Life Line - Stories of Changemakers for the SDGs

🇳🇵 Neha Malla is a health & nutrition activist on a mission to bring basic health care services to the furthest behind in Nepal and strengthen their nutrition status. She is passionate about primary health care, maternal-child health and nutrition and co-founded SOCHAI in 2016, which has been recognised internationally by UNICEF and One Young World.

👩‍👧 We go through the birth of SOCHAI, how the initial team with Bonita Sharma, Manjita Sharma and Aasutosh Dhoj Karki took action by creating the “Nutribeads Bracelet”, a low-tech product for pregnant women that informs about how to feed a child in the first 2 years of their life, and then how they scaled from this first product to support women, children, girls and families reach their full potential in life by improving their health and breaking the vicious intergenerational cycle of malnutrition.

💪 Neha shares her eye-opening moments travelling to all the provinces of Nepal in the wake of the 2015 Earthquake, where she observes the lack of basic health services and infrastructure. We discuss why it’s important for her to have a very strong and transparent team, what are the small moments that helped her discover her true purpose and make SOCHAI succeed!

😇 SOCHAI (Social Changemakers and Innovators) is a social enterprise that combines low cost, low tech innovative product and services to tackle the health and nutrition issues at ground level. 

❤️ TIMELINE: 

4’ - A bracelet to improve child nutrition and development

18’ - Observing the lack of basic health services in rural areas of Nepal

30’ - A lifetime passion to be involved in the health sector

38’ - Having a strong team that values open communication and transparency

42’ - Understand the problem and speak to your customers!

48’ - Reaching the furthest behind by collaborating with youth, schools, local health workers, development agencies and government

67’ - Go fast, go alone. Go far, go with a team!

🗒️ References:

Please order SOCHAI’s bracelets or know more about their projects.

Connect with Neha on LinkedIn.

🎧 Where to listen?

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Deezer.

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🇨🇳 Linka Lin is an amazing human being from China who is a community builder, an entrepreneur, a mentor, a facilitator and a cheerleader for so many young changemakers in Asia-Pacific.

🙌 Today’s episode is very special: we welcome back Linka who was our first amazing guest a few months ago because there was still so many things to speak about with her. So today you will hear about her experience at UNDP and scaling the Movers Programme to empower 11,000 youth in Asia-Pacific and also her journey co-founding Storius, a travel-tech startup aiming at reinventing the way we travel.

💪 In her first episode, Linka was speaking about how she wants to be a dose of inspiration for other people and her mission to spread kindness. In today’s episode, we come back to her philosophy around kindness and how it shapes her relationships with other people. 

😍 Finally, she shares with us her new daily routine to check whether she has learned something new, whether she’s taking care of her mental health and, of course, whether she has been kind to other people! Enjoy Part II of the conversation with Linka and message her to let her know her awesome she is. To know more about Linka’s journey, do not forget to listen or re-listen to the first episode of Life Line with Linka! 

❤️ TIMELINE: 

11’ - The mindset to spread genuine kindness around you

22’ - Empowering thousands of youth by trusting them with the Movers Programme

36’ - Overcoming the Impostor’s Syndrome

50’ - Joining UNDP Asia-Pacific as a young woman and youngest consultant

60’ - Embracing empathy tourism with Storius and exploring the world like a baby

108’ - Take care of your mental health, learn every day and be kind to people!

🗒️ References:

-Listen to the first episode with Linka.

-Discover and join the Movers Programme.

-Explore and listen to the stories of Storius.

-Listen to the TEDxTalk - Explore the world like a baby.

-Connect with Linka on LinkedIn.

🎧 Where to listen?

YouTube: 

Spotify: 

Apple Podcasts: 

Google Podcasts: 

Deezer: 

For those living in China, you can listen on Bili Bili: 

All platforms:

🙏 To support Life Line, you can:

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🇯🇵 Shunsuke Miyatake (Take) is a photographer from Japan on a mission to spotlight everyday life moments, those that usually go through life unnoticed. 

📸🇰🇭 He started taking random photos with his iPhone in 2010, deleted everything, quickly learned the basics, restarted by taking photos of his kids in traditional Japanese moments, bought a proper camera, and started capturing the beauty of everyday Cambodia to his 36K followers on Instagram. 

⚽ We discuss the evolving philosophy behind his photography work, the small moments that shaped the photographer he is today, and his other life as a semi-professional football player!

🎤 “I want to find the values in our everyday life, mainly with the people who are not mainstream. The kids selling food for pigeons on the Riverside, most people don't like them and find them annoying. But it’s fine! They have to live. Have you ever talked with them? Most people don't even talk to them. I’m hanging out with them, taking photos, printing them and passing it to them. And they remember me: ‘oh, he is coming, he is coming! Take a photo of me!’”

