Announcing the OD Impact Challenge 2025 Top 12 Finalists! – YOA

We are excited to formally announce the Top 12 Finalists of the OPPORTUNITY Desk (OD) Impact Challenge!

The OD Impact Challenge was created to acknowledge, rejoice, and assist younger change-makers who’re driving significant options to actual issues of their communities. The problem additionally displays the rising influence of Opportunity Desk in opening doorways and amplifying alternatives for younger individuals throughout Africa and past.

This yr, we acquired a formidable variety of functions from passionate leaders, social entrepreneurs, and innovators. The high quality, depth, and function behind lots of the submissions made the choice course of each inspiring and extremely tough.

After cautious evaluation, our judges shortlisted 12 excellent finalists whose work stood out for its readability, innovation, and group influence. Each of those finalists represents a brand new technology of leaders boldly taking motion, creating change, and enhancing lives inside their communities.

What’s Next?

The application movies of the Top 12 finalists at the moment are dwell on the Opportunity Desk YouTube Channel.
From this group, three winners will emerge, and you might be invited to be part of the choice course of.

👉 How to vote:

• Watch the finalists’ movies on our YouTube channel
• Like and go away a touch upon the movies of the finalists you wish to assist

Your engagement counts!

Meet the OD Impact Challenge Top 12 Finalists

(In no explicit order)

1. Mark Chester Tungcul (Phillipines)

Mark Chester Tungcul is a Filipino youth chief and communications skilled with expertise in mission administration, sustainability advocacy, and youth engagement throughout native and worldwide platforms. He has labored with authorities our bodies, UN-associated initiatives, and civil society organizations, contributing to packages aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, local weather motion, and inclusive growth.

Known for bridging grassroots initiatives with international alternatives, Mark leverages strategic communication, digital media, and management to amplify youth voices and drive significant social influence.

Impact Area: Youth Leadership & Strategic Communication for Sustainable Development

2. Melicy Mandala (Malawi)

Melicy Mandala is a group growth and local weather motion skilled from Malawi, dedicated to advancing girls’s financial empowerment, clear vitality entry, and environmental sustainability. Her work sits at the intersection of gender equality, local weather resilience, and inclusive inexperienced livelihoods, with a robust concentrate on supporting marginalized girls and youth in rural and peri-city communities.

She is the founder and lead of Wala Women’s Social Enterprise, which produces eco-pleasant gas briquettes from agricultural waste reminiscent of rice husks. Through this initiative, Melicy equips girls with expertise in sustainable manufacturing and small-scale enterprise, enabling them to earn earnings whereas decreasing reliance on charcoal and firewood. Her work immediately addresses deforestation, indoor air air pollution, and family vitality poverty, whereas creating dignified, local weather-resilient livelihoods for ladies.

Impact Area: Clean Energy & Climate-Resilient Livelihoods for Women

3. Ogweno Stephen (Kenya)

Ogweno Stephen is a multi-award-profitable international public well being skilled, researcher, writer, and innovator, dedicated to addressing well being inequities and advancing wellness globally. With a Public Health diploma from Kenyatta University, a Master’s in Global Health from the University of Manchester, and Sustainability in Business Leadership research from the University of Cambridge, Ogweno makes a speciality of enhancing public well being tackling non-communicable ailments (NCDs) and leveraging on well being tech throughout Africa. As the founder and CEO of Stowelink Foundation (2015) and Lifesten Health (2022) , Ogweno has carried out transformative well being packages in over 10 African international locations, specializing in enhancing well being literacy, behaviour and entry to care. His advocacy emphasizes the inclusion of marginalized teams in well being and coverage programming.

Globally, Ogweno serves in a number of key roles, together with as a Steering Member at WHO NCD Labs and NCD Alliance, and as a director at the World Obesity Federation, amplifying work in international well being. As celebrated entrepreneur, researcher and writer of six books, Ogweno has acquired prestigious accolades, together with the WHO-AFRO Hideyo Noguchi Prize for Young African Researchers in 2022 and listed as Top 100 Young African Leaders. At simply 29, Ogweno is a trailblazer in public well being, inspiring impactful change.

