PARTICIPANTS 2022
The application process:
The applications underwent two independent ratings in the first round of the process following a scoring system of 15 different aspects. Nearly 100 applicants were asked in the second round of the process to send us documentation and a detailed project outline. Among them, 40 participants were selected to conduct video conference interviews.
Finally, the ISA team selected the following twenty fellows for the ISA program 2022 which we proudly present here:
Anna N. Mafor from Cameroon. Her project named “INTERNET OF THINGS BASED AUTOMATED AGRICULTURAL MONITORING AND CONTROL SYSTEM FOR SMART FARMING” will be focused on designing an automated agricultural drone that will help optimize the agricultural operations, increase crop production, monitor growth, and improve the livelihoods of Cameroonians through the promotion of home gardening as a means of curbing the hunger. The drone she´ll be designing will contain a smart system based on IoT, AI, and Blockchain technology that will carry out activities such as soil scan, crop surveillance, spraying of fertilizers and insecticides, food supply security, maintaining crop health, and estimate yield data for weather analysis. It will also help farmers to allow timely protection of crops from pests, save time and cost for crop scouting, and secure high yield and quality crops. Her ISA project also includes setting up gardens in her community from non-biodegradable waste (like old tires and buckets) and organic manure derived from home waste. With her project, Anna will contribute to SDG 2 – no hunger and SDG 12 – sustainable consumption and production.
Aye N. Hlaing from Myanmar. She has been working for the consortium WASH project of OXFAM and Solidarities International as a gender and protection coordinator since 2019. She is a female rights advocate in the Internally Displaced People camps which are mostly Muslim communities dominated by men. With her ISA project, she wants to empower women in these camps to participate in community decision-making activities. Considering that majority of these women are illiterate, she will create the first facilitator guidebook that is designed for those with no or limited literacy skills, hoping this curriculum will be applicable to other women living in similar contexts. Firstly, the curriculum would be given to existing OXSI women groups to accomplish training of trainers, training of leadership, and empowerment curriculum to promote their social capacity. The design of the curriculum will be intended for the illiterates on the topics of basic literacy skills, critical thinking, negotiation and bargaining power, community participation and mobilization, community mapping and problem identification and leadership, etc, because most women in the camps have no or very limited literacy skills. Her project supports SDG 5 – gender equality and SDG 4 – quality education.
Muhammad S. Abdullahi from Nigeria. He is the founder of eTrash2Cash, Nigeria – an international and national-award-winning social enterprise founded in 2016 by young social entrepreneurs to tackle grassroots waste management issues in Africa. The social enterprise kicked off its operation in Nigeria with a trash exchange program by helping low-income people to earn directly from the trash they generate through accessible local collection centers in their communities. Those collection centers also serve as education and awareness-raising points for people at the grassroots to learn about environmental sustainability and climate change. His ISA project is designed to use simple innovation of wastes collection, “Trash Bank” to reach millions of people in Africa at the grassroots and educate them on issues around environmental sustainability and climate change. He plans to establish 50 “Trash Banks” across communities in Nigeria. Muhammad´s project is devoted to SDGs 13, 14, 15, and 1 – climate action, life under water, life on land, and no poverty, respectively.
Fatoumatta L. Kassama from The Gambia. She is the founder and CEO of the “Girls Pride” social enterprise. This enterprise was established as a result of period poverty in the Gambia and its main goal is to provide sustainable menstrual products to girls and women in need. “Girls Pride” also trains women and girls on menstrual and reproductive health and works on sensitizing the communities on the importance of protecting the environment by using reusable menstrual products. For her ISA project, Fatoumatta plans to upscale her social enterprise and add a new component to her project which will focus on girls who missed four to five days out of school each month due to their period. The ISA project will train schools girls on menstrual hygiene, the importance of reusable and eco-friendly cloth pads, climate actions, negative effects of single-use plastic pads on our environment and marine life. The project will also involve stakeholders and educate them about eco-friendly and sustainable solutions to addressing period poverty. My team will also provide reusable cloth pads for schoolgirls. Her project is strongly devoted to SDGs 3, 5, 12, and 13 – good health and well-being, gender equality, sustainable production and consumption, and climate action, respectively.
Ritu Malhotra from India. Her ISA project is developing a one-step LMS-based digital platform for institutions that offer education for sustainable development. It will contain different aspects: interactive learning content for students (games, interactivities, quizzes, videos, eBooks, worksheets); teaching aids and resources for teachers (lesson plans, videos, quizzes, assessments, worksheets); global exchange of ideas across institutions for teachers and students. She is the creator of Be the Change books – a series of worksheet-based SDG books and digital solutions for students 1st to 8th grade. During her stay in Germany, she will be merging the existing resources under a digital platform, doing research on technological requirements, preparing, and testing the prototype, and preparing the platform for a global launch. With her project, she will be focusing on goal 4 out of SDGs – quality education.