❤️ TIMELINE: 

11’ - Playing football at 4 years old and growing up willing to be professional

24’ - Football is a universal language

40’ - From random iPhone photos to being showcased by Instagram globally

56’ - Capturing the beauty of everyday life stories in Cambodia

73’ - Standing by the most vulnerable people

93’ - His secret? To take photos every day

101’ - What is your Ikigai?

🗒️ References:

-Explore his beautiful photos on his Instagram feed.

-Discover his project Humanista around Ikigai.

-Have a look at all his amazing projects.

🎧 Where to listen?

YouTube: 

Spotify: 

Apple Podcasts: 

Google Podcasts: 

Deezer: 

All platforms: https://www.lifelinethepodcast.com/episodes/categories/episodes/24shunsukemiyatake

🙏 To support Life Line, you can:

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🇵🇭 Pamela Mejia is a fashion social entrepreneur from the Philippines who founded both PHINIX to turn textile waste into higher value products and FIBERS to train other fashion social entrepreneurs. 

💪 She shares with us her crazy adventure launching and growing her first fashion business at 17 years old while in high school, and then all her learnings from her 2nd and 3rd fashion businesses at 19 and 21 that helped launch PHINIX with solid grounds. 

🔥 We discuss her journey getting into fashion and then sustainable fashion, her reflections about the early years of PHINIX and the big dreams she is working towards: to completely reinvent the fashion industry and to inspire the next generations of fashion social entrepreneurs. 

It’s a super energetic and fun episode full of learnings, so enjoy this episode! ❤️

🎤 “I designed a simple t-shirt on PowerPoint, the only software I knew how to use. And that’s it! I printed 10 t-shirts, 10 pre-order sheets, went to the 10 classrooms on my floor and I pitched: “Hey guys, I'm doing a souvenir t-shirt, bla bla bla.” I didn’t expect 250 pre-orders! Our small home became a mini-factory. Imagine… it’s my mom, my dad, my 6 year old brother and my 4 year old sister! That taught me a lot. That was my first venture in business... at 17!”

❤️ TIMELINE: 

13’ - Launching her first business to finance her 18th birthday party

33’ - Her long journey to find her “Why”

60’ - The rise of PHINIX to tackle the textile waste challenge

88’ - The rebirth of PHINIX and the quest to reinvent the fashion industry

95’ - Training the next generation of fashion social entrepreneurs with FIBERS

🗒️ References:

Follow Pamela’s stories on Instagram and check PHINIX’s amazing products on Instagram too!

Watch these 2 cool videos about Pamela and PHINIX: one by UNDP, one by UNEP :)

🎧 Where to listen?

YouTube: 

Apple Podcasts: 

Spotify:

Google Podcasts: 

Deezer: 

All platforms: 

🙏 To support Life Line, you can:

Share this episode and speak about Life Line to your friends! ❤️

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🇻🇳 Mai is a climate journalist and youth advocate from Vietnam. She writes poetry about mosquitos, trains aspiring climate journalists and has coordinated the first-ever Special Report on Youth Climate Action in Vietnam with UNDP Viet Nam.

💪 She shares with us the start of her climate advocacy at 13 years old, her experience as the youngest Climate Tracker Journalism Fellow at the 24th UN Climate Change Conference (COP24) and how she’s been moving towards youth empowerment and engagement with the Youth4Climate network. 

We discuss how she trained herself to become a journalist, her challenges as a youth and how she reconnected with her youth identity, and all the small moments that made a difference in her life!

This is the longest episode of Life Line so far, it’s around 2h10m, so enjoy and see you in a while! 

❤️ TIMELINE: 

4’ - Proud Saigonese writing poetry about mosquitos

14’ - Journaling, reading English literature and being the best at school

27’ - Raising her voice against the “2016 Vietnam marine life disaster”

45’ - Rising as a human-centred climate journalist

58’ - At 16, being the youngest Climate Tracker Fellow and covering COP24

72’ - Age is just a number

83’ - Accelerating youth climate action in Vietnam

90’ - Reconnecting with science at Harvard University

108’ - Being a proud Vietnamese youth climate advocate

🗒️ References:

-Mai’s blog.

-(Great) Article about Mai.

-First draft of the Special Report on Youth Climate Action in Vietnam.

-Connect with Mai on LinkedIn.

🎧 Where to listen?

YouTube.

Apple Podcasts.

Spotify.

Google Podcasts.