Impact Area: Public Health Equity & Health Innovation in Africa

4. Lawrence Banda (Zambia)

Lawrence Banda is a youth chief, Junior Councillor, and social influence advocate from Lusaka, Zambia, pushed by a deep perception in the energy of younger individuals to rework their communities. He is passionately dedicated to mindset transformation, management growth, and civic participation, with a robust concentrate on amplifying youth voices and galvanizing younger individuals to rise above limitations.

Lawrence actively empowers youths by his work as a Peer Mentor and Schools Project Coordinator with Transforming Youths Mind Era, the place he helps and leads youth-targeted initiatives aimed toward inspiring constructive change. Through mentorship, advocacy, and group engagement, he encourages younger individuals to imagine of their potential and take significant motion towards constructing a greater and extra sustainable future. He is deeply enthusiastic about utilizing his voice, creativity, and management to drive lasting influence in his group and past.

Impact Area: Youth Leadership Development & Civic Engagement

5. Akpevweoghene Okuse (Nigeria)

Akpevweoghene Okuse is a younger group advocate working at the intersection of women’ well being, menstrual hygiene administration (MHM), adolescent sexual schooling, financial Empowerment, and Second Chance Education. She works with Her Voice Foundation, as the Program Officer the place she helps outreach packages for adolescent women and younger moms throughout native communities. Her work focuses on enhancing entry to correct well being info, sanitary merchandise, secure areas, and financial empowerment alternatives for ladies and younger moms. 

Through the Second Chance Education program, Akpevweoghene helps efforts to reintegrate out-of-faculty adolescent women and younger moms again into formal schooling, making certain that early motherhood or vulnerability doesn’t completely finish a woman’s studying journey. She has participated in youth growth and management trainings, together with the Ideation Hub Africa masterclass sequence 5 Program, the place she continues to strengthen her capability in group engagement, program implementation, and driving measurable social influence. Akpevweoghene stays dedicated to creating sensible, inclusive options that increase alternatives for ladies to be taught, heal, and thrive.

Impact Area: Girls’ Health & Education Access

6. Sameer Khan (Pakistan)

Sameer Khan is a digital and group activist from Pakistan working at the intersection of expertise, gender justice, and peacebuilding. He is the founding father of Safar Buddies and Collective Pakistan, youth-led initiatives targeted on reclaiming public and digital areas for ladies by cultural activism, interfaith dialogue, and grassroots innovation. His work emphasizes secure mobility, girls’s civic participation, and inclusive storytelling, utilizing expertise and artwork as instruments for resistance, belonging, and social change.

Through his initiatives, Sameer has led packages which have engaged and mobilized hundreds of younger individuals throughout Sindh, amplifying marginalized voices and fostering collective motion. By combining digital instruments, inventive expression, and group organizing, he continues to problem gendered boundaries to participation and promote extra inclusive, peaceable, and equitable public areas for ladies and youth.

Impact Area: Gender Justice, Peacebuilding & Youth-Led Digital Activism

7. Eunice Adewale (Nigeria)

Eunice Adewale is a clear vitality innovator and sustainability skilled, and the founding father of Smokeless Briqs Energy Solutions. With a background in environmental science and sustainable growth, she brings over 5 years of expertise advancing inexpensive and scalable clear vitality applied sciences. Her experience spans renewable vitality programs, thermoelectric generator (TEG) expertise, biomass manufacturing, and clear vitality enterprise operations.

Through Smokeless Briqs, Eunice is driving the adoption of cleaner cooking and vitality options whereas decreasing dependence on fossil fuels and conventional biomass. Her management has been key to scaling operations, growing technical options, and securing strategic partnerships that strengthen the firm’s influence. She has acquired a number of recognitions for her work, together with the ACT Foundation Changemakers Innovation Prize and the Nigeria Energy Forum Innovation Prize, highlighting her contribution to sustainable vitality innovation.

Impact Area: Clean Energy Innovation & Sustainable Energy Access

8. Hamayun Khan (United States)

Hamayun Khan is a coverage and social influence skilled working at the intersection of schooling, financial growth, and fragile contexts. He is the Founder and President of SolaTeach, supporting 500+ Afghan women with English and profession-prepared expertise beneath restrictive circumstances, and he has secured $10,000 in aggressive (*12*) funding to ship measurable programming influence.

