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Updated October 26th, 2021 at 22:56 IST

US: 100 teens of Rise Global initiative to get lifetime support for worldwide service work

Christian Maboko who lives in a Kenyan refugee camp, has co-founded a nonprofit to reduce poverty and is one of the Rise Global initiative winners.

Reported by: Apoorva Kaul
US
Image: AP  | Image:self
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Schmidt Futures announced Rise Global Winners will be part of a $1 billion Rise initiative funded by philanthropists Wendy and Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and executive chairman of its parent company, Alphabet Inc. Schmidt Futures announced that Christian Maboko is one of the inaugural 100 Rise Global Winners, according to AP. Maboko, an 18-year-old from Burundi who lives in a Kenyan refugee camp, has co-founded a nonprofit to reduce poverty and has planned to use Rise’s financial support to enhance his work in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya.

Teens get lifetime support through Rise initiative

Another winner, Ella Duus has expressed her desire to decrease "political polarisation" in the United States. As per the AP report, Global Rise winners will receive lifetime access to higher education scholarships, career development and funding for projects that they develop for the benefit of people. They will also get to attend an annual three-week residential summit, and the winners will be entitled to mentorship and internship opportunities in their fields of interest. The Rise team will inform the winners that will include teenagers from 42 countries speaking 20 languages. 

As part of the $1 billion-worth initiative funded by philanthropists Wendy and Eric Schmidt, Schmidt Futures and The Rhodes Trust invited teenagers to explain how they would address an issue or have been already dealing with it. According to The Associated Press, over 50,000 teens had applied for Rise's financial support in 2020. For his application, Maboko had created a program to educate girls and young women in his refugee camp about reproductive health, according to AP. He had also stated that he would teach them about the importance of studying in school even if they get pregnant.

Wendy and Eric Schmidt were surprised when they received a response from Rise applicants who wanted to address issues like sustainable farming, female representation in Irish mythology, making shopping accessible to people who are on wheelchairs. Eric Schmidt stated that with the Rise initiative, they want to support the teenagers, according to AP. Wendy Schmidt has said, "When I look at this group, I can see the pandemic generation," according to AP. Wendy Schmidt further stated that "these kids have been growing at a time when "almost every system in the world that they knew about was failing," according to AP. Schmidt further highlighted that if the children do not find creative solutions to some of the big global problems, "nothing does".

(With Inputs from AP)

Image: AP 

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Published October 26th, 2021 at 22:59 IST

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