NEWS RELEASE
Press Release, Salzburg/New York, July 29, 2010
WORLD SUMMIT YOUTH AWARD
c/o ICNM – Internationales Centrum für Neue Medien
Moosstrasse 43a | 5020 Salzburg
+43-662-630480 | wsya@icnm.net
4 Winners and Runners-Up from Africa in WSYA contest:
Young People’s digital media make UN Millennium Development Goals happen
From online children’s education to talking animated HIViruses, from exceptional blogs to climate
campaigns, the World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) presents young people who use internet and
mobiles to get action on the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Amongst
those decorated are also two Nigerian projects as well as one each from Ghana and Zimbabwe.
The Millennium Development Goals were implemented to assure that the world is freed from poverty,
hunger and disease and for UN member nations to work together towards achieving them by 2015.
The WSYA participants do exactly what governments in many countries fail to do: they get action on the
MDGs! 18 winning teams selected from 630 applicants hailing from 102 countries in six WSYA categories,
try to do good with their projects and will join together in New York during the United Nations MDG
Review Summit. They cover key areas such as:
- Fight Poverty, Hunger and Disease !
- Education for all !
- Power 2 Women !
- Create Your Culture !
- Go Green !
- Pursue Truth !
The 3 winners and 2 runners-up from each of these six categories come from 21 countries. They were
evaluated in a three-round judging process by a jury of 18 young international experts in the fields of
youth engagement, new media and social entrepreneurship. The African continent could score four
times: The “Smallholders Farmers Rural Radio”, which allows for easy feedback of rural listeners in Nigeria,
and a “Virtual School on Climate Change” developed in Zimbabwe won an Award. Furthermore, one
project each from Ghana and Nigeria was decorated as runner-up.
“The combination of creativity and commitment to advance the MDGs in their own ways and communities
using technology is fantastic. These young people show how to take concrete steps towards a better
world,” says Peter A. Bruck, Chairman of the World Summit Award.
The Winners Events will take place from September 18th – 22nd, 2010 in New York City. Winners will be
able to showcase their projects to government and business leaders, representatives of civil society and
an international community. “We hope that the winners will be inspired by each other as well as by
those officials in order to foster their commitment in helping to advance the goals by 2015,” Bruck adds.
The WSYA is both, a showcase to the world for young designers, technologists and e-content creators as
well as a contribution on a global scale to addressing poverty, protecting the environment, sharing
knowledge and empowering young people.
About WSYA
The WSYA selects and promotes best practice in e-content and new media, demonstrates young people’s
potential to create outstanding digital contents and serves as a platform for people from all UN member
states to work together in the efforts to reduce poverty and hunger, and to tackle ill-health, gender inequality,
lack of education, lack of access to clean water and environmental degradation.
The WSYA is organised as a follow up activity of the World Summit on Information Society and its action
plan towards the year 2015. The Youth Award is organised by the World Summit Award Network for the
third time after 2005 and 2009. WSYA is supported by the Knight Foundation and the Internet Society
(ISOC).
Contact
For media enquiries or to schedule an interview with WSYA winners, please contact our office at
wsya@icnm.net
For more information on WSYA and our events please visit www.youthaward.org
ANNEX: This year’s World Summit Youth Award Winners are:
Category 1: Fight Poverty, Hunger & Disease!
Project Name (and Description) Producer
Winner: Leung Chun San (28) China
ANTI HIVIRUS www.vir.us
The project is part of a worldwide online campaign. It is an education program to reduce the number of new HIV
infections. There are 6 animated episodes aiming to educate the public on the characteristics of HIV and AIDS. The
winner’s company ManyMany handled character design, background set design and shot design.
Winner: Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu (28) Nigeria
The Smallholders Farmers Rural Radio www.smallholdersfoundation.org
The Smallholders Farmers Rural Radio tackles rural poverty and hunger by designing and broadcasting daily
broadcast programs in the local Igbo Language which enables farmers to acquire contemporary agricultural and
environmental management techniques, receive daily market information, advertise their products and learn
critical business skills. Furthermore the listeners can easily give feedback using a system called AIR.
Winner: Nikolay Staney (27) Bulgaria
Nahrani.com – Improve your vocabulary and provide food to people in need www.nahrani.com
By playing the word game at Nahrani.com, you develop and enrich your vocabulary. With each correct meaning of
a word you donate 2 grams of food to the poor people in Bulgaria. The more words you have correct, the more food
you give!
Runners-Up
Village Home Tourism, Ashis Himali (26), Nepal
Donativa, Ilyas Bakouch (22), Morocco
Category 2: Education for all!
Project Description Producer
Winner: Anshul Tewari (19) India
Youth Ki Awaaz: Mouthpiece for the Youth www.youthkiawaaz.com
The popular blog serves as a platform for young people across India to express their views on issues such as
environment, politics, women’s empowerment, drug abuse, child abuse, and youth leadership. YouthKiAwaaz.
com (YKA) hosts over 1000 articles by 400 writers, read by 1000+ visitors everyday.
Winner: Silvia Carbotti (30) Italy
Clo’s Ship (La nave di Clo) www.navediclo.it
Coloured animations and fondly drafted figures invite kids to learn, play and be creative on this site. The
pages aim is to educate young people from six to eleven years with meaningful and rich activities for
digital natives.
