ITRI Visionary Young Leaders Awards 2020 Recipients

Reinhold Mangundu, Nambia

He is also the new Communications Officer for the Namibian Youth Coalition on Climate Change and was the official delegate from Namibia to join the Global Peace Initiative of Women at COP22 in Marrakech in 2016. He is a committee member for NEWS (Namibian Environment and Wildlife Society), and a committee member of the For Progress Namibia Project. Reinhold is pursuing an education in Regional and Rural Planning at the Namibian University of Science and Technology. He believes that youth have much to contribute and each of us should ask ourselves, what do I contribute? He promotes education and community building and elicits the wisdom and guidance of elders in his community.

Reinhold Mangundu works as a Program Officer at Progress Namibia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Regional and Rural Planning from the Namibia University of Science and Technology. He leads programs in youth development and sustainability awareness programs. He is very passionate about pro-poor development and is keen to learn creative and innovative ways to be part of progress in Namibia. Reinhold has always been involved in environmental issues and at a very young age, he initiated many grass roots community activities to protect nature.

Abigail Quic, Guatemala

Abigail is helping to develop a different narrative to help build just and sustainable communities across Central America, through empowering young people to be influential leaders and through working with indigenous rural communities in Guatemala. She is engaged in leading programs that build youth entrepreneurial and leadership skills and support youth-led development projects. Programs integrate climate action and forest preservation and focus on empowering women through education and capacity building in technology. Abigail and her team are creating a movement of leaders who are driving sustainability, addressing social challenges and creating innovative solutions.

For the last ten years, Abigail Quic has actively engaged in community development in her village of San Juan La Laguna in Guatemala. She is currently co-executive director of the non-profit organization, SERES. He began his Buddhist studies in 2010, and has practiced Zen Buddhism since 2015. Juan Pablo is currently in the middle of working towards his doctorate in philosophy at La Universidad Nacional de San Juan and is in the process of writing his thesis on the Anthropocene period and how it has impacted the human experience of time and space.

Hai Nguyen Phuoc, Dominican Republic

Hai helps Eurasia connect to many young people, NGOs in Vietnam and around the world and is in touch with the needs and aspirations of the younger generation. As a Eurasia Learning Institute (ELI) representative, Hai and his team are engaged in ELI’s 3-year Happy Schools Project with the Education Department of Hue Province. This project began with 6 schools and trained 130 teachers with a focus on “Care for self, Care for others and Care for Nature”, ELI is expanding the project to include additional schools.

Hai Nguyen Phuoc is a Project Manager of the Eurasia Foundation & Association. His work with Eurasia spans the fields of education, special education, social therapy, ecology, and Gross National Happiness - GNH. Eurasia Learning Institute for Happiness and Wellbeing (ELI) offers experiential programs leading participants from inner transformation to engagement in creating a happy and sustainable world.

Shashank leads ‘Youth Alliance’, a Delhi-based non-profit organization that aims to nurture empathetic leaders who apply their head, heart, and hands to understand the world and drive change. Youth Alliance conducts ethical leadership and experiential learning programs for young people across India designed to raise awareness of complex social issues and support people to transition to social change careers. To date, Youth Alliance has mentored more than 650 young people.

Shashank Kalra, Cambodia

Shashank is an Acumen Fellow and a Bhoomi Senior Fellow. He holds a Bachelor's in Commerce from Hindu College, Delhi University. Shashank’s latest dialogue, Inner Work for Social Change, asks participants how youth are making sense of and responding to today’s crisis.

Hai Nguyen Phuoc, Eurasian Foundation

Hai helps Eurasia connect to many young people, NGOs in Vietnam and around the world and is in touch with the needs and aspirations of the younger generation. As a Eurasia Learning Institute (ELI) representative, Hai and his team are engaged in ELI’s 3-year Happy Schools Project with the Education Department of Hue Province. This project began with 6 schools and trained 130 teachers with a focus on “Care for self, Care for others and Care for Nature”, ELI is expanding the project to include additional schools.