He can be an award-profitable writer and printed author. His e-book The Death Within acquired the International Impact Book Award (2025), and his schooling and social influence work earned the Global Recognition Award (2025). He has written coverage articles, e-book chapters, and op-eds on Afghanistan’s growth, connectivity, and financial restoration. Besides, he has contributed by media options and podcast appearances to boost consciousness on Afghan women’ schooling and youth alternative.

Overall, Hamayun combines expertise in schooling innovation, growth coverage, and financial evaluation, together with work on infrastructure, connectivity, and inclusive development. As such, he has based Collective Impact Consulting, offering analysis and coverage advisory throughout the Global South, and beforehand supported USAID-funded work as a Finance Analyst at Counterpart International.

Impact Area: Education Access & Policy Innovation in Fragile Contexts

9. Michael Sunmoni (Nigeria)

Michael Sunmoni is a Nigerian maternal-well being innovator and the founding father of SerielleHealth, a digital maternal-care platform targeted on decreasing preventable being pregnant-associated problems in underserved communities. With over seven years of scientific and group well being expertise, he has labored carefully with girls in low-useful resource settings throughout Lagos, Nigeria, gaining firsthand perception into the gaps in maternal care, schooling, and entry to well timed assist.

Through SerielleHealth, Michael is delivering inexpensive, AI-powered maternal care by way of a low-information net platform that gives personalised being pregnant steerage, symptom monitoring, maternal schooling, and entry to licensed healthcare professionals. He has led the growth of the platform’s purposeful prototype, expanded its maternal-schooling content material library, and coordinated maternal-well being outreaches reaching over 1,200 pregnant girls by schooling, screening, and referrals. With partnerships established throughout clinics and pharmacies, Michael is now targeted on scaling SerielleHealth to achieve 3,000–5,000 moms, enhancing being pregnant outcomes and decreasing maternal problems throughout Nigeria.

Impact Area: Maternal Health & Digital Health Innovation

10. Osmar Zaidan (Indonesia)

Osmar Zaidan is a youth social innovator from Indonesia and the CEO of Kita Korban Bullying, a nationwide youth-led motion devoted to eliminating bullying amongst younger individuals. With a background in youth management and social advocacy, his work focuses on creating secure, inclusive environments the place younger individuals can be taught, develop, and categorical themselves free from violence, worry, and discrimination.

Through Kita Korban Bullying, Osmar leads prevention-targeted anti-bullying schooling, faculty-primarily based packages, and group empowerment initiatives that promote empathy, inclusion, and peer-led motion. The motion has reached over 100 colleges throughout Indonesia, skilled networks of Anti-Bullying Ambassadors, and constructed partnerships with NGOs, authorities establishments, and group organizations. Under his management, the initiative additionally launched Indonesia’s first Anti-Bullying Declaration, mobilizing younger individuals nationwide to decide to safer and extra respectful areas.

Impact Area: Youth Protection, Mental Well-Being & Safe Learning Environments

11. Dabri Loïc Nzalakanda-Noble (Congo)

Dabri Loïc Nzalakanda-Noble is a younger Congolese social entrepreneur enthusiastic about sustainable options and social innovation. He is the founding father of AquaPlay, an modern initiative that makes use of video games and interactive academic instruments to boost consciousness amongst communities about water, hygiene, and sanitation points in each city and rural areas.

With expertise in group engagement, standard schooling, and advocacy, Loïc is dedicated to reworking water-associated practices by combining playfulness, schooling, and social influence. Through AquaPlay, he goals to foster collective consciousness and duty in the face of environmental challenges in Africa. He firmly believes that nicely-knowledgeable communities can turn into highly effective brokers of sustainable change.

Impact Area: Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) Education & Community Awareness

12. Wongani Mulanga (Malawi)

Wongani Mulanga is an environmentalist dedicated to increasing entry to wash vitality and schooling in Malawi. She co-based Green Minds, the place she helps lead youth-pushed efforts that assist college students in rural communities by sensible, sustainable options. Her work displays a robust perception in group empowerment and significant youth participation. Wongani continues to push for approaches that deliver actual influence to each individuals and the atmosphere.

Impact Area: Clean Energy Access & Environmental Sustainability

We rejoice each applicant who took the daring step to apply and share their story. The OD Impact Challenge continues to affirm the perception that one alternative can change a life, and plenty of lives can change the world.

Thank you for supporting these unimaginable change-makers 💛