You can make a difference
Here are nine very different stories showing what is possible if you have the vision and determination to change the life of yourself and others. There are so many inspirational stories like this today. Age is no barrier - some of the great 'movers and shakers' are under 16 years old. Be inspired by what these young people are doing and, if you have a vision or dream to make the world a better place then 'go for it!'.
What do you think you might be able to do in your local community to help change peoples lives and support the achievement of one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
What do you think you might be able to do in your local community to help change peoples lives and support the achievement of one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Abigail Lupi - CareGirlzThe CareGirlz are a group of talented girls ages 6-13 who celebrate life by singing and dancing at Children's Hospitals, Assisted Living Residences and Nursing Homes across the state.
They have performed over 20 shows with a repertoire of 90 different pop and broadway songs. Their focus is bringing joy and happiness to those who need it. Katie Stagliano - Katie's CropThe idea for Katie’s Krops began with a 9-year-old girl and a 40 pound cabbage. In 2008 Katie brought home a tiny cabbage seedling from school as part of the Bonnie Plants Third Grade Cabbage Program. She tended to her cabbage and cared for it until it grew to an amazing 40 pounds. Knowing her cabbage was special she donated to a soup kitchen where it helped to feed over 275 people. Moved by the experience of seeing how many people could benefit from the donation of fresh produce to soup kitchens, Katie decided to start vegetable gardens and donate the harvest to help feed people in need.Katie’s Krops now has 100 gardens growing across the country and has donated thousands and thousands of pounds of fresh produce to people in need. The mission of Katie’s Krops is to empower youth to start and maintain vegetable gardens of all sizes and donate the harvest to help feed people in need, as well as to assist and inspire others to do the same. The problem of hunger is real, Katie’s Krops mission is simple, we all can help because…It only takes a seedling!
Dean Roosegaarde - Smog Free TowerAccording to a recent study by researchers at UC Berkeley, smog kills about 4,000 people every day in China. To help clean up our air and make it breathable again, Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde created a 23-foot tall air purifier called the Smog Free Tower. The tower-like device essentially sucks up smog like a vacuum from the top and then releases the filtered air through its six-sided vents. It can clean more than 30,000 cubic meters of air per hour and runs on 1,400 watts of green energy.
The project, took about three years of research and development, but Roosegaarde was finally able to show off his massive machine in September in Rotterdam. Kelvin DoeKelvin Doe is a self-taught engineer of astonishing precocity. At the age of 11, he rummaged in dustbins for scrap electronics parts that could fix local problems. At 13 he made his own battery by throwing together acid, soda and metal in a tin cup, waiting for the mixture to dry and wrapping tape around it. This proved a big financial saving on batteries.
Frustrated by lack of a reliable electricity supply in his neighbourhood, Doe built a generator using parts that were home made or rescued from the rubbish. The generator also powered a community radio station that he built from recycled materials. He plays music under the name DJ Focus and employs his friends as journalists and station managers. He had never been more than 10 miles from his home in Freetown until he won a national schools innovation competition and was picked last year for a trip to America, where he spoke at the Meet the Young Makers panel at the World Maker Faire in New York. Doe became the youngest ever "visiting practitioner" with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) International Development Initiative. He presented his inventions to MIT students, took part in research and lectured to engineering students at Harvard College. He has been featured on CNN and NBC News and was a speaker at TEDxTeen. His mentor David Sengeh, a PhD student at the MIT media lab, said: "The inspirational effects of the original Thinkr YouTube video have been remarkable. It has had a tremendous impact on Kelvin's life, on my life and on millions of people all over the world everywhere. In Sierra Leone, other young people suddenly feel they can be like Kelvin." |
Boyan Slat - Ocean CleanupOVER 5 TRILLION PIECES OF PLASTIC CURRENTLY LITTER THE OCEAN
An organization called The Ocean Cleanup, founded by 19-year-old Boyan Slat, believe that they may have a viable solution to cleanup ocean trash. Following a year-long study involving extensive scientific research, the organization has recently released a feasibility report which concludes that their novel method to remove plastic from the oceans is both technically and financially viable. Trash accumulates in 5 ocean garbage patches, the largest one being the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located between Hawaii and California. If left to circulate, the plastic will impact our ecosystems, health and economies. The Ocean Cleanup develops advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. A full-scale deployment of the systems is estimated to clean up 50 % of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 5 years. Fionn Ferreira - Plastic SoupFionn Ferreira is a 19 year-old anti-plastic inventor, speaker and student. He is passionate about building things which can help us measure and improve the state of the environment as well as inspiring others to do so. Fionn has given many Keynote presentations about his work to varied audiences addressing plastic pollution and sustainability. He spent lots of his childhood paddling around the coasts of Ireland with his kayak.
He invented a non-harmful way to extract microplastics from water using vegetable oil and rust powder. Fionn was named the Grand prize global winner of the Google Science Fair 2019 for this invention. Gitanjali Rao - inventor Just 15 years old, Rao has been selected from a field of more than 5,000 nominees as TIME’s first ever Kid of the Year. She spoke about her astonishing work using technology to tackle issues ranging from contaminated drinking water to opioid addiction and cyberbullying, and about her mission to create a global community of young innovators to solve problems the world over.
William KamkwambaWilliam Kamkwamba (born August 5, 1987) is a Malawian innovator, engineer and author. He gained fame in his country in 2002, when he built a wind turbine to power a few electrical appliances in his family's house in Wimbe using blue gum trees, bicycle parts, and materials collected in a local scrapyard. Since then, he has built a solar-powered water pump that supplies the first drinking water in his village and two other wind turbines (the tallest standing at 12 meters (39 ft)) and is planning two more, including one in Lilongwe, the political capital of Malawi.
William's story is inspirational and he achieved much since his windmills first appeared on Youtube. He has his own website ow at www.williamkamkwamba.com/ Jack AndrakaJack Thomas Andraka (born January 8, 1997) is an American scientist, inventor, and cancer researcher. As a high school student, he won the grand prize at the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair with a method to possibly detect the early stages of pancreatic and other cancers.
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