• A 25-year-old in Brooklyn just crossed 10,000 period products distributed to their community.

• Olivia Rodrigo’s all-women charity festival raised $20 million for nonprofits supporting women and girls.

• A new survey found young Africans are more optimistic about their future than at any point since the pandemic.

• University students in the Netherlands built the world’s first solar-powered ambulance, and just tested it in Kenya.

• A young creator raised $40,000 to get books into the hands of kids facing a literacy crisis.

The Good News You Might’ve Scrolled Past

August had its usual share of noise. But underneath it, young people were still doing what they do best: building solutions and showing up for their communities.

A festival stage. A university lab. A block in Brooklyn.

Different reasons to feel genuinely hopeful, and every single one of them came from young people. Here are five stories that caught our attention this month.

Bringing Period Dignity to Brooklyn Streets

Naomi Giancola, a 25-year-old data scientist and RIVET grantee, founded The Period Dignity Project in 2025 to help make period products more accessible to anyone who may need them.

The idea is simple: one waterproof cabinet stocked 24/7 with free menstrual products in Brooklyn, New York. This fully volunteer-run initiative has now distributed over 10,000 period products.

Proof that small, local actions can have a BIG impact.

Source: Period Dignity Project

Turning Music Into Hope for Women and Girls

Olivia Rodrigo’s all-women inaugural Daisy Chain Fields festival raised $20 million for nonprofits supporting women and girls, working in areas such as reproductive rights, healthcare, and domestic abuse.

The young artist directed 100% of net proceeds from her debut music festival, Daisy Chain Fields, to 10 nonprofits, including Baby2Baby, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

“Daisy Chain Fields was created to celebrate the power of what can happen when we come together to support one another”, Rodrigo said.

Source: Billboard

Young Africans Are Finding Their Optimism Again

A new survey of nearly 5,000 young people across 16 African countries found that young Africans are feeling more optimistic about their countries.

According to the 2026 African Youth Survey, 51% of young people surveyed said they felt optimistic or excited about their country’s future, up to its highest point since Covid-19.

But it’s not blind optimism, young people are still demanding action on matters such as the rising cost of living and lack of jobs.

Hope paired with a demand for delivery, something we all could learn from this generation.

Source: The Independent Uganda

Students’ Answer to the Healthcare Access Problem

Across Africa, roughly a third of people live more than two hours from healthcare services. In many communities, reliable electricity and transportation can make access even harder.

A team of 23 university students from the Netherlands wanted to rethink that problem and spent a year building Stella Juva, a solar-powered mobile clinic to bring healthcare to communities without reliable electricity or roads.

This month, they drove it over 800 kilometers across Kenya to test it, and it worked. Solar panels on its roof power both the vehicle and its equipment including an X-ray machine, ultrasound, and vaccine fridge.

A powerful reminder of how young people are leading some of today’s most promising solutions.

Source: CNN

Youth Fighting the Literacy Crisis

Tony Weaver Jr., founder of Nerds for Literacy and RIVET grantee, launched a back-to-school fundraiser to get books into underfunded schools and libraries across the U.S.

Last year, the organization raised $130,000 for literacy initiatives, impacting 19,000 children through book donations and school visits.

This year’s campaign has already raised $40,000 dollars toward its $200,000 goal. The goal: put more books into underfunded schools and libraries across the U.S., with book selections shaped by young readers, literacy specialists and supporters.

In their own words, this “proved that nerd culture can be a powerful force for literacy“.

We couldn’t agree more. Turns out superheroes can help create readers, too.

Source: Nerds for Literacy

What This Month Made Clear

It’s easy to assume young people are checked out, scrolling, waiting for someone older to fix things.

August said otherwise, loudly.

A pop star, a group of engineering students, local community leaders.

None of them coordinated with each other. They didn’t need to.

With different tools, at different scales, from different realities, young people are all working toward the same goal: building a better world.

That’s the story we keep coming back to every month, and why we keep telling it.

See you next month!

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Because bad news travels fast.

Good news builds movements.

• An estimated 50–60 million used water sachets are discarded in Nigeria every day

• Sayedi Umar Mohammed founded GreenLITE Solution LTD and Project Sustainphere to turn plastic waste into useful products while teaching students about recycling and climate action

• Through Project Sustainphere, students collect roughly 800–1,000 used sachets and exchange them for school bags made from recycled plastic

• Five schools and more than 100 students have participated in the pilot, with GreenLITE also creating handbags, shoes, and shopping bags from repurposed plastic

• Now part of RIVET’s Boost Cohort, Sayedi hopes to bring Project Sustainphere to more schools and communities while engaging more young people in upcycling and climate education

What If Waste Could Pay for a School Bag?

At schools across Nigeria, two problems can exist side by side. Plastic water sachets pile up as waste. At the same time, some students lack basic supplies for school. Sayedi Umar Mohammed saw an opportunity to connect the two. What if students could collect the plastic being discarded around them and exchange it for something they needed? A school bag.

Through Project Sustainphere, students collect roughly 800–1,000 used plastic water sachets and exchange them for colorful school bags made from repurposed plastic. The model gives students a direct role in the process: they collect the material, learn about recycling, and see that material returned as something useful.

From Chemistry to Circularity

For Sayedi, the idea began while studying chemistry. As he learned more about plastic pollution, he became interested in what could be done with materials people typically throw away.

That question eventually led him to found GreenLITE Solution LTD. But the idea behind Project Sustainphere took shape during Sayedi’s national service year in Cross River State, where he encountered students who had limited awareness of plastic pollution and climate issues. He also saw another challenge: some lacked basic school supplies.

Suddenly, the environmental problem he had studied in the classroom intersected with a very human one. Could one solution begin to address both?

A School Bag Is Only Part of the Exchange

Project Sustainphere does more than collect plastic. Students learn about plastic pollution, recycling, and climate action while participating directly in the process.

The collected sachets and nylon are sorted, shredded, and heat-pressed into material that can be used to make new products. Sayedi and his team rely on the existing colors of the plastic rather than adding dyes, allowing the discarded material itself to shape each design.

So far, the model has been piloted across five schools with more than 100 students participating. GreenLITE has also expanded beyond school bags, creating handbags, shoes, and shopping bags from repurposed plastic. But the team soon learned that making a sustainable product wasn’t enough. Students also had to want to carry it.

From Mocked to Worn With Pride

Sayedi explains:

“At first, some students were mocked for wearing recycled bags. But we listened, redesigned, and now they wear them with pride. They love the colors and the story behind them.”

That shift is an important part of Project Sustainphere’s story. A product can be environmentally sustainable, but if the people it was designed for don’t want to use it, the solution can only go so far. By listening and redesigning, Sayedi’s team created something students could feel proud to carry.

Turning Waste Into Participation

What makes Project Sustainphere distinctive is that students aren’t positioned only as beneficiaries. They’re participants. They collect the material. They learn why recycling matters. And their contributions help them access something tangible for school.

A discarded sachet can move through an entirely different cycle:

Discarded as waste → Collected by a student → Transformed into material → Returned to a school as something useful

For students, circularity becomes more than an abstract environmental concept. It becomes something they can see and participate in themselves.

From Pilot to RIVET Boost

After testing Project Sustainphere across five schools, Sayedi is now focused on bringing the model to more students and communities. As a member of RIVET’s Boost Cohort, he hopes to expand plastic collection, distribute more recycled school bags, and engage more young people in upcycling and climate education. It’s a natural next step for a project built around participation: reaching more students not only with a product, but with an opportunity to take part in solving a challenge they see around them every day.

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Sayedi saw possibility in something most people walked past. Now he’s working to bring that idea to more schools and communities across Nigeria.

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Because innovation doesn’t always start by creating something entirely new. Sometimes, it starts by seeing new possibilities in what’s already there.

• A 15-year-old athlete turned an unusual throwing challenge into a cancer research fundraiser.

• A school built with Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Prize money is now educating more than 1,000 girls.

• Young leaders brought youth mental health to the global stage at the United Nations.

• A youth-led project in Namibia won funding to expand its work with boys and young men.

• New research shows young people believe they can make a difference—even when they feel anxious about the future.

The Stories Your Feed Didn’t Show You

If you spent any time online this month, you probably saw a lot of bad news. But we’re here to remind you: good news still exists. Sometimes, it just does not travel as quickly.

While it’s important to stay informed about the challenges we’re facing, it’s just as important to make room for hope. Because hope isn’t just a nice feeling. It’s fuel for action.

And young people 100% showed up this month to repair, rebuild, and reimagine what comes next.

Here are five stories that caught our attention during July.

Turning a Silly Challenge Into Fundraising

Emil Friedrich, a 15-year-old track and field athlete who lost his father to leukemia at age 11. Now, he’s on a mission to raise money for Cancer Research UK - Guernsey. His approach is both creative and fun: donors suggest an object, and Emil records a video of himself throwing it, whether it’s haggis, teapots, or anything else they can think of.

“I wanted to do something unique, I wanted the community to get involved,“ he said, “To know that I can do something with a small amount of power that I have means a lot to me“.

Proof that you don’t need a huge platform to make a difference, just a good idea and the will to use it.

