San Francisco Frontiers - UN celebrates youth activists using tech for good

An Indian teenager using mobile tools to monitor water quality and a young lawyer using technology to provide free medical treatment across Lebanon were among the laureates honoured at the annual Young Activists Summit (YAS).

"We are celebrating today some of the most extraordinary people on our planet," Melisaa Fleming, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, told the Geneva ceremony.

"When they see problems, they don't just throw up their hands in despair. Instead, they stand up. They create solutions and they move others to act," she said, calling the laureates "the change-makers our troubled world so desperately needs".

The youngest on stage was Dev Karan, an Indian 17-year-old helping to restore India's traditional ponds, which help prevent floods and soil erosion by storing water.

Karan co-founded Pondora, an organisation training students as "Pond Ambassadors" to help villages monitor water quality using IT-based sensors and mobile tools.

Other winners include 20-year-old Rena Kawasaki of Japan, who at age 14 co-founded a group connecting students and politicians through Zoom sessions to boost youth participation in politics.

Aminata Savane, 25 and from Ivory Coast, also received the prize for her efforts to make the digital world more inclusive and safer in underserved communities.

- 'Needed to do something' -

Meanwhile, 24-year-old Marina El Khawand of Lebanon founded her organisation Medonations after the devastating 2020 Beirut port explosion that killed more than 220 people.

"I needed to do something," she told AFP, describing how an initial effort to obtain vital medication for one woman had ballooned into an organisation providing free medical treatment to tens of thousands of people in Lebanon.

Brazilian activist Salvino Oliveira, 27, was also recognised for his organisation PerifaConnection, which amplifies the voices of favela youth and helps first-generation students access university.

He himself grew up in poverty in Rio de Janeiro's Cidade de Deus favela, and had to begin working at the age of 13, selling water bottles and candy on the street to help support his family.

He told AFP his own life was "transformed by education" when he was granted a scholarship to attend one of Rio's best public schools.

"It changed my life," he said, adding that he "wanted to give back".

"How many Mozarts or Beethovens are there in the favelas of Rio, just waiting for a chance to develop, waiting for the opportunity to pursue their dreams?" he asked attendees.

G.Miller--SFF