Winner: Mohammad Rashidi-Kochi (22) Iran
KSNA (Knowledge & Science News Agency) Scientific magazine – Founder of OpenScience in IRAN & Middle East www.ksna.ir
KSNA Science Magazine is an online Persian language publication offering the latest Iran and international
scientific news and articles in Farsi in over 20 scientific fields.
Runners-Up
SME-Challenge, Santiago Peyré (27), Argentina
Sexual Maturation and menstrual hygiene management practices associated with school girls in Ghana,
Philip Kwesi Agyei (28), Ghana
Category 3: Power 2 Women!
Project Description Producer
Winner: Corobco Natalia (26) Azerbaijan
Women’s Forum www.women-forum.net
The Women’s Forum is an online network which enables young women to express themselves through
writing. Published articles cover women’s rights, careers, and family life and even approach issues that are
still taboo in the Caucasus, such as domestic violence, virginity, and homosexuality.
Winner: Eman Abd El-Rahman (25) Egypt
We are all Laila www.kolenalaila.com/en
We are all Laila is an online initiative, aiming to motivate females to speak up and express their social frustrations
using any language, or any form of expression they feel most comfortable with – while also welcoming men to share in the conversation.
Winner: Samina Khushi (28) Pakistan
we are not inferior to anybody www.owopakistan.org
“We are not inferior to anybody” is an initiative to empower and strengthen young women to take up the
fight against female oppression in Pakistan. Up to 40 young women will be trained by experts from a variety
of fields, to develop vision and skills for leading the process of progressive change in communities in Pakistan.
Runners-Up
Effemine Blog – For Making Change, Petra Gönczi (19), Hungary
Mother Nature, Dotun Adewunmi (28), Nigeria
Category 4: Create Your Culture!
Project Description Producer
Winner: Daniel Kovacs (27) Hungary
artur.org.hu – online guide on contemporary architecture www.artur.org.hu
The Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre (KÉK) decided to create a database organising the main
milestones of contemporary architecture of Hungary into tour routes. The website serves both as a site for
virtual adventures and for printable supplementary material for real tours.
Winner: Abdullah Mosaad (22) Egypt
WupY “What’s up Youth” www.wupy.org
What’s Up Youth is an interactive portal whose main purpose is helping active youth from all over the world
find valuable opportunities (workshops, conferences, trainings, scholarships) & connect with international &
regional organizations & funders, for the purpose of furthering their education, leadership & activism.
Winner: Jeanne Mercier (27) France
Afrique in Visu www.afriqueinvisu.org
Afrique in visu is the first platform for photographers who are working in Africa. Its aim is to free photographic
practice in Africa from the reductive label of “African authenticity”, by linking photographers from
all over Africa while conserving and presenting their work.
Runners-Up
Nuok, Alice Avallone (25), Italy
Lemon24.com, Suny Md. Ashraf Khan (27), Bangladesh
Category 5: Go Green!
Project Description Producer
Winner: Sebastián Bustamante (27) Spain
VERDEate.com, Challenge your Green Side! www.verdaete.com
VERDEate.com is an online community through which people and organizations accept challenges to
reduce their CO2 footprint. The users are shown the numeric positive impact their challenge is creating in
terms of CO2, trees and water – and can have a friendly competition on who fares best.
Winner: Liew Yao Ren (18) Malaysia
Colour Me Green Campaign www.colourmegreencampaign.com
The ‘Colour Me Green’ Campaign is a call for youths all over Malaysia to take environmental action besides
spreading awareness regarding various environmental issues. As participants in this campaign, students will be required to complete a series of tasks ranging from executing environmental projects to implementing new policies within the school. All work done during the course of the campaign should be posted on their very own campaign blog.
Winner: Verengai Mabika (30) Zimbabwe
Climate Change Virtual school for Youths http://www.driafrica.org/virtualschool.html
The Development Reality Institute (DRI), a youth based organisation, has designed the first virtual
school on climate change in Southern Africa run and managed by youths for youths. The course aims to
raise awareness on the effects of climate change to development in Zimbabwe.
Runners-Up
Eco Options Egypt, Omnia Abbas (22), Egypt
Green Brigade, Tewari Chitranshu (18), India
Category 6: Pursue Truth!
Project Description Producer
Winner: Baxter Stapleton (19) USA
Social MDGs www.socialmdgs.com
Social MDGs is looking to harness the power of social media to create a destination where students can see
in real time what people from around the world are saying about the UN and the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). The web application allows users to instantly see content posted on social media sites like
Twitter, Youtube, and WordPress that relates to each of the eight MDGs
Winner: Biffi Selene (27) Italy
Forgotten Diaries www.forgottendiaries.org
FD aims to raise global awareness of the lives of children and young people growing up in forgotten conflict
zones: conflicts which have lasted for years but which have also lost the interest of the world’s media. FD enlists young bloggers from 10 different conflict zones.
Winner: Juan Rafael Rivera-Sanchez (22) Mexico
JOIN Informed Youngsters http://join.org.mx
JOIN – Jóvenes Informados – is an e-magazine dedicated to citizen journalism that enables young people
to share ideas about the issues that affect Mexico. What started as an ideal of 4 young people is now is a
well known weekly publication with a reach of 10,000 youngsters.
Runners-Up
Urban Journeys, Salman Siddiqui (27), Pakistan
Pamir Times, Noor Muhammad (26), Pakistan
Contact
For media enquiries or to schedule an interview with WSYA winners, please contact our office at
wsya@icnm.net
For more information on WSYA and our events please visit www.youthaward.org