All platforms.

🙏 To support Life Line, you can:

Share this episode and speak about Life Line to your friends! ❤️

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🇵🇭 Jan is an artist, climate activist and survivor of Super Typhoon Haiyan that ravaged the Philippines in 2013. He uses performing arts to raise awareness on the climate crisis and works to engage the art sector in climate negotiations. 

We discuss his first life as a civil servant at the Government Youth Council and his second life dedicated to climate advocacy, at grassroots and international level. 

At grassroots level, he founded LEYTEAM to empower the youth from his hometown Leyte to take action for the climate and at international level, he is engaged with YOUNGO to organise the COY and make sure that under-represented countries are around the negotiation table.

💪 Listen to him 5 minutes and you’ll understand that Jan is a fighter and a driven leader who just wants the best for his community in Leyte.

🎤 “In my province, people are just busy surviving every day. Our life is just to survive… and another typhoon will come in the next few months… and survive again. It's difficult. Climate is not a joke. Our main industry is agriculture, which is disturbed by the unforeseen climate patterns. In our province, we don't have other jobs, we don't have manufacturing, and tourism is also affected by climate change. It's a personal commitment for my second life.” 

❤️ TIMELINE: 

6’ - Being elected at 18 in the Government Youth Council

23’ - Empowering youth through traditional performing arts to take action for the climate

44’ - Surviving super typhoon Haiyan in 2013

49’ - Enhancing youth participation in climate negotiations through YOUNGO

57’ - Organizing the Conference of Youth (COY), leading to the Conference of the Parties (COP)

66’ - Being a bridge with his community and bringing back all the opportunities

74’ - Fighting and surviving everyday

🎤 ”I want people to remember Jan as a tough and strong leader, but who has a sense of humour. A Jan that is caring, but who will push you to the edge of your capabilities. And above all, I want them to remember a Jan that will not stop moving forward.”

🗒️ References:

-The panel discussion we speak about in the begging happened during the pre-events of the Regional Youth Empowerment in Climate Actions Dialogue: https://youtu.be/dbEqKTGxHAQ

-Jan and his team representing Philippines at Singapore’s Chingay Parade: https://www.philippine-embassy.org.sg/news/2019/02/ph-showcases-resilience-and-creativity-at-chingay-parade-2019/

-To learn more about COY16: https://climatalk.org/2021/02/15/coy16-interview-jan-kairel-cabalona-guillermo/

-Connect with Jan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jankairel/

About UNFCCC, COP, COY, YOUNGO

-UNFCCC: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat is the United Nations entity tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change. 

-COP & COY: the Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme decision-making body of the UNFCCC. The Conference of Youth (COY) aims to strengthen the international youth climate movement. Both the COP and COY happen every year to advance the global climate negotiations.

-YOUNGO is the Youth Constituency of the UNFCCC. It consists of many youth-led organizations, groups, delegations, and individuals working in climate change-related fields.

-You can join YOUNGO here: https://tinyurl.com/YOUNGO-Membership.

🎧 Where to listen?

YouTube.

Apple Podcasts.

Spotify.

Google Podcasts.

Deezer.

All platforms.

🙏 To support Life Line, you can:

Share this episode and speak about Life Line to your friends! ❤️

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Leave a 5-star review on the Apple Podcast app.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

🇲🇾 Yee Siang (Ashley) is a youth and environment advocate from Malaysia, who is passionate about building youth communities for sustainable development. She is currently serving as the youth representative to the UN for Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation while coordinating their youth empowerment program in the Republic of Sierra Leone. 

💪 Her story is a great example of youth empowerment. She managed to connect with her inner power of action after a long journey volunteering, studying abroad, receiving trust and accepting responsibilities at work, setting self-discipline rules and inspiring other youth. She shares her passion for the environment, climate, life sciences and, most importantly, for badminton and French fries!

🎤 ”We have a team of 30 volunteers. I'm the youngest and didn’t have any relevant experience but I need to coordinate everyone. Fortunately, my boss gave me a lot of space and believed in me a lot. I was so stressed, but my supervisor was like: “you can do it! And just do it because you can do it!”. So I was able to tell myself that, it’s okay, I have the ability to do it and it's not restricted by my age or my experience… and everything went pretty well!”

❤️ TIMELINE: 

11’ - Understanding the world through volunteering

15’ - Volunteering, studying then working 10 years with Tzu Chi Foundation

31’ - Youth empowerment through trust and responsibility 

39’ - The quest for self-discipline

52’ - Taking action for the climate and sustainable development

🗒️ References:

About Tzu Chi Foundation: https://tzuchi.us/.