Source: BBC → Read more

A School Malala Helped Build Is Now Educating 1,050 Girls

Every July 12, the world marks Malala Day, Malala Yousafzai‘s birthday. This year, she used it the same way she’s used every platform since she was a teenager: to keep the world’s attention on girls who still can’t get an education.

The Malala Fund‘s work continues across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, and beyond, including a fresh advocacy push in Pakistan this month for more school funding and more female teachers in rural areas.

Some people get a cake on their birthday. This young leader helped establish Shangla Girls School in northern Pakistan, where many girls previously had no access to secondary education.

The school opened in 2018 with 183 students. Today, it serves 1,050 girls, and its first graduating class completed their exams with A or A+ grades.

Advocacy can change a conversation. Long-term investment can change what a community believes is possible.

Source: Malala Fund → Read more

Young Leaders Took the Mic at the UN to Talk Mental Health

During the event “One World, One Game, One Goal“ held at UN headquarters on the eve of the World Cup Final, young leaders from around the globe took the stage to demand something simple: real conversations about youth mental health.

The event marked the launch of the UN Youth Office’s new campaign, built to challenge stigma and get young people talking, not just being talked about.

Not another panel about young people. A panel led by them.

Source: United Nations Youth Office → Read more

Supporting Young Men’s Mental Health in Namibia

“Better Boys, Better Men“ was built in Windhoek, Namibia, by young people who saw a mental health crisis among young men that no one else was addressing. This month, the project won the Global Shapers Innovation Prize at the WEF’s Global Shapers Summit. The funding will help the program expand from 20 to 60 participants and provide additional support for facilitators, transportation and meals.

“This prize elevates the project from a local initiative to a globally recognized youth-led solution. It validates the importance of the work we are doing and gives us the opportunity to expand our reach and influence”, said Gerold Dreyer, Co-Leader of the initiative.

Sometimes the biggest wins start with a handful of young people deciding a problem is theirs to solve.

Source: New Era Live → Read more

The Next Generation Hasn’t Given Up

A UK survey by The Week Junior found that 97% of children believe they can make a positive difference in the world. Many of them are already active in their communities through Scouts, Guides, sports teams, school clubs, and volunteering projects.

This reflects a pattern appearing across a growing body of research: young people may be anxious about the future, but many still believe they can help shape it.

If 97% of them still believe they can change things, the least we can do is believe it too.

Source: Positive News → Read more

What It All Adds Up To

Five stories, five different corners of the world, five different problems. On the surface, nothing ties them together.

But look closely and a pattern shows up. Young people are already building a better world.

This isn’t the generation we usually hear about. It’s the one that keeps showing up anyway, month after month, without waiting for anyone’s permission to start.

That’s exactly what gives us hope, and why we wanted to share it with you. See you next month with more proof young people are creating great change.

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• After Hurricane Beryl, isolated island communities in Grenada faced unreliable access to potable water

• Paulette Mitchell is developing Solar Well, a compact system designed to use solar energy to convert seawater into drinking water

• The pilot is being designed for local management, with fishermen expected to oversee ongoing maintenance

• A RIVET Access Grant helped Paulette research the technology, consult experts, and purchase key system components

• Now part of the 2026 RIVET Boost Cohort, Paulette is working toward a model that could strengthen climate resilience and emergency response across Grenada

Surrounded by Water

When stored rainwater runs low, residents of a small island community off the coast of Grenada may have to take an expensive boat trip just to secure fresh water.

The island has no rivers, natural springs, or reliable on-site source of potable water. Residents largely depend on rainwater collected in storage tanks, but during dry periods, those supplies can quickly run out.

Hurricane Beryl made that vulnerability harder to ignore.

In the storm’s aftermath, isolated communities were left without reliable access to safe drinking water, exposing how quickly fragile water systems can become a public-health and economic crisis.

For residents already facing damaged livelihoods and disrupted supply chains, securing water became one more obstacle to recovery.

Paulette Mitchell believed there had to be another way.

The Solution Started With Listening

Paulette did not begin with a predetermined technology.

She began by asking residents what they needed.

Through a community assessment and conversations with people living and working on the island, reliable drinking water emerged as an immediate concern.

Any solution would need to reflect the realities of the location. It had to operate independently from the electrical grid, avoid reliance on fuel, remain affordable to maintain, and be practical for the community to manage over time.

Paulette researched desalination systems suited to small-island environments, consulted experts at a Grenadian university operating a large-scale desalination plant, and continued refining the concept alongside residents.

Now studying medicine at St. George’s University and on track to become the first doctor in her family, Paulette channels her passion for healthcare and commitment to helping others into advancing Solar Well.

Turning Sunlight and Seawater Into a Local Resource

Solar Well is a compact, solar-powered desalination system designed to convert seawater into drinking water without depending on the electrical grid or non-renewable energy.

Its small, mobile, and modular design could make it better suited to isolated communities than large-scale desalination infrastructure.

Over the past year, Paulette and her team have focused on research, design, expert consultation, and sourcing the components needed for the pilot.

Once the materials arrive, the system will be assembled and prepared for installation and testing. Local fishermen are expected to oversee ongoing maintenance, helping keep the system’s long-term management within the community it was built to serve.

If the pilot operates reliably and produces water that meets appropriate safety standards, it could reduce dependence on untreated sources and costly supply trips.

It could also offer a model for other island communities facing similar challenges.

More Than Drinking Water

Solar Well’s promise is not only that it is compact, mobile, and powered by renewable energy.

It is that the system is being designed around the people who will depend on it.

Reliable water access could reduce transportation costs, support public health, and give fishermen and farmers more time and resources to rebuild their livelihoods after a storm.

As Paulette explains:

“They were impacted by a hurricane that negatively affected their income-earning ability. This project will provide them with clean water so they can focus on getting back on their feet.”

For residents recovering from Hurricane Beryl, less time and money spent securing fresh water could mean more capacity to repair homes, restart businesses, and restore daily life.

Climate resilience is not only about responding after disaster strikes.

It is also about building systems that allow communities to recover more quickly when it does.

From Early Support to What Comes Next

Solar Well first received support through a RIVET Access Grant.

That early funding helped Paulette research the technology, consult experts, purchase key pilot components, and move the project closer to implementation.

Paulette was later selected for the 2026 RIVET Boost Cohort—RIVET’s follow-on program for youth-led ventures ready to strengthen their infrastructure and prepare for growth.

Her immediate priority is clear: assemble the first unit, install it, test the water, and demonstrate that the system can operate reliably under local conditions.

Paulette hopes to expand Solar Well to other at-risk communities across Grenada. Her longer-term vision also includes maintaining a backup unit at Red Cross headquarters that could be deployed during emergencies while larger response systems mobilize.

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We’ll continue sharing updates from Paulette and the 2026 RIVET Boost Cohort as Solar Well continues to develop.

Because resilience does not begin after disaster strikes.

It begins with the people preparing for it.

TL;DR

• A young founder in Uganda built an agri-tech company reaching 1,500+ smallholder farmers and was named 2026 Commonwealth Young Person of the Year

• Three 16-year-olds from India won the world’s largest youth environment prize for a microplastic filter made from tamarind seeds

• Olivia Rodrigo launched an all-women music festival, donating 100% of proceeds to women’s rights organizations

• Young creators raised funds for LGBTQ+ youth crisis support through the eos x The Trevor Project Pride Month campaign

• London Climate Action Week hosted a Youth Summit putting young climate leaders at the center of the conversation

Spoiler alert: it’s not all bad news

For any person caring about creating a better world, staying informed can be a little overwhelming. We know.

June was a busy news month, and most of it wasn’t great.

But while the headlines were doing their thing, something else was also happening. Young people around the world were creating something different.

You’ll see different countries and realities, but one thing in common: a commitment to change things.

Here are five things that happened in June that deserve more attention.

Building Economic and Climate Resilience for Women and Youth in Uganda

Photo: The Commonwealth

Shifra Ainomugisha grew up watching harvests rot on her family’s farm in Uganda.

She didn’t accept that as inevitable.

Instead, she built Solafam, an agri-tech company using solar-powered cold storage and AI irrigation tools to help smallholder farmers store and sell their produce. Since 2022, Solafam has reached 1,500+ farmers, 70% of whom are women, cutting post-harvest losses by 30% and increasing household incomes by 28%.

This June, she was named the 2026 Commonwealth Young Person of the Year, and received the top regional award for Africa.

Her story is a reminder that some of the most consequential innovations come from the people who grew up living the problem.

Source: The Commonwealth → Read more

Three 16-Year-Olds Turned Tamarind Seeds Into a Microplastic Filter

Photo: The Earth Prize

Vivaan Chhawchharia, Ariana Agarwal, and Avyana Mehta were visiting a rural community in India when they saw a child drinking from a shared plastic container with no access to clean water.

They went home and started experimenting.

What they came up with is Plas-Stick, a biodegradable powder made from discarded tamarind seeds that attracts microplastics, clumping them together so they can be removed with a handheld magnet. No electricity required. No expensive infrastructure needed.

Their invention has already reached 8,000+ students and teachers, and they recently won The Earth Prize 2026, the world’s largest environmental competition for young people aged 13 to 19. They are the first Indian team ever to take the top title.

