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Lebanese community artist Nadine Khaouli, who was involved in disaster relief efforts for Lebanon in response to the 2020 Beirut Port explosion through her organisation Kafe be Kafak, has been named amongst four ‘Young Leaders’ in Samsung Electronics’ Generation17, a joint initiative with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to accelerate progress towards achieving the 17 Global Goals, or the Sustainable Development Goals.
They will work with Generation17’s inaugural cohort of Young Leaders, who have already advanced 10 of the 17 Global Goals in more than 50 countries.
This new group is made up of four visionaries combatting inequality, promoting human rights issues and educating their generation on the Global Goals across Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe. They are:
· Nadine Khaouli (Lebanon): A 25-year-old community activist who leads disaster relief efforts for Lebanon in response to the 2020 Beirut Port explosion and the COVID-19 pandemic through her organisation Kafe be Kafak.
· Daniel Calarco (Brazil): A 23-year-old human rights activist who founded the International Youth Watch to create better opportunities for young people from marginalised communities.
· Yejin Choi (South Korea): A 26-year-old cognitive therapist turned CEO who founded DoBrain, an AI-based mobile app that aims to improve early-education opportunities for children with disabilities.
· Yurii Romashko (Ukraine): A 28-year-old transparency advocate who founded the think tank Institute of Analysis and Advocacy that empowers his community to make more informed, data-based decisions in their daily lives.
“We are proud to expand our mission and use our global reach and purposeful innovations to support a new group of inspirational young activists, who once again share Samsung’s commitment to deliver meaningful solutions that bring communities together,” said Stephanie Choi, SVP & Head of Marketing of the Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics.
“These four leaders are integral members of the Galaxy community, and they have our full support and encouragement to continue rallying us all to advance the Global Goals and help build a better future for everyone.”
Generation17 was born in October 2020 with the mission to inspire an entire generation of tech savvy young individuals to achieve the Global Goals in less than 10 years. Since launch, an inaugural cohort of Young Leaders - Máximo Mazzocco from Argentina, Sadya Touré from Mali, Shomy Chowdhury fromBangladesh and Tafara Makaza from Zimbabwe - have championed the effort, using Samsung’s and UNDP’s support to broaden their reach.
Over the last few months, Samsung and UNDP increased the visibility and impact of their work through mentorship with the UNDP Youth Global Programme and the Global Policy Network, participation in global and regional development-related events, such as the #Youth4ClimateLive series and the Karma Dialogue, and engagement with country offices and partners.
Samsung also equipped the Young Leaders with the latest Galaxy technology to better connect them with their peers and raised awareness of their work across its global network using personalised content and the reach of its online channels. Exemplifying the need to act together, the Young Leaders leveraged their expanded network to exchange ideas and best practices and collaborate for peer-to-peer engagements.
The Young Leaders will continue to engage with the Global Goals using the Samsung Global Goals app which is installed on over 100 million Galaxy smartphones and has provided more than US$1.5 million in donations for UNDP. The app received an Honourable Mention in the SDG Action Awards and was an Honouree for Software & MobileApps, Tech for a Better World in the CES 2020 Innovations Award. It was also shortlisted in the Reuters’ Responsible Business Awards for SDG Impact.
