Ahsan Rony is an environmental activist, Ashoka Fellow and the founder of Green Savers, an organization that works on urban agriculture and Environment. He is a Global Shaper of World Economic Forum. He is also an International exchange Alumni under IVLP of U.S. Department of State and also an Alumni of U.S. Forest Service Urban Seminar 2018.

He founded the Organization Green Savers Association in 2010 with an effort to increase awareness and the number of trees in Dhaka city and across the country. He planted trees on more than 5500 rooftops in the city and established 400 Green Club and Oxygen Banks in educational institutions all over the country. Green Savers is also operating a Tree Hospital and a Mobile Plants Clinic in collaboration with Dhaka North City Corporation in Dhaka city, playing Secretariat role of Planned Urban Greening Strategy for Dhaka North City Corporation in Dhaka city.

I believe there is a huge opportunity of urban farming in our cities, and there is also an opportunity of creating a large number of employment as a gardener or urban farmer in this field, so I want to scale my initiative in a bigger extend so that it can create an impact for my country. 

Ahsan has received the Prime Minister’s Award for contributing to the environment in 2013, Joy Bangla Youth Award in 2015 and Che Guevara Youth Award in 2016, Channel I nature Care Award 2016 DYDF youth Award 2018, U.S Forest Service recognition in 2018, Urban Resilience Award in 2019 and Ashoka Fellowship 2019 with repeated appearances as a Green Ambassador all across the media. 

Read more about Ahsan Rony and his work here.

B.S. Nagesh, founder of Trust for Retailers and Retail Associates of India, is building Pride and Respect for front-end employees, fostering inclusion in the retail industry by providing livelihoods to Persons With Disabilities (PwD’s).

Trust for Retailers and Retail Associates of India (TRRAIN) under its project PANKH Wings of destiny works towards creating livelihood for PwD’s. The organization has trained more than 22000 PwD’s in the last 10 years, equipping individuals with skills that led to over 72% of them securing jobs and lifting their families out of poverty. Many of them were able to send their siblings to school, pay their parents’ outstanding loans or help support their sisters’ marriages. The study also shows 22% of the PwD’s were able to put roofs on their houses, which previously had temporary or thatched roofs. 

TRRAIN’s mission is to influence and help create one million jobs over the next ten years for PwD’s within our country’s retail, hospitality, and service sectors. We can only achieve this colossal task if we if many regional and national partners join us in this endeavor.

By joining the Dela programme, B.S. Nagesh and his team at TRRAIN are already seeing a shift in their thinking as well as a possible way forward: "Thought partners and the Dela team have not only questioned out assumptions but also suggested new ways of viewing systems change and thus creating a new way of thinking and working."

Read more about B.S. Nagesh here.

Dominika is radically limiting the volume of trash accumulating in landfills by introducing a new role to the system: trash brokers. Nearly 400,000 people have joined the movement that began with the idea of redefining the status and redistribution of unwanted objects, which is now creating a new culture around consumption.

Currently, Dominika and her team of 160 volunteers help people save their unwanted items from dumpsters by providing tools to connect them with people who will use those items. Uwaga śmieciarka jedzie's method helps decrease the number of trash on landfills.

Me and a team of 160 volunteers are helping people save their unwanted items form dumpster by providing tools to connect them with people who will use those items. This way we decrease the number of trash on landfills. 

Read more about Dominika Szaciłło here.

Francesco Piazzesi grew up in Mexico passionate about building communities for families who do not have opportunities to access adequate housing. In 1987, Francesco founded Adobe Home Aid, a non-profit organization that teaches communities how to make green building materials. In 1997, the NGO was joined by a social enterprise called Echale a Tu Casa. Drawing on years of experience in the housing industry, Francesco and his team are tackling the lack of adequate housing for Mexicans at the base of the pyramid. This self-build model focuses on community financing and the construction of safe, environmentally friendly and adequate homes, in order to offer both dignity and heritage value for homeowners.

The program has completed more than 180,000 housing solutions positively impacting more than one million people.

ÉCHALE has received national and international recognitions including Katerva, World Housing Award, Clinton Global Initiative, Schwab Foundation, National Quality Award, National Housing Award 2007 and 2018, World Entrepreneurship Forum, Best for the World from B Corp. Francesco is Ashoka member since 2010. 

Read more about Francesco Piazzesi and his work here.

Hugo Menino Aguiar (he/him) is co-founder and CEO of SPEAK. Hugo took a BSc and MSc in Computer Science Engineering. He was a Software Engineer at OutSystems and a Product Manager at Google, where he was awarded a Google Golden Award, due to his efficiency and productivity. As a result of his work with SPEAK, Hugo became a Global Shaper at the World Economic Forum and was selected as an Ashoka Fellow.

SPEAK promotes the organic emergence of inclusive communities where locals, migrants, and refugees meet to share their culture and develop meaningful bonds by providing the platform and support for individuals to facilitate informal language learning environments and host community.

One of SPEAK's participants, stranded in Malaysia and not able to return home (no flights), found Speak when surfing the net, decided to enroll: "At the end of the session they don't say good-bye, they usually say "Danke" (thank you) which I find rather moving. Thanks for letting me participate." Isabel, buddy of a German language group.