This solution didn’t come from a lab. It came from young people paying attention.

Source: India Today → Read more

Olivia Rodrigo Launched a Music Festival and Made It Count

Photo: Variety

This is what happens when a young artist organizes a music festival and puts women’s rights at center stage.

On June 22, Olivia Rodrigo announced Daisy Chain Fields, a one-day music festival taking place in California with an all-women lineup. The lineup includes artists like Chappell Roan, Doechii, Mitski, and Katseye.

Every dollar of net proceeds will go to charities dedicated to advancing and advocating for women and girls. Some of the organizations that the festival is partnering with include Baby2Baby, Black Mamas Matter Alliance, Center for Reproductive Rights, National Women’s Law Center and Planned Parenthood, and Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, among others.

“Joy, community, and creativity can inspire meaningful change,“ Rodrigo said. This is a reminder that culture isn’t separate from change. Sometimes it’s the engine of it.

Source: Variety → Read More

Young Creators Showed Up for LGBTQ+ Youth During Pride Month

Photo: @eosproducts and @imjuhm

For Pride Month, beauty brand eos partnered with The Trevor Project to match donations up to $50,000 in support of LGBTQ+ youth crisis services.

Young creators shared their own stories publicly to drive the campaign, turning their platforms into something with real impact. The Trevor Project provides 24/7 crisis intervention and mental health support for LGBTQ+ young people across the US.

This is a reminder that influence doesn’t have to be performative. Sometimes it shows up exactly where it’s needed.

Source: The Trevor Project and eos → Read more

London Climate Action Week Made Room for Young People

Photo: @ldnclimateweek

The real impact is built with young people in the room.

And London Climate Action Week understood the assignment.

Earth Minutes hosted a Youth Summit at London Climate Action Week this month, bringing together young climate leaders for a day of intergenerational listening, learning, and planning.

The event created space for young people to share what they’re seeing on the ground, not as a symbolic gesture, but as part of the actual work. Climate resilience built with the people who will inherit the consequences of it.

More of this, please.

Source: London Climate Action Week and Earth Minutes → Read More

What We Keep Seeing

Five stories. Zero connection to each other. Except for one thing: young people leading.

They’re already building solutions, helping entire communities, rethinking the future, and creating a better world.

That’s the stories we don’t see enough of. Not because it isn’t happening, but because it rarely makes the news.

We’ll keep finding it for you.

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Because bad news travels fast. Good news builds movements.

• GoDaddy and RIVET have launched their 2026 Social Innovation Challenge, combining early-stage funding with AI-powered digital tools for young entrepreneurs.

• Young entrepreneurs in the U.K. and Canada will receive funding, mentorship and access to AI-powered GoDaddy tools that simplify building an online presence and launching projects.

• More than USD $45,000 in direct funding will support ventures focused on education, health and wellness, sustainability, inclusion and poverty reduction.

• Participants will take part in a structured three-month venture-building sprint designed to help founders build, refine and validate their ideas.

• The initiative aims to expand access to social entrepreneurship for young founders who may lack traditional funding, technical resources or professional networks.

Subscribe now

Good Ideas Need More Than Capital

Young entrepreneurs have bold ideas for solving problems in their communities.

The ideas are there.

The challenge is getting them off the ground.

But turning an idea into something real is often where young founders hit a wall. It takes more than just capital. It requires access to tools, technology, mentorship and the confidence to experiment, fail and try again.

With today’s technology, a founder can bring an idea to life, build a website, reach an audience and begin testing solutions faster than ever before.

But access to funding, technology and support systems is not equal.

That is the gap this partnership is designed to help close.

Introducing the GoDaddy x RIVET 2026 Social Innovation Challenge

Recognizing this opportunity, we’re excited to announce a new partnership with GoDaddy to give more young entrepreneurs the funding, technology and support needed to move from idea to action.

GoDaddy partners with community organizations like RIVET through its signature social impact program, GoDaddy Empower, which helps emerging entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses online.

Our 2026 Social Innovation Challenge supports young entrepreneurs across the U.K. and Canada who are building solutions in education, health and wellness, sustainability, inclusion and poverty reduction.

As advances in AI continue reshaping how businesses get started, the initiative aims to expand access to social entrepreneurship for young founders who may lack traditional funding, technical resources or professional networks.

Participants will receive:

• Early-stage funding to test and develop their ideas

• Access to AI-powered GoDaddy tools that simplify building an online presence and launching projects

• Mentorship and a structured three-month development program

• Storytelling opportunities and public recognition

More than USD $45,000 in direct funding will be distributed through the program, with standout founders eligible for additional Boost Grants and expanded support to help scale their work.

Why This Matters

Purpose is often a powerful driver of entrepreneurship. GoDaddy research found that roughly one in three small business owners (32%) started their business in part to support a cause or hobby they’re passionate about.

Imagine a student noticing a gap in mental health support on their campus.

With the right tools, that observation could become an online peer-support platform connecting students with resources and community.

Or imagine a young founder concerned about environmental waste in their neighborhood.

With access to digital tools, they could build a website, recruit volunteers, track impact, and begin testing solutions within weeks instead of months.

These examples illustrate something we see again and again: some of the most impactful ideas come from people who are closest to the challenges their communities face.

But proximity to a problem doesn’t automatically create opportunity.

Support systems do.

When support arrives early enough, ideas have a chance to become something bigger.

This partnership is built around a simple belief: when young people receive the right tools, resources and encouragement early enough, they can build solutions that create meaningful impact in their communities.

What Happens Next

Over the coming months, founders will participate in a three-month venture-building sprint designed to help them test, refine and strengthen their ideas. Working alongside mentors and community partners, participants will build, refine and validate solutions addressing challenges in their communities.

To make that support locally relevant, the program will work with trusted impact partners in each market.

In the U.K., Launch It brings practical business support and in-person workspace access for young entrepreneurs.

In Canada, 30 Birds Foundation helps reach Afghan refugee and diaspora communities that are often overlooked by traditional entrepreneurship systems.

Together, this creates a support model that combines funding, technology, mentorship and community access.

We’ll also be sharing stories from the program and introducing you to the entrepreneurs behind the work as their ventures begin to take shape.

Get Involved

Subscribe to RIVETED and follow GoDaddy (@godaddy + @godaddynews) and RIVET (@rivetorg) on Instagram to stay up to date on participant stories, project milestones and program impact.

Subscribe now

The next generation of entrepreneurs isn’t waiting for permission to build. We’re excited to help ensure more of them have the tools, support and opportunity to do it. Because good ideas are everywhere. Opportunity should be too.

TL;DR

• 85% of the world’s 1.8 billion young people live in “capital deserts” — places where early-stage funding rarely reaches them

• Less than 0.002% of global philanthropic dollars reach early-stage youth-led initiatives

• RIVET has deployed 1,200+ grants across 79 countries, supporting nearly 3,000 youth innovators

• $500K in catalytic capital has unlocked nearly $1M in follow-on funding

• RIVET’s first-ever Impact Report is now live

What Early Belief Can Unlock

Stanley Anigbogu received a $1,000 grant to support an idea.

At the time, LightEd was still early: a youth-led initiative in Nigeria building solar-powered lighting systems from recycled electronic waste for students, rural families, and displaced communities experiencing energy poverty.

Today, LightEd has secured more than $500,000 in follow-on investment.

But the most important part of that story is not the number.

It’s what happened in between.

Because the first thing RIVET provided Stanley was not scale.

It was trust.

Trust that his idea mattered before institutional systems had validated it. Trust that proximity to a problem could produce meaningful solutions. Trust that youth-led innovation was worth backing before every risk had already been removed.

Again and again, over the last four years, we’ve seen the same pattern emerge:

When young people are trusted early, ideas launch. Leaders grow. Capital compounds. Systems begin to shift.

That is the story at the center of RIVET’s first-ever Impact Report.

The Infrastructure Gap

For decades, young people have been framed primarily through the lens of potential.

Potential leaders.
Potential founders.
Potential changemakers.

But after four years of funding youth-led work around the world, one thing has become impossible to ignore:

Young people are not waiting to lead.

They already are.

The problem is that the systems surrounding them were never designed to support them early.

Today, less than 0.002% of global philanthropic dollars reach early-stage, youth-led initiatives.

Meanwhile, 85% of the world’s 1.8 billion young people live in what RIVET calls “capital deserts” — places where ideas often disappear long before institutions ever notice them.

That is not a talent problem; it is an infrastructure problem, and its consequences are enormous.

Ideas capable of reshaping communities disappear before they ever receive validation. And when those ideas disappear early, communities lose solutions they may never get back.

RIVET was created in response to that reality.

Not as another traditional grantmaking organization, but as infrastructure designed to help youth-led innovation become fundable, visible, and sustainable over time.

Because visibility is infrastructure too.
Legitimacy is infrastructure too.
Trust is infrastructure too.

What the Numbers Actually Represent

Over the last four years, RIVET has deployed 1,208 grants across 79 countries, supported nearly 3,000 youth innovators, reached more than 2 million direct beneficiaries, and helped unlock nearly $1 million in follow-on funding.

Those numbers matter, but the most important thing about them is what they represent.