Borhaneddine Sabri from Algeria. “Green and Funny” is the name of his project dedicated to children’s environmental education. Through modern educative methods which rely on scientific experiments, outdoor activities (visits to national parks and farms) etc., he plans to reach many young minds and make them environmental ambassadors of their community. He will design the prototype of “Green and Funny“ school and make a weekly schedule for classes in coordination with the heads of primary and secondary schools. The city Oum El Bouaghi (study area) contains 17 primary and 8 secondary schools, the number of classes including all grades is 320 (according to the official website of the national ministry of education). “Green and Funny“ will host 18 different classes every week on the basis of “House of environment of OEB”. (one course for 2 groups in the morning and another course for the afternoon group with the duration of each course being 3 hours). With his project, he will address SDG 4 – quality education in his home country.
Carolina de Macedo Pinto from Brazil. Her ISA project is dedicated to analyzing the challenge of climate change and sustainability in large urban centers in a megacity (Sao Paulo) in a developing country (Brazil). By addressing this issue on a local scale, where the object of study is a remnant of Atlantic Forest (Fontes do Ipiranga State Park), she plans to support the conservation of ecosystem services that are of great relevance for the maintenance of all forms of life. Her project has two goals: 1) Understanding how this conservation unit helps to minimize the effects of climate – change on a local scale in the city of Sao Paulo; 2) Assess the potential for fundraising for local sustainability, through ecosystem services provided by PEFI. She will accomplish these goals by identifying ecosystem services (Provisioning, Regulatory, Supportive and Cultural) and underlying their relevance. With her project, she will contribute to SDG 13 – climate action and SDG.
Jatin Kanojia from India. With his start-up, Wavly, he aims to automate monitoring of non-revenue water (NRW) saving up to 20% of the water supply. The amount of water not reaching the customer because of losses due to leakages in the distribution network of pipes, water theft, or metering defect is known as non-revenue water (NRW). On average worldwide, 35% of total water produced by municipalities is NRW. In India, this number goes up to 47%. During his time in Germany, he plans to create an aerial vehicle with a specific sensor that could detect water leakage in the water distribution pipelines. This sensor can penetrate through the ground and backscatter the information about the water leakages to the system. With this technology, underground leakages can be detected in a couple of weeks rather than months or even years. Continuous, fast monitoring of water distribution networks and early detection of leakages will result in more efficiency in water infrastructure, building growth in revenue, and sustainability. Jatin will contribute to goal 6 of the SDGs – clean water and sanitation.
Tatenda Chitaka from Zimbabwe. Through her ISA project, she wants to develop a rainwater harvest system to mitigate the water crisis. Rainwater harvesting is not being practiced in the semi-arid regions of Zimbabwe where she collected the data during her research in the past, hence she decided to design and set up a rainwater harvest system in the rural areas of Matobo district as her ISA project. Her project will integrate the smartphone application tool which was developed by UN but not used in Zimbabwe, therefore, she will create a prototype for the use of science and technology in rainwater harvesting. The interactive application tool uses meteorological data which is easily available at the nearest weather station. Her organisation, Hydrobridge, will fund the installation of the demonstration system as a part of their social responsibility policy. They will be using locally available material and use simple designs to make it easy for communities to replicate the system. With her project, she is supporting SDGs 2 and 6 – no hunger, and clean water and sanitation, respectively.
Fadli from Indonesia. He plans to develop a bioconversion system that upcycles organic waste into protein and fertilizer using Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL). This project aims to divert organic waste from landfills while providing alternative protein for poultry and fish farmer. Organic waste from markets, restaurants, and agriculture will be collected and fed to the Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL). This ISA project is part of the ongoing project “Proterra; A social enterprise that upcycles organic waste into protein and fertilizer using Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL).” We have done the prototyping stage. The project entails social enterprise development, product research and development, and waste management education. This project is unique because they plan to tackle two problems simultaneously: reducing organic waste and providing alternative and sustainable protein. We are also accelerating the circular economy application. This project mainly focuses on SDG 12 – sustainable consumption and production.
