PARTICIPANTS 2021/22
The application process:
The participation for our third ISA program application round was overwhelming. We have received more than 3.100 online applications over our application platform. Over 2.000 of them met the ISA application requirements. 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, 36 participants were selected to conduct video conference interviews.
Finally, the ISA team selected the following fifteen fellows for the ISA program 2021/22 which we proudly present here:
Anne Aol from Kenya. With her ISA project, Anne aims to design, test, and implement an innovative service delivery model on technology for safe waste collection. The flawed sanitation services have long been a growing challenge in Kenya, especially Nairobi where out of 2.5 million inhabitants, 80 percent is lacking access to proper sanitation, which leads to water contamination and the spread of deadly diseases. With Fresh Life Initiative Anne plans to provide an affordable solution for safe sanitation to residents of slums in Nairobi city county. Using three main steps: 1) container-based toilets equipped with hand washing station, clean water, and soap; 2) professional and regular waste collection and 3) safe treatment and reuse of all the waste collected, she plans to contribute to goal number 6 of the SDGs – clean water and sanitation.
Fuad Anhika Rahman from Indonesia. He will work on supporting and strengthening the capacity of local efforts through digital technology. Fuad will use an integrated digital platform to improve funds-access from donators to stakeholders that live from sustainable tourism. Furthermore, he will support local products and services, marketed through marketplace platforms, providing access to the national and international market and audience. Through the Bantu Wisata Crowdfunding platform, Fuad will generate funding, from within and outside of Indonesia, for the local stakeholders’ projects related to sustainable tourism. As sustainable tourism is still a niche market, this will also be a platform for educating and generating awareness on how to practice tourism in a sustainable manner. His ISA project will support goals number 11 and 15 of the SDGs – sustainable cities and communities and life on land, respectively.
Chibunna Ogbonna from Nigeria. His ISA project is designed to increase electricity access using solar energy in areas of Nigeria where electricity is absent, limited, or intermittent in supply.
With the Renewcykle start-up, he has been working on making renewable energy the most preferred, most accessible, and the most affordable energy source. They are devoted to goal number 7 of the SDGs – affordable and clean energy – by manufacturing and installing solar inverter systems with durable, recycled lithium battery storage for local clinics, University students, young professionals, micro-enterprises, homes, and rural communities. Light Up Nigeria Initiative, the ISA project he will be working on, will be a campaign dedicated to aggressively electrify the southeastern region of Nigeria using clean energy sources, following the rest of the country and finally other African countries.
Jackson N. Sebigunda from the Democratic Republic of Congo. During his time in Germany, he is going to develop a hydroponic and aquaponic system, with sustainable and eco-friendly techniques, based on water circulation to support fish and plant culture. Aquaponics is a combination of Hydroponics and Aquaculture that mimics the environmental functions within indoor processes. In Goma, the capital of North Kivu province in DR Congo, Jackson plans to set up a greenhouse, with hydroponic and aquaponic systems, in a controlled environment. Furthermore, he plans to train 100 workers on urban farming and with it, increase job opportunities in this province. This project contributes, in the first place, to goal 2 of the SDGs – reduce hunger, and simultaneously supports goal 12 – sustainable production and consumption.
Karima El Azhary from Morocco. Her ISA project is dedicated to providing new composite insulation materials and carbon-negative construction materials to be used in both new and already existing buildings. With her project, Karima aims to contribute to the improvement of energy efficiency of buildings and provide carbon-negative construction material, through a set of technical solutions that consists of promoting the use of bio-based, ecological, sustainable, available, and low-cost natural materials. These materials are based on natural fibers and poultry waste and they show their importance in resisting both hot and cold climatic conditions and ensuring a comfortable indoor climate for the inhabitants independently of extremes hot weather, without resorting to excessive energy consumption. With this project, she will contribute to goal 11 of SDG- sustainable cities and communities. Consequently, these biobased composite materials will allow storing carbon that mitigates climate change, therefore supporting goal 13- climate action.