Behind every statistic is a young person who moved from idea to action because someone trusted them before the rest of the system did.

Again and again, we’ve watched small moments of validation alter the trajectory of an idea.

A microgrant becomes momentum.
Momentum becomes visibility.
Visibility becomes partnership, hiring, expansion, and future investment.

The report is filled with examples of what becomes possible when lived experience, urgency, and proximity are treated as strengths instead of liabilities.

Joshua’s story reflects a pattern we see repeatedly across the RIVET ecosystem: some of the most effective solutions come from people who have experienced the problem firsthand.

Andrew understood something many traditional mental health systems often miss: belonging matters. By building culturally grounded peer support, Nunchi Health is helping immigrant and minority students find community alongside care.

Laraib's work shows what Environmental restoration looks like in practice: community-led solutions that strengthen ecosystems while creating long-term resilience for the people who depend on them.

None of these young leaders were waiting for permission to act; they were already building.

What they needed were people and networks willing to recognize their leadership early enough to help it grow.

What We’ve Learned

Over the last four years, we’ve learned that the biggest barriers facing youth innovators are rarely creativity or ambition.

More often, the barrier is whether someone is willing to take them seriously early enough.

We’ve learned that small amounts of catalytic funding can fundamentally alter the trajectory of an idea.

We’ve learned that storytelling shapes who gets seen, funded, and believed in.

And we’ve learned that moments create visibility — but ecosystems create durability.

Most importantly, we’ve learned that youth-led innovation isn’t the experiment.

The real experiment is whether institutions can redesign themselves fast enough to support it.

Looking Ahead

If 2025 was about building stronger foundations, 2026 is about scaling responsibly without losing what makes this work effective in the first place.

That means:

• expanding catalytic funding

• strengthening ecosystem partnerships

• improving measurement systems

• deepening youth governance

• building stronger pathways from Access Grants to long-term sustainability

But growth only matters if integrity scales alongside it.

Because somewhere right now, another young person is sketching an idea in a notebook, building a prototype after school, organizing neighbors, testing a solution, or trying to convince someone to believe in what they see.

Closing the infrastructure gap requires more than funding.

It requires institutions willing to rethink risk. Brands willing to invest beyond campaigns. Partners willing to move resources with trust. Communities willing to take young people seriously before consensus arrives.

The future is not waiting to arrive; it is already unfolding.

The question is whether the systems around it are willing to catch up.

Read the Full Report

The first-ever RIVET Impact Report is now live.

And if you believe young people deserve systems built to trust them earlier, subscribe to RIVETED for more stories, insights, and updates from across the ecosystem.

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• Two sisters in Gaza won a major environmental award for turning war rubble into reusable building bricks

• An 18-year-old student in Ireland developed biodegradable plastic that helps remove microplastics from the environment

• Young entrepreneurs in Nigeria are transforming plastic waste into eco-friendly products and jobs

• Billie Eilish’s recent tour helped fund 7.7 million meals while mobilizing fans around climate action

• Proof that young people aren’t waiting for permission to make a difference

The Stories You Probably Didn’t See

If you spent any time online this month, chances are you saw plenty of bad news.

Conflict. Division. Climate anxiety. Economic uncertainty.

What you probably didn’t see were the young people quietly building solutions anyway.

Because while headlines often focus on what’s broken, young people around the world are spending their time repairing, rebuilding, and reimagining what comes next.

Different countries. Different challenges. Same instinct: see a problem and do something about it.

Here are four stories that caught our attention this month.

Turning Rubble Into Hope

Photo: The Earth Prize

When most people look at war rubble, they see destruction.

Sisters Tala Mousa (17) and Farah Mousa (15) saw building materials.

The sisters, who live in Gaza and were themselves displaced by the conflict, developed a project called Build Hope – Palestine that transforms debris from damaged buildings into reusable bricks for pavements, partitions, and community spaces. Their innovation recently earned them the Middle East regional title in The Earth Prize, one of the world’s largest environmental competitions for teenagers.

More than an environmental solution, it’s a reminder that innovation often emerges from the places facing the greatest challenges.

Source: BBC → Read more

An 18-Year-Old’s Answer to Plastic Pollution

Photo: The Earth Prize

Microplastics have become one of the defining environmental challenges of our generation.

So, 18-year-old Arya Satheesh decided to do something about it.

The Irish student recently earned recognition through The Earth Prize for developing Eco Purge, a biodegradable plastic designed to safely break down while helping remove existing microplastics from the environment.

It’s a reminder that some of the most promising climate solutions aren’t coming from governments or corporations. They’re coming from classrooms.

Source: Euronews → Read more

Building Businesses From Plastic Waste

In Nigeria, youth-led organizations GreenLITE Solution and Project Sustainphere are proving that waste can become opportunity.

Led in part by 2026 RIVET Boost Cohort member Sayedi Umar Mohammed, the initiative transforms discarded plastic sachets into eco-friendly products including footwear, bags, and other everyday goods.

What began as an effort to address plastic pollution has grown into a model that creates both environmental and economic value—reducing waste while generating new opportunities within local communities.

The challenge isn’t always a lack of resources. Sometimes it’s recognizing that yesterday’s waste can become tomorrow’s opportunity.

Source: GreenLITE Solution → Read more

Billie Eilish’s Tour Served More Than Music

Not all impact stories come from nonprofits.

Sometimes they come from a concert tour.

According to REVERB, Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft tour helped deliver the equivalent of 7.7 million plant-based meals through her family’s nonprofit, Support+Feed, while rescuing more than 5 million pounds of food from landfills. The tour also mobilized more than 36,000 fans to participate in climate-focused actions.

It’s a reminder that culture can move people and sometimes it can move resources, too.

Source: REVERB → Read more

The Bigger Picture

None of these stories are connected.

Different countries.

Different challenges.

Different solutions.

And yet they all point to the same thing.

Young people aren’t waiting for institutions, governments, or corporations to solve every problem.

They’re experimenting.

Building.

Testing.

Leading.

That’s not the narrative we usually hear about Gen Z.

But it’s the one we see every day.

The media often portrays young people as disengaged, distracted, or waiting for someone else to fix the future.

These stories tell a different story.

One where young people are rebuilding communities, rethinking industries, creating new technologies, and responding to challenges in real time.

They aren’t waiting for permission.

They’re already building what’s next.

And that’s exactly why we remain optimistic about the future.

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Reply to this newsletter and tell us about them.

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Because bad news travels fast. Good news builds movements.

• 1 in 5 young people experience a mental health condition — but for immigrant and minority youth, the barriers go far deeper than access

• Dr. Andrew Chang grew up watching peers fall through the cracks of a system that wasn’t designed for them

• He founded Nunchi Health in 2022: a peer-led, culturally grounded mental health nonprofit that trains youth to support each other

• To date, Nunchi has reached 27,400 students across 54 countries with a 92% engagement rate — 30% higher than traditional therapy – and the waitlist keeps growing

• Andrew is a member of the 2026 RIVET Boost Cohort

When the System Doesn’t Feel Built for You

Every May, Mental Health Awareness Month asks us to talk more openly about what so many carry in silence.

But for immigrant and minority youth — navigating new cultures, new languages, and the weight of family expectations alongside everything else — talking openly has never been simple. The stigma runs deep. The system feels foreign. And the faces in the room rarely look like yours.

The mental health crisis isn’t equal. And the solutions built to address it haven’t been either.

Dr. Andrew Chang has spent his career sitting with this reality. As a Harvard-trained physician in San Mateo County working with underinsured patients who had often been denied care, he kept seeing the same story: young people from immigrant and minority backgrounds falling through the cracks of a system that was never built for them.

He stopped waiting for the system to catch up. In 2022, he founded Nunchi Health.

The Gap Nobody Was Filling

One in five young people will experience a mental health condition. Immigrant and minority youth can face unique barriers to getting the support they need.

Stress from adapting to a new culture. Pressure from your community. Trauma passed down through families. Stigma that makes asking for help feel weak— or worse, like betrayal.

And even when care is accessible, it often doesn’t fit. A therapist who doesn’t share your cultural context. A model built around individual healing for someone whose identity is rooted in community. Sessions that feel clinical when what you actually need is to feel understood.

“A lack of awareness and an enduring stigma perpetuate the wounds experienced by immigrant and cultural minority communities,” says Andrew. “We need to support the mental health of our young people, particularly and especially those from adverse backgrounds.”

The system isn’t failing for lack of effort. It’s failing because it was never designed with these young people in mind.

What Andrew Built Instead

Nunchi Health was born from the belief that no one is more equipped to solve the youth mental health crisis than young people themselves.

It’s a simple inversion — but a big one. Instead of bringing outside expertise into communities, Andrew built a model where communities can heal from within. Where the people most affected by the problem become the ones solving it.

With support from RIVET, he’s been able to take that model further, faster..

“Meaningful change often comes from building trust, understanding cultural context, and empowering others — rather than rushing solutions.” — Dr. Andrew Chang

How Nunchi Health Actually Works

Young people aren’t just the ones being helped here. They’re the ones doing the helping.