Read more about Hugo Menino Aguiar and his work here.

María Almazán, CEO of Smart Green Industry, designed a methodology for transforming conventional textile workshops into sustainable workshops that are used globally in sustainable change strategies. Through these workshops, the steps that are needed to fundamentally transform the industry towards a fair future become clear.

Smart Green Industry strives for a fair and sustainable global textile supply chain and consists of analysts researching new sustainable textile methodologies. 

Thus, the think-tank aims to foster a movement against fast fashion as a global environmental and social issue. With a change in the textile value chain, Smart Green Industry wants to move away from fast fashion and see an increase in the number of conscious buyers.

Read more about María Almazán and her work here.

Melissa Malzkuhn is an activist, academic, artist, and digital strategist with a love for language play, interactive experiences, and community-based change. She founded and leads creative research and development at Motion Light Lab, at a Gallaudet University research center.

Motion Light Lab is Deaf-founded and led, a sign-centric space where creative literature intersects with digital technology to create learning experiences for Deaf and all visual learners. Motion Light Lab is housed at Gallaudet University's Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning. Motion Light Lab trains teams globally to develop bilingual storybook apps and work on emerging sign language technologies including 3D signing avatars.  

Melissa is a co-founder of CREST Network, focusing on equity and inclusion of deaf people in sign language technology. Her production company Ink & Salt developed an app to teach American Sign Language, The ASL App, which has been downloaded over 2 million times. Third-generation Deaf, she has organized deaf youth and worked with international deaf youth programs, fostering leadership and self-representation. Now, she collaborates with teams in different countries to support literacy development for deaf children through sign language resources. She is an Obama Fellow, inaugural class 2018, and has been recognized as a leading social entrepreneur by Ashoka, in 2020.

Read more about Melissa Malzkuhn and her work here.

Nicola is the Co-founder of the Social Gastronomy Movement (SGM), a global network of interconnected local communities that use the power of food as a tool for social change. The Social Gastronomy Movement cultivates connections, collaborations and partnerships that strengthen our individual and collective capacity to co-create an equitable future, inclusive society and healthy planet. SGM advocates for positive changes in local food systems so that together we move towards global progress creating a new ecosystem for change. 

Social gastronomy has roots in the understanding that the entire food system can benefit, give and gain value from the practice of using food as a tool for social change. There is a need to build bridges between producers and consumers in the food system, re-establishing food sovereignty. This will lead to more resilient local food communities and networks.

She sits on the board of several social organizations such as Catalyst2030 and IFFS, while actively coaching young women and social entrepreneurs around the world. Her passion lies at the cross road of grass root activism and policy making towards systems change, especially in fields of food and education, at the intersection with technology and innovation.  Gryczka has become a motivational speaker and consultant at renowned organizations and events such as IADB, FAO, WFP, WEF and SxSW among others.

Said Hammouche created Mozaïk RH which is today a major actor of the economic inclusion of graduates from less privileged backgrounds. In 13 years, Said has forged strong ties with large companies and is now a reference in Diversity and Equal Opportunities expertise. 

• We train young jobseekers who have difficulties to find a job/apprenticeship/internship. Their difficulties are multiple: lack of network, self-censorship, lack of knowledge of the labor market, wrong job research strategy.  

• We bring our HR expertise to implement inclusive practices : we start from the recruitment needs of companies 

• We publicly advocate that diversity is linked with economic performance and social cohesion 

Read more about Said Hammouche and his work here.

Sazzad Hossain is a social entrepreneur who believes in the power of technology and human connection to accelerate social impact. Having similar experience in my earlier childhood of language barrier, He is especially passionate about promoting access to opportunities for the migrants and refugees through skills development opportunities. He is one of the youngest Ashoka Fellow and has recently been awarded the Forbes 30 Under 30. 

We are providing English Communication Skills, It Literacy, Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship Training for the migrants and refugees to promote upward socio-economic mobility. 

Sazzad believes in empowering people with the right skill set to solve their own problems instead of merely providing a crutch that only solves the issues in the short run: "Empowering them with communication skills not only helps to prevent exploitation or navigate day-to-day situations, but also builds bridges with the locals. We are fortunate, that the spillover effect of our approach has also brought massive social equality."

Read more about Sazzad Hossain and his work here.

Silvia R. Ziller is a Forest Engineer with a strong drive for environmental conservation since her early years living in a small town in southern Brazil. After working on vegetation surveys, environmental assessments and planning in different regions in Brazil, a biological invasion by pines used in forestry in a grassland ecosystem caught her attention back in 1996. She realized it could become a serious problem for the landscape, water resources, and native plants and animals. So, she enrolled for a Doctorate course at the local University.

Four years later, I was ready to start an organization for the lack of reference and work opportunities in the area of biological invasions in Brazil.

The Horus Institute was established in 15 March, 2002, about at the same time Silvia was elected as Ashoka fellow. She became involved with work throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, worked with international NGOs and with global initiatives in Africa and the United States that aimed to advance the issue of invasive species. The Horus Institute has a network of contributors throughout Brazil, mainly for data and technical support to maintain and update the national database. It has become a national reference on the issue. It is a small organization with active board members who are committed to environmental conservation.

Read more about Silvia R. Ziller and her work here.