Linda Kamau from Kenya. She is the vision bearer of Malian AgriBusiness Solutions, believing that business is one of the major tools that will drive poverty from the world’s most vulnerable groups. Malian Agri-Business Solutions is a social enterprise that focuses on developing the smallholder farmers in Africa while conserving our land/water resources and maximizing profits. They enable farmers to increase their income by purchasing orange flesh sweet potatoes from them at a fair market price. They add value to the sweet potatoes by baking bread, cakes, and donut which we supply to our customers who demand healthy nutritious, and delicious food that is easily accessible. With her ISA project, she plans to scale up her business and learn more about the green business scene in Europe in order to apply what is suitable to her business in Kenya. Linda´s ISA project will be adding to the accomplishment of the SDGs 1,2 and 8 – no poverty, no hunger, and decent work and economic growth, respectively.
Juan Francisco D. Gonzalez from Colombia. Juan is a member of TERRAE – an NGO consisting of geo-environmental professionals, which generates and spreads knowledge on improving territorial and environmental planning decisions. It also supports communities in protecting the natural base of the territory they inhabit, through the integration of scientific information and ancestral knowledge. The Environmental Community-based Monitoring Centeris the name of his project which will offer an alternative to counteract governmental institutions´ lack of environmental monitoring. This project, which has its foundations on the geo-environmental organization TERRAE experience, is based on two principal pillars: 1) environmental education for communities affected by extractive activities, and 2) development of practical skills for collecting independent water quality and quantity data derived from environmental monitoring through easy-access devices and simple monitoring methods. The current project, inspired by the idea of protecting ecosystems by strengthening the relationship between indigenous/peasant communities with their territory, aims to contribute to achieving the SDGs 13 – climate action and 15 – life on land.
Henry C. Fordi from Ghana. He is the project lead of Guzakuza and community development specialist for SheFarmsproject. Guzakuza is an organization founded in 2015 that supports Ghanaian women in agriculture, inspiring them to be empowered entrepreneurs and achieve sustainable growth in agriculture. His ISA project, SheFarms, will be a set of onsite training for female farmers together with 3 months of practical farming experience. They will be connected to a ready market to help them quickly sell their produce to avoid post-harvest losses. The farmland will be provided by Guzakuza organization, and all the profits (from yields) from that period and donations will be given to the farmers to enable them to lease/purchase their farmlands. SheFarmers will go through boot camping, on-farm residential training, field trips, apprenticeship, coaching, and mentorship to build their confidence and improve their productivity.During the training and farming period, other women who are successful as agriculture entrepreneurs will be invited to share their experiences with the SheFarmers. The program participants will also have the opportunity to visit farms of other successful female farmers to see that it is possible. Henrys´ project will be contributing SDGs number 2 – no hunger 5 – gender equality and 12 – sustainable consumption and production.
Desmond A. Fontoh from Cameroon. He is devoted to plastic pollution reduction by using waste as a resource to manufacture eco-friendly plastic pavements and tiles. His home organization is CEPOW (Crusaders for Environmental Protection and Ozone Watch) – an NGO established to address uprising environmental issues with a key focus on climate change adaptation and mitigation. Their goal is to build on the theory of change, through healthier/sustainable solutions on uprising environmental issues. Transforming already existing plastic waste into plastic pavements and tiles brings an affordable alternative to brick pavements and ceramic tiles while simultaneously decreasing the demand for raw materials. Furthermore, they will not only focus on production but promote environmental education amongst the young. They will create Beat the Bottle platform which shall educate youths on best environmental practices and trigger their conscious mindset. Through this platform they plan to create 5 eco-clubs in 5 schools in Bamenda, Cameroon, to promote education. With his project, Desmond will support SDGs number 11 and 13 – sustainable cities and communities and climate action.
Eric G. Kariuki from Kenya. Together with his team at Aquaethanol Technologies, Eric developed a new alternative biofuel that can be used at low-income homes and restaurants in Kenya, that would not only offer a clean form of cooking energy but would also be the solution for water hyacinth – a fast-growing weed that threatens life in lakes Victoria and Naivasha. Water hyacinth blossom causes ecological catastrophes in the mentioned lakes since the 1990´s. When it blossoms, the fish and other life forms from the lake die out from the lack of oxygen caused by the plants´ fast growth. On the other hand, the use of non-renewable raw materials and fuels for cooking is very high in Kenya – firewood is used by 64% and charcoal by 17%. The Aquaethanol Technologies managed to find a solution that solves both problems: a biofuel made from weed that grows on freshwater bodies to be distributed together with clean cookstoves and lignin briquettes that are alternatives to charcoal and can be used in already existing charcoal stoves. At the ISA project, Eric will be conducting Earth Observation survey using remote sensing to map out the vegetative patterns of water hyacinth and developing an optimized pilot-scale production plant for the biofuels. Eric is supporting SDGs 7, 9, and 13 – affordable and clean energy, industry, innovation and infrastructure and climate action, respectively.