Nunchi trains students from immigrant and minority backgrounds in peer support and basic psychotherapy skills. Those students then run healing circles, workshops, and campus programs for their own communities — spaces grounded in cultural identity and shared experience, designed specifically to address the acculturation distress that standard programs don’t touch.

Every program is free and evidence-based, with clinician support behind each session.

And the impact compounds. Over 30% of participants go on to support others themselves — stepping into leadership roles and extending the reach of the program far beyond what any outside intervention could sustain.

The result is mental health support that grows from within communities — not one that arrives from outside them.

See How Nunchi Health Works

The Proof

27,400 students reached. 54 countries. 4,897 mental health sessions delivered.

A 92% engagement rate — 30% higher than average psychotherapy sessions.

Over 30% of participants have stepped into peer leadership roles themselves. A 15% reduction in anxiety. A 10% improvement in self-rated mental health. And a waitlist of 500+ students who want in.

The people inside the rooms say it best.

“Nunchi was an incredibly powerful experience. We left this community with an unbreakable bond.”

“This program changed my life. I finally felt understood.”

That last line — I finally felt understood — is the whole point. Feeling understood isn’t a nice-to-have in mental health care. For so many of these young people, it’s the thing they’ve never had.

Where This Is Headed

After receiving a RIVET Access Grant to help support his Nunchi Health project, Andrew was selected for the 2026 RIVET Boost Cohort — RIVET’s follow-on program for mid-stage youth-led ventures ready to scale. For Nunchi Health, that means stronger infrastructure, expanded reach, and a faster path to the 500+ students still waiting.

This Mental Health Awareness Month, that momentum couldn’t be more meaningful. Because the conversation we really need isn’t just about being more open — it’s about building systems that actually work for the young people who’ve been left out of them.

Nunchi Health is building one of those systems. And we get to watch it grow.

The Bigger Picture

Here’s what Andrew’s model shows: the communities most overlooked by the mental health system aren’t lacking strength. They’re lacking a system that sees it.

Nunchi doesn’t import healing. It builds the conditions for communities to heal themselves — with young people as the architects, not just the recipients.

That’s what youth-powered mental health looks like when it actually works. Not a program. A movement.

And it’s just getting started.

Get Involved

Support The Next Generation of Peer Mental Health Advocates

Follow Nunchi Health

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If this changed how you think about what mental health support can look like — share it with someone who needs to see it. Young people are building real solutions, and the more people who know that, the better.

Sustainable fashion was supposed to be the future. So why are emissions still rising?

We had a live conversation with Romain Liot, author of Reset Fashion and Co-founder of Adore Me to unpack what’s really happening behind the scenes of the fashion industry.

A big thank you to everyone who joined us!

Subscribe to RIVETED for more ✨

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• Every 75 seconds, a child under 5 dies from malaria. A disease we already know how to treat

• Hakim Kakooza nearly died in 2021 after waiting hours at a clinic that had run out of tests and medicine

• He built MariTest: a portable, AI-powered device that detects malaria with a finger touch in under 5 minutes, no blood, no lab, no waste

• It also enables mass screening and real-time outbreak monitoring in remote areas

• Hakim is part of the 2026 RIVET Boost Cohort, and this is just getting started

Imagine going to the doctor.

You wait three hours.

Then they tell you: we don’t have the test. We don’t have the medicine. And you can’t leave.

That’s not a dystopian scenario. That’s what happened to Hakim Kakooza in 2021 — and it almost killed him.

Today is World Malaria Day — marked every April 25th as a global call to accelerate the fight against a disease that is both preventable and beatable. This year’s theme says it plainly: “Driven to End Malaria: Now We Can. Now We Must.”

Hakim Kakooza is what that looks like in practice.

The Problem Nobody Should Be Okay With

Malaria is not a mysterious disease.

We know what causes it. We know how to test for it. We know how to treat it.

And yet — in 2020 alone — it infected 241 million people and killed over 500,000.

The problem isn’t science. The problem is access. The system keeps failing the people who need it most, and has been for a long time.

That’s the context Hakim was living in when he got sick on Bussi Island, a remote part of Uganda, during a COVID lockdown.

He recognized the fever, went to the local clinic and waited three hours.

Then: no Rapid Diagnostic Test kits. No antimalarial drugs. No way off the island.

He tried local remedies and got worse. By the time a travel permit let him reach a mainland hospital, the parasite had severely damaged his liver.

He almost didn’t make it.

What He Did With It

A lot of people would’ve just been grateful to survive.

Hakim came home and started building.

He pulled together a small team — different skills, same mission — and started building MariTest. He leaned on his machine learning background from education org Fundi Bots and the entrepreneurial foundation he’d built at the African Leadership University. With support from RIVET, he’s been able to push that mission further, faster.

The goal was simple: fix the broken first step.

Because malaria is actually manageable when you catch it early, the whole chain of treatment starts with one test. And when that test isn’t there, everything else falls apart.

So Hakim built the test.

Want to see what this actually looks like?

How MariTest Actually Works

Here’s the part that’s genuinely wild.

You place your finger on the device.

That’s it.

No blood sample. No lab. No waste.

The AI runs its analysis. In under five minutes, you know if you have malaria.

The device is portable and reusable, which means it can go anywhere: a village health outpost, a school, a remote community center.

But it gets better.

MariTest doesn’t just diagnose individuals. It makes mass screening and real-time outbreak monitoring possible. Communities can track what’s spreading, where, and how fast — and actually respond before things spiral.

That’s not just a diagnostic device. That’s infrastructure.

See what they’re building

Where It’s Going

In 2026, Hakim was selected for the RIVET Boost Cohort, a program designed to help the most promising youth-led ventures grow from early stage to real scale. For MariTest, that means stronger networks, more resources, and a faster path to the communities that need this most.

And on a day like today — World Malaria Day — that momentum feels meaningful.

Because this day isn’t really about awareness. It’s about proof. Proof that young people are already building the solutions the world is still waiting on.

“I’m committed to building a culture of purpose-driven innovation within MariTest.” — Hakim Kakooza, Founder & CEO

That’s a commitment from someone who almost became a statistic — and chose to spend his second chance building, so others don’t have to.

The Bigger Picture

Hakim’s story is a reminder that the gap between knowing how to solve a problem and actually solving it is exactly where young people are doing some of the most important work in the world right now.

Not waiting for permission. Not asking legacy institutions to move faster. Just building — with the skills they have, the problems they’ve lived, and the belief that something better is possible.

Hakim didn’t cure malaria.

He built the tool that makes the cure reachable.

For Hakim, it was a decision he made in a hospital on the mainland, when he realized he’d been given a second chance and chose to use it.

Support What’s Next

See how MariTest is being used in real communities

Meet the founders in the 2026 RIVET Boost Cohort

If this made you rethink what’s possible, click the subscribe button below

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Young people are building real solutions, and the more people who know that, the better.

• Victoire Mandonnaud is a Master’s student in International Affairs at Columbia and the founder of On My Way

• The platform enables real-time civic action by allowing people to send small amounts of money instantly to support urgent needs

• With support from RIVET, she launched an early-stage experiment using the platform

• Early results show that faster funding helps organizers act sooner and maintain momentum

• Now part of RIVET’s Boost Program, she’s working to scale the platform globally

  Subscribe now

When Help Comes Too Late

When something urgent happens, most people want to help.

But in reality, they can’t act fast enough.

Funding takes time.

Processes slow things down.

And by the time support arrives, the moment has often passed.

Victoire Mandonnaud saw this happen again and again.

A Different Way to Respond

Victoire Mandonnaud is a Master’s student in International Affairs at Columbia, focused on how systems of funding and coordination shape real-world outcomes.

While studying and working across civic and global development spaces, she noticed the same pattern: grassroots organizers were ready to act, but couldn’t access resources quickly enough.

The intention to help was there.

The system just wasn’t built for speed.

So she built On My Way, a platform designed to help people act immediately — not eventually

At its core, the idea is simple:

Someone needs help.

People nearby can step in.

Money and action happen instantly.

No long applications.
No waiting period.
No layers of approval.

Just direct, real-time support often between $5 and $20 going to people already taking action on the ground.

Want to see what this actually looks like in real time?

See On My Way in action →

Small Amounts, Real Impact

The amounts are intentionally small.

But the impact is immediate.

With just a few dollars, organizers can:

• buy supplies

• mobilize their communities

• respond to urgent needs as they happen

It’s not about large-scale funding.

It’s about speed.

Because in moments of urgency, timing matters more than scale.

Testing What Happens When Money Moves Faster

With support from RIVET, Victoire launched a live experiment to test the idea.

What happens when even small amounts of money move instantly?

The results showed that frontline organizers could respond faster, take action sooner, and keep momentum going — all without the delays that usually slow things down.

Now, Victoire is part of RIVET’s Boost Program cohort — a next step designed to help young founders scale what’s already working.

What started as an idea is now being built to scale.

Building for the Moments That Matter

On My Way isn’t just a platform.

It’s a different way of thinking about support.

Instead of waiting for systems to catch up, it lets people act on what’s already happening around them.

Now, Victoire is exploring partnerships with global organizations like the United Nations and connecting with youth-led networks around the world.

A Faster System for a Faster Generation

For a generation used to acting in real time, waiting days or weeks to help doesn’t make sense.

