The 2024–2025 Young Aurora competition winner was announced during the Aurora Dialogues Online event held on March 26, 2025. The event, titled “Youth As Changemakers: Driving Social Change,” opened with inspiring presentations from the three finalist teams, each showcasing innovative projects aimed at addressing humanitarian challenges within their school communities.
Following the presentations, a dynamic panel discussion explored the critical role of youth in driving social change, highlighting advocacy and grassroots mobilization as essential tools for sustainable impact. Moderated by Faith Abiodun, Executive Director of UWC International, the panel featured Ram Almaghout, Young Aurora Winner 2023 and Founding Member of the Combili Project; Diego Angemi, Chief of Social Policy at UNICEF; Shad Begun, Aurora Prize Expert Panel Member and Founder and Executive Director of the Association for Behaviour & Knowledge Transformation (ABKT); and Mahienour El-Massry, 2022 Aurora Humanitarian.
Diego Angemi, Chief of Social Policy at UNICEF, who has spent over 20 years living and working in East Africa, shared his concerns about the alarmingly colonial approach to education and skills development that lingers on the continent. “To this day, we still see monumental amounts of resources from very well-known organizations who are focused on building skills within the youth by way of teaching them how to make soap or to weave baskets,” noted Mr. Angemi. “And the question we have to ask ourselves—is this really the best way of fostering economic participation on the African continent? Do we want the future of these countries to rest on basket weavers and soap makers, where we potentially could be sitting on the next astronaut, the next most brilliant engineer, the next most brilliant chemist or biologist?”
Shad Begum, Aurora Prize Expert Panel Member and Founder and Executive Director of the Association for Behaviour & Knowledge Transformation (ABKT), spoke about how her grassroots work had given her valuable insight into how to ensure more meaningful and productive youth engagement. One key takeaway, she emphasized, is the importance of placing young people in the driver’s seat. “We should not speak for them. They have the capability to speak for themselves and to understand their challenges and come up with the policies and the recommendations. So, we need to have them in the councils and advisory boards in the policy panels,” said Ms. Begum. “We should not speak on behalf of them. They need to come up, and they need to speak for themselves.”
Ram Almaghout, Young Aurora Winner 2023 and founding member of the Combili Project, told the story behind their initiative, which helps transform biowaste—a key contributor to toxic gas emissions—into fertile soil by creating small urban garden models run by local children. Mr. Almaghout also spoke about the project’s progress since winning Young Aurora and their ambitious plans to expand it by engaging youth worldwide and teaching them how to follow in their footsteps to help reduce pollution. “Our website is basically the open invitation. And for the youth, there is this website that has the whole model, the whole guidelines for everyone to be able to implement their ‘Combili garden’ in their country, in their city, in their neighborhood. So, what we want from the youth around the world is to join forces with us, and that’s what we’re working on—to build ‘Combili gardens’ around the world and take care of the environment,” said Mr. Almaghout.
Mahienour El-Massry, 2022 Aurora Humanitarian, shared her experiences as an active participant in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, often referred to as a “youth revolution,” and commended the Young Aurora participants for their community-oriented approach to problem-solving. “When you’re younger, you’re usually not too full of yourself. You feel that there’s no such thing as individual salvation—you believe more in the idea of the group work. That’s why I’m so fascinated by the work of the three finalists, and I also think about the others who were not as lucky as to show their work,” noted Ms. El-Massry. “I really believe in the idea of the collective work. What is great about what all of you are doing is that you’re trying to give people the tools to help themselves.”
The event concluded with the much-anticipated announcement of the 2024–2025 Young Aurora winning team: UWC Mahindra College, whose Chulha Project tackles the harmful effects of traditional mud cookstoves, known as ‘chulhas.’ By introducing locally manufactured rocket stoves with J-shaped combustion chambers that reduce emissions by up to 86% and lower firewood usage by 50%, the project aims to protect women and children, who are most affected by indoor air pollution. Initially targeting 50 households in Maharashtra’s Mulshi Valley, this scalable initiative intends to empower communities through training programs, sustainable stove production, and peer-driven advocacy for clean cooking solutions. The team will now use the $10,000 grant to bring their ideas to life.
The Young Aurora competition is organized by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative in partnership with United World Colleges International (UWC), Teach for All, and the African Leadership Academy. This year’s jury, tasked with selecting the winner, included Basma Alawee, Deputy Executive Director of the Community Sponsorship Hub; Colin Thomas-Jensen, Director of Communications, Advocacy, and Impact at the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative; Marina Wutholen, Founder of the Young Activists Summit (YAS); and Chenyiyan (Annika) Yang, Young Aurora Winner 2024 from UWC Changshu China.
To close the event, moderator Faith Abiodun, Executive Director of UWC International, encouraged young humanitarians to stay committed and involve more people in the work they had started. “I’d like to remind you all that every great movement begins with a simple truth: changemakers are not born, they’re built. They’re built through conversations like this, built by communities that lift each other up, and built by young people who dare to say, “It doesn’t have to be this way.” Today, we’ve seen proof that our burdens can become lighter when we share them, and our impact can be multiplied when we unite. These are not just ideals; these are blueprints for action,” remarked Mr. Abiodun.
Cover photo: The UWC Mahindra team, whose Chulha project won the 2024–2025 Young Aurora․