Mohammed Alsadeg from Sudan. He plans to design and model an absorber-packed column process to capture atmospheric CO2 in order to reduce CO2 accumulation and flue gas from coal-fired power plants and heavy industries in big cities. In the El Gezira state, the second-biggest state in Sudan, he will focus on an Industrial city Giad as his study area. He decided to focus his project on CO2 absorption since CO2 exhaustion from the industries represents one of the highest polluters in Sudan. The impact of the air pollution resulted from the continuous burning of fuels, various models of transport, or as a result of human activities made Mohammad decide to devote his career to developing a model for CO2 absorption. With this project, he will support two goals of the SDG: 11-sustainable cities and communities; and 4- equality education.
Tamara Ustenko from Ukraine. Her ISA project is addressing the problem of textile waste environmental pollution. In the textile industry current and projected rates of material consumption are not sustainable. In Ukraine, 95% of textile waste goes to landfills and remains as a source of pollution whereas new material is constantly used in order to create expensive designer clothes and accessories. To deal with these problems, Tamara will establish an eco-social atelier for creating designer clothes from environmentally friendly raw materials at an affordable price, ensuring reuse, repair, and recycling of the textile waste. Furthermore, she will provide training and employment to socially vulnerable groups giving them an opportunity for a future job position. With her project, she will support two SDG goals: 12- responsible consumption and production; and 8- decent work and economic growth.
Priyanka Kulkarni from India. With her ISA project, she wants to strengthen the Blue-Green Infrastructure for the City of Thane, located in Maharashtra State of India, in order to reduce flood risks that are encountered every year due to the heavy rainfall. Global climate change is affecting the weather patterns and enhancing increased episodes of high-intensity rainfall resulting in flood-like situations. India has been suffering from this issue specifically in the last years and is expected to suffer more if the right actions are not done. Priyanka believes that sustainable development can be achieved by holistic planning where natural systems are safeguarding human settlements, and both are set up in a mosaic system in order to complement each other. During her stay in Germany, she will work on a strategy for flood-risk reduction in Thane city and by doing this she will support two out of the 17 SDGs: goal number 11 – sustainable cities and communities; and goal number 13- climate action.
Waleed Salaheldin from Egypt. His project aims to create a comprehensive and advanced tool for sustainable pandemic architecture. The scope of the tool will be the Middle East and it will be specialized in Egypt. This tool will promote the protection measures and it will be solution-based, providing integrated, coordinated, and sustainable architectural solutions for pandemic situations. A secondary target of the project is to encourage the research and manufacturing of green and hygiene products. Recognizing that there is no comprehensive tool covering all aspects of the pandemic architecture, and no such tool that was created for the Middle East and Egypt specifically, Waleed decided to devote his ISA project to research preparation, and testing of a new comprehensive manual tool for pandemic architecture with all-associated sustainability, environmental well-being and resilience aspect. With his work, he will contribute to health and well-being – goal number 3 of the SDGs, and to sustainable cities and communities – goal number 11 of the SDGs.
Ruusa Ipinge from Namibia. Ruusa is driven by helping society to make better decisions through data support. She believes that well-captured data, along with the use of higher-level technology such as machine-learning will assist to identify and locate the most vulnerable people in rural areas, making it easier for policymakers to improve the welfare of people and measure the progress towards achieving the SDGs. Inequality within Namibia is a present cause for concern despite some positive developments towards reducing poverty. It has been a challenge to identify the people that qualify for and are truly in need of the ministry’s service, especially those in remote areas. Ruusa aims to develop an analytical predictive model to predict qualified applicants for social immediate help using the first sample of Omusati region. This will assist the office of the prime minister with recommending strategies and policies aimed at addressing poverty to the affected communities. With her ISA project, she is committed to goals number 1 and 10 of the SDGs: no poverty and reduced inequalities, respectively.