Victoire is building something that matches how people already think and move.

Immediate.
Direct.
Responsive.

Because sometimes, making a difference doesn’t require more resources.

Just faster ones.

Want to see where this goes next?

Follow Victoire and On My Way as they build a faster way to support urgent action. If this made you rethink how helping could work, leave a comment for Victoire.

Leave a comment

• Janet Dete, a 24-year-old founder in Kenya, started Queening Afrika to address synthetic hair waste in her community.

• She collects discarded synthetic hair and transforms it into handbags, mats, and accessories while creating jobs for women artisans.

• The project brings older and younger women together through traditional weaving and new business opportunities.

• With support from RIVET and participation in the Boost Program, Janet is now developing biodegradable braids made from banana fiber waste.

• Her work shows how local problems can become community-built solutions.

  Subscribe now

From Waste to Worth

In Mathare, one of Nairobi’s largest informal settlements, braided hair is everywhere.

Braids are more than fashion here. They are culture, identity, and tradition, passed down through generations. But after the hairstyles come out, most of that synthetic hair is thrown away, where it can take hundreds of years to break down.

For years, nobody thought much about it.

Then Janet started looking at those piles differently.

She saw opportunity.

Falling in Love With the Problem

Janet Dete is 24 years old and the founder of Queening Afrika, a social venture that transforms synthetic hair waste into eco-friendly products like handbags, mats, and accessories.

But Queening Afrika didn’t start as a business idea. It started during a difficult time in Janet’s life, when she was struggling to find work after finishing school and battling depression. At the same time, she couldn’t ignore the growing waste problem in her community, especially the piles of synthetic hair dumped after salon visits.

“I once hated my community because it was dirty,” Janet says. “Now I’ve learned to fall in love with the problems I want to solve.”

So she started small — collecting hair from local salons, washing it, testing it. She figured out that with the right treatment, it could be woven into something entirely new.

How Hair Becomes Handbags

At Queening Afrika, the process is hands-on and community-driven.

Discarded synthetic hair is collected from partner salons, then sorted, washed, dyed, and dried. From there, it’s woven by hand using traditional techniques and transformed into bags, mats, and accessories.

What started as a recycling idea quickly became something bigger.

She realized she could also create jobs.

Want to see how Queening Afrika turns discarded hair into bags and mats?

👉 See Janet’s Work

More Than Recycling

Queening Afrika creates work for women in Janet’s community, especially single mothers and older women who often face limited employment opportunities.

The work is intentionally intergenerational. Older women teach traditional weaving and handcrafting skills, while younger women help produce and sell the finished products.

Climate action, job creation, cultural preservation — all braided together, quite literally.

Since launching Queening Afrika, Janet and her team have:

• Partnered with local salons to collect synthetic hair waste

• Recycled thousands of kilograms of discarded hair

• Created jobs for women artisans in her community

• Begun testing biodegradable braids made from banana stem fiber waste

Her vision is not just to clean up her community, but to change how people think about beauty, waste, and opportunity.

Not Built Alone

Most big ideas don’t start big.

They start with someone deciding the problem is worth their time.

With support from a RIVET Access Grant, Janet continued building Queening Afrika and expanded her work with women in her community.

Now, she’s part of RIVET’s first Boost Program cohort — a yearlong program supporting young leaders who are ready to grow what they’ve already started to the next level. With funding, mentorship, and a global community of peers, Janet is working to scale Queening Afrika and continue developing her biodegradable hair innovation.

Queening Afrika is Janet’s vision.

RIVET’s role is to help her take it further.

Rethinking Beauty From the Ground Up

The global beauty industry produces enormous amounts of waste every year, much of it ending up in communities like Janet’s.

Janet believes the future of beauty should look different — more sustainable, more local, and more connected to the communities it impacts.

By turning waste into products and products into jobs, she’s showing that some of the most powerful solutions don’t come from boardrooms or labs.

They come from people who get tired of waiting and start solving the problems right in front of them.

Want to Support Janet’s Work?

Follow Queening Afrika and see how Janet and her team are turning hair waste into jobs, products, and new opportunities for women in their community.

👉 Follow Queening Afrika

Or share this story with someone who believes solutions can start anywhere.

The Breakthrough the World Overlooked

For decades, a safer birth control option sat quietly in medical journals.

It worked.
Patients liked it.
Doctors used it successfully in India for more than 30 years.

But outside of India, it never went anywhere.

Not because it failed.

Because no one invested in bringing it to the rest of the world.

Without patent protection, pharmaceutical companies had little incentive to fund the research required to bring it to market globally.

So the discovery stayed overlooked.

Until Emi Gacaj and Mehek Bapna came across it.

Listening to Women’s Experiences

Emi Gacaj is the co-founder and COO of Tessering Biosciences, a young biotech startup working to improve how hormone-based medicines work.

She’s also a Columbia-trained biomedical researcher and second-time founder in reproductive health.

But what makes Emi’s perspective different isn’t just her scientific background.

As a full-spectrum birth doula and sex educator, she has spent years listening to women talk about their real experiences with contraception — the side effects, the trial-and-error, and the frustration of options that don’t always work well for their bodies.

“I talk to people every day about how broken the system is,” Emi says.

That combination of scientific training and firsthand experience in women’s health shaped the direction of Tessering.

When Emi and her co-founder Mahek encountered an overlooked contraceptive compound during a public health course, they immediately saw its potential.

The drug had already been used safely by millions of women in India.

What it didn’t have was a pathway to reach the rest of the world.

So they decided to build one.

Reviving a Forgotten Solution

In 2024, Emi and Mahek launched Tessering Biosciences to bring the compound back to life.

Their goal is to develop a once-weekly, hormone-free birth control pill that could reduce many of the side effects people experience with current options.

To do that, Tessering uses advanced computational tools to understand how hormones behave in different parts of the body.

That approach could allow scientists to design medicines that work more precisely — helping avoid some of the unwanted side effects people often experience with hormone treatments.

Birth control is their first focus.

But the technology could eventually help treat other hormone-related conditions such as:

• Heavy menstrual bleeding

• Benign breast lumps

• Endometriosis

• Other hormone-linked health issues

“There’s a better option out there,” Emi says.
“Women just don’t have access to it yet. We’re going to change that.”

Building a New Generation of Biotech

Since launching Tessering Biosciences, Emi and her team have been moving quickly.

They have:

• Assembled a scientific advisory network including Dr. Robert Hilgorth, former Director of Medicinal Chemistry at MIT and Harvard

• Developed a strategy to adapt the compound for new patent protection

• Secured a lead investor and launched a $2M pre-seed fundraising round

• Mapped a regulatory pathway toward FDA submission by 2026

But what makes the company unusual isn’t just the science.

It’s where the idea started.

Not in a pharmaceutical boardroom.

But in conversations with women navigating imperfect healthcare options, and a young team determined to do something about it.

The First “Yes”

Big ideas don’t start big.

They start with someone saying yes.

Through a RIVET Access Grant, Emi received early support to continue to explore the scientific and commercial potential of her work.

As Tessering Biosciences gained momentum, Emi was selected for RIVET’s first Boost Program cohort — a yearlong initiative supporting young innovators ready to scale their work.

With expanded funding, mentorship, and a community of fellow changemakers, she’s continuing to push the project toward clinical trials and broader access.

Rethinking Birth Control for the Next Generation

Birth control hasn’t changed much in decades, and many people still struggle to find options that work well for their bodies.

Emi believes the next generation of reproductive healthcare should look different.

By combining overlooked research with modern technology, her team is working to unlock a safer, more flexible approach to contraception — one that could expand better options for millions of women.

Want to See Better Birth Control Become Reality?

Follow Emi and Tessering Biosciences as they work to bring a safer contraceptive option to women around the world.

👉 Follow Tessering Biosciences

👉 Follow Emi

Or share this story with someone who believes the next generation can transform healthcare.

Subscribe now

TL;DR

• Emi, a 21-year-old Columbia-trained biomedical researcher, birth doula, and sex educator, is the co-founder and COO of Tessering Biosciences.

• After discovering a contraceptive compound used successfully in India for over 30 years, but never introduced globally, she and her team set out to bring it to the world.

• Tessering is developing a once-weekly, hormone-free oral contraceptive using computational biology to better control hormone signaling.

• With early support from a RIVET Access Grant, Emi helped support the idea. Emi has been selected for RIVET’s first Boost Program cohort to help scale the work.

• If successful, Tessering could bring safer birth control options to millions of women worldwide.

If this story inspired you, share it with someone who believes the next generation can transform healthcare.

When Joshua Ichor was 10 years old, he drank from the same water source his village had always relied on.

Days later, he was hospitalized with typhoid.

He missed nearly a year of school.

In North Central Nigeria, waterborne illness isn’t rare. But even as a child, Joshua understood something wasn’t right. Losing months of education because of drinking water shouldn’t be normal.

That experience didn’t just make him sick. It gave him a mission.

Building a System That Thinks

Today, at 24, Joshua is a trained groundwater hydrogeologist and the founder of the Geotek Water, a smart water monitoring system designed for places where infrastructure is fragile — or overlooked entirely.