Geo Sebastian from India. He believes that science and technologies can help in eradicating the poverty of rural societies in his home country. India has very ambitious plans in place for achievement in the development of solar energy. The major growth in the rooftop sector is focused in urban areas due to shorter ROI (Return on Investment) periods and higher electricity tariffs. The people living in rural areas are till now disconnected from this boom of solar energy in the Indian market. Therefore, for his ISA project he will bring solar technology to the already set up self-help groups i.e rural institutions which are doing savings and small-scale livelihood together in rural India. His idea is to provide livelihoods to the people of the region by helping them to harness and eventually sell solar energy. He plans to accomplish his ISA project with the help from model of National Rural Livelihoods Mission, which will act as the backbone with the self-help groups (women collectives) already formed and trained to work as a team. The harnessing of solar energy and the skill development of constructing infrastructure needed will be offered as a sustainable income for the people. With his project, Geo will help in achieving SDGs 1 and 7 – no poverty and affordable and clean energy, respectively.
Manpan J. Wungak from Nigeria. Sustainable World Corporation Nigeria ltd. is a business community founded in 2017 and made up of several business owners who want to see Sustainable Change happen in our country and continent at large. They believe in a strong potential of the green jobs and entrepreneurship industry that requires intentional emphasis. To succeed, they will have to help youth develop the skills required to tackle issues related to sustainable development. This ISA project is an execution of an already conceived and designed program to Recognize, Recruit, Reinforce, Resource, and Release – opportunity-driven entrepreneurs who will set up and grow highly efficient companies that can continually accommodate new and innovative business models and create jobs, new market spaces, products, and services or processes. With his ISA project, Manpan will lead to the emergence of five opportunity-driven young entrepreneurs with highly innovative and sustainability-focused start-up concepts which are repeatable and highly scalable. They will be incubated for not less than 12months at the SWC Sustainable Innovation HUB until the launch. His project will contribute to SDGs number 8 and 10 – decent work and economic growth and reduced inequalities.
Ousmane Ndiaye from Senegal. Working for the Ministry of Education in Senegal, Ousmane could detect an important cause for school dropouts in the rural area of Senegal being the lack of food for pupils during school hours. He decided to address dropouts, as well as children’s health and well-being, by creating a guideline on how to establish and manage a self-sustaining canteen. His ISA project aims to assist the middle school and the local community to develop and implement some activities that generate income to set up and run a school feeding program. Secondly, with the help of the Ministry of Education, he plans to showcase a canteen in the pilot school in rural Senegal. Moreover, students at the pilot school will be trained in farming by the local experts to develop a school garden that will provide local vegetables and other inputs to the school canteen. With this project, Ousmane will contribute to SDG 2 – zero hunger, SDG 3 – health and well-being, and SDG 4 – quality education.
Bogdan Skokovic from Serbia. His ISA project is focused on sustainable tourism as rural depopulation and unmaintained public infrastructure are a problem that provincial parts of Serbia are facing for decades. This project aims to bring positive change to the region in the attempt to highlight the rural population of abandoned villages and natural surroundings as particularly vulnerable to the ongoing trend of indifferent tourism investment patterns. This would be done through firstly, revitalization of village school which will be the pillar of change-making in the region, and secondly by using the converted building for creating educational opportunities in the field of introducing sustainable practices in tourism and/or agriculture. Furthermore, he plans to create a business plan for a platform that will promote local entrepreneurship as a tool to support people living in the area by giving a marketplace for their local products. Bogdan will address SDG 4 – quality education, SDG 8 – decent work and economic growth, and SDG 11 – sustainable cities and communities.
Aminata Lo from Senegal. Her ISA project aims to mainstream sustainable development content that stimulates imagination and creativity through new technologies. In addition, it engages learners in research, action, and reflection for the co-creation of sustainable solutions. Aminata’s goal is to foster environmental education in Senegalese secondary schools through innovative methods, using digital technology as a lever for transformation while considering the existing traditions of local communities. With her ISA project “SDGs Program and New Technology-driven Innovations in the Senegalese Curriculum”, she intends to design content courses on a national blueprint for the mainstreaming of environmental issues, including the mitigation of climate change and promote environmental education in the curriculum of secondary schools through innovative approaches. The implementation of her project will take place at Fablabs (digital fabrication laboratory) in Senegal to initiate activities combining research, sustainability and collaborative innovation. Her project-related SDGs are 4 – quality education and 5 – gender equality.
Please note that the project outlines are preliminary and will be further defined.
You would like to cooperate with one or more of the scholarship-holders? Then please contact the Project Team.