Sneha Murali from India. She is an author and an activist on a mission to uplift humanity. She is devoted to the inclusion of deaf children into a regular education system. According to the UN, Sign Language is “a calling for equality, especially in terms of accessibility, that allows an individual freedom of choice, dignity, and independence of self, without discrimination”. During her stay in Germany, she will be designing an inclusive and digital curriculum on topics such as Climate change, Mental health, Cognitive skills, Financial literacy, Sustainable consumption, etc. for the Deaf community (rural deaf women and children) as primary beneficiaries. Furthermore, she will create workshops for all educators and School administrations on the topic of Inclusion and a sustainable ecosystem in schools. With her ISA project, she will be supporting goal number 4 of the SDGs: quality education.
Fabio Nicolas Luna Arevalo from Colombia. His project aims to monitor deforestation in the Colombian Amazon using Sentinel 1 datasets and Operation Dashboard for ArcGIS. The sponsoring company, Earth Big Data, has developed Python notebooks to extract coverage changes in the Caquetá region (Colombia) by analyzing signal variations from radar satellites. This information should be stored in a geographic database for spatial analysis with cadastral and national natural parks data, and so showing the areas and rate of deforestation or conservation. Thus, these analyses could be presented through the use of ESRI web applications and maps, which would help the private sector (banks) to allocate loans based on the conservation of the forest located in the parcels of their clients since Colombian regulations indicate the social commitment of this business sector. In accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals, this project seeks to help in the fulfillment of Life on Land- the goal 13.
John Ayodeji Faneye from Nigeria. His ISA project focuses on the rehabilitation and integration of ex-convicts in Nigeria back into society. In 2016, Ayodeji founded a charity organization, “Joshua Dynasty” where he began to cater to the needs of prisoners by his monthly visits to the Nigerian prisons facilities. Ayodeji is motivated to solve the problems of unacceptability, denied employment opportunities, stigmatization, stereotypical backlash, emotional imbalance, and mental disorderliness, which silently and continuously keeps ex-convicts imprisoned even after serving their jail terms.
During his time at ISA, he will be designing a manual to educate society on ex-convicts’ inclusion as well as organizing a one-day workshop. With the workshop, he intends to introduce the ex-convicts to different vocational skills after which they would be enrolled in one of the courses for a minimum period of three months. Furthermore, he will be making a video documentary of the ex-convicts and the workshop to sensitize the Nigerian society subsequently. The workshop would facilitate the transition of ex-convicts to becoming entrepreneurs thereby enhancing a sustainable livelihood. His project will contribute to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 1, 2, and 8 – “no poverty”, “no hunger” and “Decent work and economic growth”
Rose Zwarivadza from Zimbabwe. She is a public speaker and writer who is passionate about encouraging people never to lose hope. Having been raised up by physically disabled relatives, she is led to use that life experience to motivate other persons with disabilities. In Zimbabwe, incapacitated or physically challenged persons have had limited access to resources due to poor integration in the system. During her time with ISA she plans to use her skills in branding to raise awareness to motivate and facilitate the integration of incapacitated persons and orphans in Zimbabwe. She would like to motivate the integration of socially disadvantaged persons by designing and promoting the use of branded merchandise. In addition, she will organize a campaign to educate, create awareness, motivate and inspire the target groups. Furthermore, she will create a magazine and establish a blog to publish testimonials and create awareness of the ongoing project. All these efforts support goal number 4 of the SDG´s: quality education.
Christian Owusu Amoako from Ghana. His ISA project focuses on using education for sustainable development to enhance awareness and knowledge of marine plastics pollution in Ghana. Christian will design a workshop tool kit for the implementation of ocean clubs in basic schools in the coastal regions of Ghana to equip the next generation with the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to address the challenges of marine pollution in Ghana which is a serious threat to the coastal ecosystem and inhabitants whose livelihoods depend on coastal resources. Ghana’s coastal zones are threatened by marine debris polluting the coastal environment due to mass usage and inappropriate plastic waste disposal which affects the entire ocean and marine life. His project is in support of SDG 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development and SDG 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns respectfully.
Please note that the project outlines are preliminary and will be further defined. Participants and their projects will be presented in detail, once they have arrived in Germany in our News Blog.
You would like to cooperate with one or more of the scholarship-holders? Then please contact the Project Team.