Here’s how it works:

• AI-powered sensors are installed at water distribution points.

• The sensors detect contamination and system failures in real time.

• That data is shared through a mobile platform with government agencies, NGOs, and local citizens.

• Communities can also report issues directly through the app.
  
  

Instead of reacting to outbreaks after they happen, Joshua’s model helps prevent them.

It’s water infrastructure that thinks and informs.

Going Where Others Won’t

What makes Geotek different isn’t just the technology.

It’s where Joshua chooses to deploy it.

His team has worked in conflict-affected communities and internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, places where other water companies refuse to go due to safety risks.

Since launch, Geotek has:

• Improved water access across three Nigerian states

• Restored functionality to multiple damaged water systems

• Protected access for more than 100,000 people, including university students and families in high-risk areas

“With limited resources, we’ve built a model that works even in the hardest-to-reach places,” Joshua says.

In his hometown, people now call him “Aquaman.”

It’s a nickname, but it also says something bigger. This generation’s heroes aren’t wearing capes; they’re installing sensors, analyzing data, and redesigning systems.

The First “Yes”

Big ideas don’t start big; they start with someone believing in them.

For Joshua, that belief came through a RIVET Access Grant, giving him the runway to test his smart water system in the communities that inspired it.

Our support doesn’t stop there, he’s now part of RIVET’s 2026 Boost Program Cohort — a deeper investment designed to help young leaders scale what’s already working. Through expanded funding, mentorship, and peer support, Joshua is building toward his goal of reaching 1 million people.

From Survivor to System Designer

Joshua didn’t just want safer water.

He wanted smarter systems.

Geotek doesn’t treat communities as recipients of aid. It trains them to become water stewards, people who understand the infrastructure they rely on and can advocate for its protection.

With growing attention from the World Bank and other international funders, Joshua is scaling operations toward an ambitious goal:

Provide safe, smart water access to 1 million people by 2026.

In a world where young people are often portrayed as disengaged and glued to their phones, Joshua is redesigning national infrastructure before the age of 25.

Want to Help Protect Clean Water at the Source?

Support Joshua as he expands Geotek Water, bringing smart systems, real-time accountability, and safe water to the communities that need it most.

👉 Follow Joshua’s Work

Or simply share a word of encouragement in the comments, we’ll make sure Joshua sees it.

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TL;DR

• Joshua Ichor grew up in North Central Nigeria, where unsafe drinking water left him hospitalized with typhoid and out of school for nearly a year.

• At 24, he founded Geotek Water Project, installing AI-powered sensors to monitor water quality in real time and prevent outbreaks before they happen.

• With early support from a RIVET Access Grant, Joshua tested and refined the system in high-risk communities and is now part of RIVET’s 2026 Boost Program to scale toward safe water access for 1 million people.

• His work has already restored and protected water systems across three states, including in conflict zones and IDP camps where others won’t go.

• If this story moved you, share it with someone who believes young people are capable of building real systems for change.

Until next time,

RIVET

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Near Mark Memga’s home in Nigeria, fruit often goes to waste not because it’s spoiled, but because there’s too much of it.

Mark noticed that during harvest season, ripe mangoes, bananas, and pineapples sat unsold and began to rot across his community. What troubled him wasn’t just the waste, it was the missed opportunity.

That moment set everything else in motion.

A Simple Idea With Layers of Impact

Watching Mark tell the story, one thing becomes clear: Smoothie Arena Hub didn’t start as a business idea. It started as a practical, youth-led solution to a deeply visible problem.

Food waste in his community isn’t abstract. Farmers lose income when fruit spoils. Families go without affordable nutrition. And as produce decomposes, it releases methane that harms the climate.

Mark decided to interrupt that cycle.

At Smoothie Arena Hub, surplus fruit is collected and transformed into affordable smoothies and juices. The leftover pulp? It’s repurposed into animal feed for local farmers.

The system is simple by design:

• Less food waste

• More access to nutrition

• Fewer losses for farmers

From Smoothies to School Systems

Mark originally thought the most rewarding part of the work would be perfecting recipes. It turned out to be something else.

Through school-based workshops, Smoothie Arena teaches young people about sustainable farming, environmental awareness, and entrepreneurship.

Mark talks about standing in front of students, watching their interest grow, and seeing their reactions. That, he says, mattered more than producing the smoothies alone.

In the first two months, 300+ youth participated. The long-term goal is to reach 10,000 youth by 2027. So far, the project has directly and indirectly impacted more than 3,000 people, with strong support from the surrounding community.

From Roadside Rot to an AI-Powered Future

Smoothie Arena Hub is still early-stage, but it’s built to grow.

Next up: Mark and his team are developing an AI-powered mobile app that will allow users to personalize smoothie recipes based on individual health goals. This will further reduce waste and scale the model to new communities, expanding access to nutrition.

The philosophy is simple:
Start small. Use what’s available. Build systems that can grow.

How You Can Support

Support Mark as he grows Smoothie Arena Hub on LinkedIn, and help turn overlooked waste into healthier systems and real opportunity for young people.

This is what it looks like to start right where you are.

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TL;DR

• In Nigeria, young founder Mark Memga is reducing food waste by turning surplus fruit into affordable smoothies.

• Through Smoothie Arena Hub, excess produce becomes nutrition, leftover pulp becomes animal feed, and students learn how food, health, and income connect.

• What began as a response to fruit rotting by the roadside is now a growing system built with and for young people.

• Support Mark by following Smoothie Arena Hub on LinkedIn to keep up with his journey.

What part of Mark’s journey resonated most with you? Leave a comment, we’ll make sure he sees it.

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• In northern Ghana, 27‑year‑old Razak Abudi is helping women farmers adapt to climate change using solar-powered irrigation, organic composting, and a shared savings model.

• The system boosts harvests, restores soil health, and builds financial resilience, without emissions or chemical inputs.

• At the heart of it all is community: farmers share resources, meet weekly, and “break the treasure” together at year’s end.

In northern Ghana, climate change doesn’t arrive as a headline—it shows up as dry soil, unpredictable rains, and shrinking harvests.

For the women who do much of the region’s farming, those shifts are especially punishing. Water is harder to access, and the tools needed to adapt are often out of reach.

Razak Abudi saw this firsthand and decided to build something different.

At just 27 years old, Razak is the founder of Climatepreneurship, a community-led farming initiative that helps women farmers grow more food, protect their land, and strengthen their economic independence, using sunlight, cooperation, and local resources.

The solution starts with clean energy. Razak equips women’s farming groups with zero-emission, solar-powered water pumps, making it possible to irrigate crops and access safe drinking water even as rainfall becomes less predictable.

Next comes the soil. Instead of relying on costly chemical fertilizers, Climatepreneurship trains farmers to convert farm waste into organic compost, improving soil health while reducing environmental harm.

Then comes the trees. Each group plants trees alongside their vegetables, integrating agroforestry into everyday farming—restoring biodiversity and building long-term climate resilience.

But the most powerful part of the model isn’t the technology.

It’s the community.

Each group of women shares one solar irrigation system. They meet weekly, not just to farm, but to support one another. Every member contributes a small portion of her earnings into a shared savings fund. At the end of the year, they gather to “break the treasure,” dividing the funds among the group or offering microloans to members facing urgent needs.

It’s a safety net built by the farmers themselves.

By embedding sustainability into every layer—energy, water, soil, trees, and finance—Climatepreneurship helps women farmers do more than adapt to climate change. It helps them reclaim control over their livelihoods and their futures.

With support from RIVET, Razak is now expanding this model to reach more communities across northern Ghana, proving that when young people are trusted to lead, they don’t just respond to crises. They redesign systems.

In a world that too often underestimates Gen Z, Razak’s work tells a different story: one where climate action grows from the ground up, powered by cooperation, creativity, and hope.

Help This Work Take Root

Support Razak as he expands solar-powered farming—showing that community-led climate solutions can grow food, trees, and financial freedom at the same time.

👉 Support Razak’s Work

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🧭 Want to launch your project in 2026? Stay tuned.

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At a recent New York Islanders game, RIVET was honored as the night’s nonprofit partner through the team’s Hockey With A Heart program. At the heart of our presence: the story of Victoria —a 24-year-old changemaker building bilingual tools to help immigrant families navigate education, finances, and immigration systems. At UBS Arena, the RIVET team met fans, sold raffle tickets to support youth-led projects, and proved that everyday moments can spark bold, local impact.

From Confusion to Clarity

When Victoria immigrated to the U.S. at age 10, she and her mom were immediately overwhelmed. The school system was confusing. Paperwork was daunting. And clear answers were hard to find—especially in Spanish.

“Because I’m an immigrant myself—as is my mom—we just didn’t know how to navigate the complex U.S. education system,” she says. “That experience really stayed with me.”

It stayed with her so deeply that, more than a decade later, she decided to do something about it.

Victoria launched Take Charge with Victoria—a bilingual platform that breaks down real-life topics like financial literacy, immigration, and higher education into simple, digestible guides. Her goal: close the information gap that keeps many families like hers from accessing the support they need to thrive.

“I realized there was a huge information gap between generations—especially when it came to education, finance, and immigration,” she explains. “And I wanted to amplify that—and fix it.”

