First Published on SICHWA NEWS on by Collins Jandere
Three Kenyans have this year won an opportunity to be part of Ted Fellows class of 2021.
The TED Fellow Program brings together young people from all over the world who have proven to change makers. The program boasts of giving support to over 500 visionaries in the fields of invention, journalism, medicine, activism, art, academic research, science and entrepreneurship. TED gives these world visionaries support to create a positive change around the world.
Here is a profile of three Kenyans:
Jim Chuchu
Jim Chuchu is a Kenyan film director, photographer, singer-songwriter and visual artist. He is the founder of Nest Collective, an art group based in Nairobi. Movies directed by Jim Chuchu include; ‘Each Night I Dream’, ‘African Metropolis (2013) ’, ‘We Need Prayers: This One Went To Market(2017)’, ‘Homecoming (2013)’, ‘Stories of Our Lives (2014)’, ‘To Catch a Dream (2015)’, ‘Let This Be A Warning (2017)’, Tapi! (2020) as well as a groundbreaking interactive crime web series called “Tuko Macho.”
Jim Chuchu is also the founder o HEVA Fund, an organization enable capital investments in the creative sector.
Jim won 2015 Teddy award, an international film award for films with LGBT topics, presented by an independent jury as an official award of the Berlin International Film Festival (the Berlinale).
Kaz
Karen Kaz Lucas is the revolutionary brainchild behind Africa’s best-known sex positive podcast, The Spread. The Spread covers a range of topics such as The Male-Femal Pleasure Gap, Sex positive parenting, LGBTQIA+ issues and emphaicies on reproductive rights.
Tom Osbon
Tom is the founder of Shamiri, a youth-led organization providing mental health care solutions to teens across Kenya, where 45 per cent of young people report clinical depression. In a region where mental health professionals are scarce and disorders are stigmatized, Shamiri implements evidence-based, low-cost wellness interventions in Kenyan schools.
Going by his social profile, Tom is a community mobilizer, entrepreneur and research scientist. Born and raised in poverty in rural Kenya, he has started and worked for organizations that aim to disrupt the status quo and lift communities out of poverty. At 18, he co-founded GreenChar, a social enterprise that provided homes and institutions in rural Kenya and urban slums with clean energy. For his work and leadership at GreenChar, he was the youngest recipient of Echoing Green Fellowship – an award for the world’s best social entrepreneurs. At 19, he was named on the Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in Social Entrepreneurship, the second youngest person to receive the honor. He has also been awarded the Women Deliver Social Entrepreneur Award in 2016, the Anzisha Prize Energy Award and many other awards. Salt Magazine has also listed him as 30 under 30 social entrepreneur. Besides his entrepreneurial experience, Tom graduated from Harvard College with a degree in Psychology (High Honors).
Other Fellows in 2021 Ted list include:
Rumaitha Al Busaidi
Adventurer + entrepreneur (Oman)
Alicia Chong Rodriguez
Health care technology entrepreneur (Peru + Costa Rica)
Cory Combs
Electric aviation entrepreneur (US)
Farwiza Farhan
Conservationist (Indonesia)
Jenna C. Lester
Dermatologist (US)
Larry Irvin
Education innovator (US)
Lei Li
Medical imaging innovator
(China + US)
Francisca Mutapi
Epidemiologist (Zimbabwe + UK)
Mavis Nduchwa
Honey aggregator (Botswana)
Sathya Raghu
Green farming innovator (India)
Sonali Prasad
Environmental journalist + artist (India)
Nithya Ramanathan
Technologist (US)
Fariel Salahuddin
Barter economist (UK + US)
