Pakistani social entrepreneur Hafiz Usama Tanveer has won the Commonwealth Youth Award for his exceptional contribution in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Pakistan. Tanveer was selected from 500 award nominations from 40 countries.
An official statement issued by the Commonwealth Secretariat stated that the awards were presented during a gathering at the Commonwealth headquarters in London. Apart from the honour, the winning candidates also received a grant of £3,000 to expand their projects in their respective regions.
Tanveer is the co-founder and Chief Technologist Founder of Pak Vitae, a social enterprise that has created water purification kits to help prevent the spread of waterborne diseases in poor communities and refugee camps. The enterprise has reached more than 11,000 people including victims of India’s Kerala flooding.
Tanveer received the honour in the ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’ category.
Meanwhile, Jaya Rajwani, from Pakistan, was also shortlisted for the same award. Rajwani is the technical lead for ‘Aurat Raaj’ a social enterprise that creates technology-based products and services to educate girls on health, hygiene and safety. She was nominated in the category of ‘Gender Equality’.
Other winners include people from Fiji, Canada and Uganda where they are running successful social enterprises for the betterment of their regional communities.
Leave a Reply