With support from RIVET, Victoria’s platform is expanding. She used her fellowship to invest in tools—like website subscriptions, bilingual resource guides, and podcast equipment—that bring her vision to life. And just as importantly, she’s gaining the confidence to scale her impact.

“Big things can be scary,” she says. “But it’s nice to have people with the knowledge and capacity to teach and mentor you—to help you take those big steps.”

A Spotlight At Center Ice

Last month, RIVET was invited to take the spotlight during the New York Islanders’ Hockey With A Heart night at UBS Arena.

As 17,000 fans filled the stadium, our team connected with NY Islanders supporters at our activation. We shared stories like Victoria’s. We sold 50/50 raffle tickets to raise funds for youth-led projects. And we introduced hockey fans of all ages to what youth-powered systems change really looks like.

Why This Moment Matters

This time of year is filled with headlines about giving back. But real impact doesn’t always start with big campaigns or viral fundraisers. Sometimes, it starts with an opportunity. A quiet conversation with a fan. A raffle ticket that fuels a project.

What Victoria built isn’t flashy. It’s deeply practical. And that’s the point.

These are the kinds of stories that don’t usually get told at center ice. But they should.

Because Gen Z changemakers like Victoria aren’t just protesting broken systems. They’re quietly—and cleverly—rebuilding them.

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When Jessica’s aunt was diagnosed with cervical cancer, the story she shared wasn’t just personal—it was familiar.

Her aunt had avoided screenings for years out of fear and discomfort. When Jessica started asking around, she found this wasn’t unique. Again and again, she heard the same thing: the experience of cervical exams was painful and outdated.

“It’s uncomfortable. It’s outdated. And it’s stopping people from getting the care they need,” Jessica told us.

So Jessica did what too few health systems have done. She listened - and decided to build something better.

Rethinking the Tools of Care

Jessica was 19 when she founded GynoEase, a redesigned speculum made of soft, medical-grade silicone—the same material used in menstrual cups. Her goal: to reimagine the speculum as something that centers comfort, not just compliance.

With RIVET’s support, she moved from an early idea to a working prototype—refining the design, gathering patient and provider feedback, and beginning the path toward FDA approval.

And she didn’t stop there. Jessica is now building manufacturing partnerships and laying the foundation to bring GynoEase to market.

Her vision is bigger than a product, it’s a commitment to care that doesn’t hurt. A commitment to ensuring that dignity is not a luxury, but the starting point.

A Season for Gratitude—and Grounded Hope

As we enter a season of gratitude, we’re reflecting on stories like Jessica’s—not just because they inspire us, but because they show us what’s possible when young people are trusted to lead.

This month, we’re thankful for the changemakers who:

• Turn personal pain into collective progress

• Rebuild broken systems with empathy and intention

• Make healthcare more inclusive, one innovation at a time

Jessica reminds us that sometimes, the boldest ideas come from the simplest questions—like why hasn’t this changed?

We’re proud to support leaders like her who don’t just ask, but answer.

Want to Support What’s Next?

Share this story.
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Stay close and be part of the change.

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TL;DR

• Jessica (19, New York) is the founder of GynoEase, a redesigned speculum built to reduce pain and discomfort during cervical exams.

• Inspired by her aunt’s delayed cancer diagnosis, Jessica reimagined a tool that hasn’t been meaningfully updated in over 100 years.

• With RIVET’s support, she’s refined a working prototype, gathered feedback, and is beginning FDA approval.

• GynoEase is more than a product—it’s a story of young people shaping the future of care.

• This Thanksgiving, we’re celebrating changemakers like Jessica who bring dignity, courage, and creativity to the table.

At ZCON 2025, guests saw the RIVET mission come to life through purpose-driven products, bold storytelling, peer-powered learning, and youth impact in a space built for Gen Z, by Gen Z. We were proud to be right there with them.

ZCON Recap: Watch the reel
ZCON was all heart, all hype, and all youth-led. From workshops and panels to VR experiences—here’s how we showed up.

Inside the RIVET Marketplace

We came together with the awesome team at ZCON to manifest the RIVET Marketplace - a pop-up experience that centered youth impact, amplified their stories, and created real avenues for collaboration with brands and communities. It was RIVET brought to life through cause, culture, and community.

• Product collaborations from Crocs, eos, and Funko—including Jibbitz™ for Good charms, youth-themed Funko Pops, and eos’s purpose-driven holiday bundle.

• Exclusive RIVET merch, from tees to totes, that allowed guests to wear their impact proudly.

• Immersive touchpoints like a VR simulation of RIVET’s vision for a changemaker-led future.

• An Impact Archetype challenge, where attendees discovered their changemaker type and proudly rocked it as a sticker, sparking conversations and selfies across the Marketplace.

Mentorship That Moved People

Forget stuffy learning workshops. Our immersive mentorship sessions were built like mini labs - hands-on, practical, and full of energy.

Shashwat Gangwal, founder of InfinityBox, kicked things off with a design challenge: What if your brand had to make one of its disposable products reusable? That question sparked a real-time sprint. Attendees sketched ideas, debated trade-offs, and explored how circular thinking could reshape not just packaging, but entire customer experiences. Shashwat shared how InfinityBox has built a system that’s profitable, scalable, and people-powered, and left everyone thinking differently about sustainability.

Naomi Giancola, founder of the Period Dignity Project, brought the behavioral science heat. She broke down the real impact of a deceptively simple action—stocking a receptacle with free menstrual products, and how that act ripples through a community to impact stigma, access, and policy.

From there, Naomi turned the mic over to guests, guiding small groups through the EAST model (Easy, Attractive, Social, Timely) or program development. Together, they applied the framework to brand campaigns, surfacing small design tweaks that could unlock real engagement.

“When I first started the Period Dignity Project, I imagined I’d distribute 500 period products. Today, it’s over 10x what I imagined. As a data scientist, I wanted the audience to feel the power of those numbers. After guiding them through the lifetime cost of period products and presenting the impact of my work, the room erupted into applause—something I’d never experienced before. It was a very proud moment for me and the Period Dignity Project. Convincing people of an idea isn’t easy, but providing proof of concept is one of the best ways to do it. Because of this proof, after the session, I made many valuable connections that will help sustain my project for years to come.”

— Naomi Giancola, Founder, Period Dignity Project

The big takeaway? Behavioral design isn’t just for social causes. It’s for any campaign that wants to move people from awareness to action.

On Stage, On Message

At one of the weekend’s most powerful moments, Dr. Andrew Chang took the mainstage alongside Ella Emhoff, Cheyenne Hunt, and Zaya Perysian for Beyond the Hashtag: Turning Trends into Movements panel conversation on youth power, healing, and representation.

Andrew shared how Nunchi Health—his youth-led nonprofit—has reached over 16,000 students through peer-powered mental health programs. His voice offered a quiet counterbalance to louder cultural narratives, reminding us of the power of care over clout.

“The people who speak the loudest usually have the least skin in the game. To me, community-led healing is about reversing that script. It’s about making sure we listen very intentionally to the people who are not able to project their voice because they are hurting so much—and make sure they are held until their voice is so elevated that no one can’t hear them.” — Dr. Andrew Chang, Founder, Nunchi Health

Proof in Product

“The way brands can be purposeful in today’s world is to be aware of the social issues going on.” - ZCON attendee

At the heart of the RIVET Marketplace sat three bold collaborations that turned cause into culture—and gave attendees something to touch, try, and take seriously.

• Crocs x RIVET: Jibbitz™ for Good
  The display featured custom charms inspired by five RIVET grantees, each one turning a personal mission into a symbol you could wear. Shashwat Gangwal’s charm fused the infinity symbol with a thriving tree—a nod to his mission with InfinityBox to design out waste and build systems that nurture sustainability, growth, and shared purpose.
  

• Funko x RIVET: POP! With Purpose
  Featuring real-world changemakers like Joshua Ichor of Geotek Water, these POPs reframed what a hero looks like—and how impact can be collectible.
  

• eos x RIVET: Holiday Set
  As guests tested eos’s limited-edition body care bundle, they also met Zahra—an NYC-based climate justice advocate helping make sustainable fashion more accessible. The collaboration tied self-care to systems change, showing that even gift sets can carry purpose.

For attendees, these brand partnerships were proof: brands can back bold ideas and build real, measurable impact by co-creating with young people.

What’s Next

ZCON was a snapshot of what RIVET does best: center youth, amplify their stories, and create real avenues for collaboration with brands and communities.

From storytelling to immersive campaigns, we’re just getting started.

Stay close. Join the movement. Be the spark.

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TL;DR

• RIVET launched its first branded pop-up—the RIVET Marketplace—at ZCON 2025

• We brought immersive storytelling, mentorship labs, and brand collabs into one powerful space

• Naomi and Shashwat led interactive sessions on behavioral design and circular systems

• Andrew Chang took the main stage to reframe healing and representation

• Crocs, eos, and Funko collabs turned grantee stories into tangible proof of purpose

• Attendees discovered their Impact Archetype, stepped into a VR future, and shared space with real changemakers

• The RIVET Marketplace was a blueprint

• This is just the beginning. Let’s build what’s next—together.