Career
Swarovski Foundation creative cohort includes Osasumwen Obasogie, Yara Mohamed Ewida & Ghislain Irakoze
Swarovski Foundation has released the list of the creative cohort for the ‘Swarovski Foundation Institute: Creatives for Our Future,’ a new global grant program designed with the United Nations Office for Partnerships to identify and accelerate the next generation of creative leaders in sustainability across fashion, design, art, architecture, science, technology and engineering.
Swarovski aims to attract a diverse range of applicants from across the globe and bring new voices and perspectives to the creative process. The grantees will receive financial support (15,000 USD) to further their practice and design new pathways for a better world.
Throughout the program, they will be provided support to develop the innovations outlined in their applications and drive progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. The grantees will also be invited to present in September 2021 – around the high-level segment of the UN General Assembly.
Out of the nine grantees, three are from Africa: Osasumwen Obasogie from Nigeria, Ghislain Irakoze from Rwanda, and Yara Mohamed Ewida from Egypt.
Osasumwen Obasogie
Osasumwen is a Mechanical Engineer and Entrepreneur from Nigeria, currently studying Mechanical Engineering at Landmark University. He’s experienced in hardware and software design, theories of operation, system integration, installation, and commissioning, with a passion for leading sustainable product design projects.
Osasumwen’s project ‘Ina’Vibe‘ is a lightweight, portable hydrogen-powered cooking burner/stove with a thermoelectric generator that harnesses heat energy to generate sustainable, affordable and clean electricity. It produces electricity in a clean and sustainable way, it reduces the waste of energy lost to heat and it’s an alternative to kerosene lamps reducing the carbon footprint of families dependent on it for lighting.⠀
“Sustainability means clean, renewable and ecologically balanced. I’m concerned about energy as I believe that it’s the heart of the problem and energy systems worldwide should all be sustainable.” – Osasumwen Obasogie
Ghislain Irakoze
Ghislain is a sustainability entrepreneur and activist with a vision for a climate-resilient and waste-free world. He founded Wastezon, a cleantech company that leverages cutting-edge technology to provide e-waste traceability, sorting, and collection services.⠀
Ghislain Irakoze is launching Kigali Green Gallery, a creative project that aspires to artistically reconnect Africa with extinct and endangered species. Founded by young people, the gallery will be youth-centred, involving 10 young artists in residency to develop 100 paintings while promoting environmentally sustainable artistic design using eco-friendly painting boards made from Banana Trunks.
“Sustainable development presents a great opportunity to rethink our systems and re-align them in the direction that impacts the society (People), environment (Planet), and economy (Prosperity)” – Ghislain Irakoze
Yara Mohamed Ewida
Yara is an Architect studying for a master’s degree in Bio-digital Architecture. She’s working on a range of topics such as heritage revival, urban regeneration, sustainable design, and smart technology design solutions.⠀
Yara Mohamed Ewida’s SBoom project is a bioreactor that provides a sustainable self-sufficient system of bioelectricity and bio-nutrients. The form and function coupling based on bio learning emerges a new method for creating sustainable bio-based energy, nutrients and materials that could be implemented on various scales and products.⠀
My goal is to eliminate the use of non-renewable sources of energy and reduce the use of materials with high value of carbon emissions instead using natural sources of energy and natural materials that will have no harm on the land ecology and helps to mitigate the climatic changes.” – Yara Mohamed Ewida.