and resources to autistic and non-autistic children in Ottawa, helping them to develop marketable job skills, awareness, friendships, and independence while removing social stigma. These children also will be able to sell their individual designs as a source of income.
Despoina Souroviki founded Knit2Lead to empower socially-excluded women in Greece (new!) through fashion design and manufacturing apparel. She is working with women’s prisons, domestic violence victims, and rehab facilities in Thessaloniki to provide these women with the skills to create clothes, along with leadership training and the platform to sell their designs for economically empowering income.
James Thuch Madhier, from South Sudan, is the founder of The Rainmaker Enterprise. Using a solar powered pump and well, James will build a farm with micro drip irrigation to grow livestock feed and collect water. These will then be sold to family famers in the northwestern city of Wau at modest prices to help them nourish their livestock in the dry season, increase livestock sale prices, and reduce resource scarcity and conflict in the region.