Light My World at Youth Global Forum, Paris 2018

Youth Global Forum 2018 took place in Paris, France from the 2nd to 6th of December and gathered together around 80 participants, experts and trainers from all over the world. The topic of the annual event was „Worldwide Impact Investment: the Role of Entrepreneurs“. This three day forum saw attendants participate in various workshops, masterclasses and key-note speeches from some of the world’s foremost experts in the field. The event culminated with fifteen project presenters getting the chance to showcase their projects with one ultimately winning the coveted Youth Time Idea Grant to turn their project into a reality!

Light My World International partcipated in the Forum represented by our Co-Founder, Samuel Afadu who also presented our project ideas and possibilities to get a grant to initiate the project.

The diversity of the world was on show as distinguished guests, experts and participants from over forty nations gathered to discuss Impact Investment & the Role of Entrepreneurs. This three day forum saw attendants participate in various workshops, masterclasses and key-note speeches from the some of the world’s foremost experts in the field. The event culminated with fifteen project presenters getting the chance to showcase their projects with one ultimately winning the coveted Youth Time Idea grant to turn their project into a reality!

15 projects presented with projects coming from afar as Guyana and Costa Rico. The presentations were to be evaluated by a selected Jury Panel that included
Ms. Julia Kinash, President and Co-Founder
of Youth Time International Movement; Dr. Vladimir Yakunin, Former President of Russian Railways & Chairman of the Supervisory Board
of the Dialogue of Civilizations Research Institute; Robert Rubenstein, Founder of TBLI
(Triple Bottom Line Investing) Group; Dr. Rieki Crins, Founder of the Learning Exchange Foundation and Author of ‘Blacklisted in
Bhutan; Dr. Waleed Sadek, Co-chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development
Commission Post 2015 & finally Mr. Jimmy Ganai, CEO of IPMI International School of Business

The Youth Global Forum 2018 concluded with the Awards Presentation & official Closing Ceremony which took place at the Royaumont Abbey, erected in the 12th century and former residence of French royalty. First to receive his award on the night was Ghanaian born Samuel Afadu who presented his project ‘Light My World’ which seeks to provide a clean, safe and affordable source of light to children and students living in Ghana with no access to electricity. Samuel won the before mentioned Internship with IYSERT ENERGY RESEARCH PVT LTD with all flights and accommodation expenditures included.

Next to receive her award was Peru-native Nicole Morveli, whose project WEEDS, a recycling & waste management initiative, won her a Scholarship to the IPMI International School of Business.

Jose Molinelli Gonzalez’s project, The Urban Hanging Gardens Initiative (UHGI), took home a newly created award that saw Jose receive
the funding necessary for his initiative to get underway that is set to benefit many in his home country of Puerto Rico.

The nights final award went to Shinelle Bayrd and her project ‘The Wellness Centre’ which will seek to raise awareness and provide support for people dealing with mental health illnesses in her home nation of Guyana. Shinelle received the ‘Youth Time Idea Grant’ which
saw her awarded with funding worth 70% of her total project budget which amounted to 6000 Euros.