Yee Siang featured in the Youth Voices for Climate Action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qPE-uEKTAQ.

Connect with Yee Siang on Facebook or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yyeesiang_/.

🎧 Where to listen?

YouTube: 

Apple Podcasts: 

Spotify: 

Google Podcasts: 

Deezer: 

All platforms: 

🙏 To support Life Line, you can:

Share this episode and speak about Life Line to your friends! ❤️

Subscribe on on your favourite platform.

Leave a 5-star review on the Apple Podcast app.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

🇸🇬 Edward is a serial social entrepreneur from Singapore, passionate about financial inclusion. His purpose is to amplify the impact of innovators that are traditionally left behind with Givfunds.

💪 He shares with us his long journey understanding his purpose, startup after startup, trip after trip, train after train, and his long journey from struggling in primary school to completing 2 Master Degrees at Oxford University. 

We discuss why he stopped a successful startup that did not fit his purpose, how he turned dyslexia as a strength during his childhood, and deconstructs the innovative model of Givfunds to identify and support grassroots innovators.

🚆 Enjoy the conversation with Edward who is, according to his own words, “a misfit who has surfed trains in Bangladesh, got treated to beers by transgender sex workers in Vietnam, and partied in Mexican cartel villages!”

🎤 ”How do you reach the social entrepreneurs at grassroots level who are doing great work, at scale and at low enough cost? There's a reason why the pioneer gap still remains unfilled because nobody could crack that market. Nobody knew how to reach them and find out whether they're genuine, whether they're really impactful, whether or not they're financially sustainable. So it was really a blue ocean for us”.

❤️ TIMELINE: 

5’ - Turning dyslexia into a strength

11’ - Learning about finance and entrepreneurship during military service

14’ - Co-founding and leaving a growing startup 

24’ - Riding trains in Bangladesh to find a purpose

30’ - Finding a new co-founder inside a train in India

34’ - Unlocking investments for grassroots innovations

50’ - Setting personal rules to achieve a decent work-life balance

60’ - The importance to reverse-engineer your life to meet your goals

🗒️ References:

About Givfunds.

(Great) Interview about Edward to know a bit more about him!

Connect with Edward on LinkedIn.

🎧 Where to listen?

YouTube: 

Apple Podcasts: 

Spotify: 

Google Podcasts: 

Deezer: 

All platforms: 

🙏 To support Life Line, you can:

Share this episode and speak about Life Line to your friends! ❤️

Subscribe on your favourite platform.

Leave a 5-star review on the Apple Podcast app.

Leave your email for the weekly newsletter. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

🇧🇹 Tashi is an “accidental entrepreneur” empowering the first wave of social entrepreneurs in Bhutan. He founded iHub, the first private coworking space and pre-incubation programme in the country, learning how to run a business along with the entrepreneurs he was supporting. 

We discussed why he quit a comfortable job in Singapore to restart everything in Bhutan, his crazy journey finding and supporting the first entrepreneurs of iHub, and his life-changing meeting with His Majesty the King of Bhutan. 

💪 You will love Tashi’s drive to boost the entrepreneurship ecosystem and create an entrepreneurial culture in Bhutan, his candid respect for the leaders of his country and his outstanding capacity to get things done!

🎤 “I went around and looked for a space. Luckily, I got in touch with 1 of my seniors. He wanted to live abroad and he was trying to sell his furniture. So I told him: I cannot pay you directly, but I know how to develop a website. I will develop a travel agent website for you so that you can still market your tour operator abroad. We agreed and he gave me 8 tables and 12 chairs. That's how we started”.

❤️ TIMELINE: 

5’ - Being an accidental entrepreneur

11’- Dreaming of a corporate 9 to 5 job and moving to Singapore

22’- Going back to Bhutan to start the first private coworking space and incubator

30’ - You need to find the right mentors

40’ - How the Bhutanese culture influences the entrepreneurial culture

46’ - Selecting the right founders to support

51’ - Meeting His Majesty The King

64’ - You need to think about your role in the ecosystem

🗒️ References:

-About iHub Bhutan: http://ihub.bt

-To know more about Bhutan, read the articles of Dr. Karma Phuntsho: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_Phuntsho

-The world-famous TED Talk from former Prime Minister of Bhutan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lc_dlVrg5M

-Photo of Tashi with His Majesty The King: https://www.facebook.com/KingJigmeKhesar/photos/a.485878073259/10156107912733260

🎧 Where to listen?

YouTube.

Apple Podcasts.

Spotify.

Google Podcasts.

Deezer.

All platforms.

🙏 To support Life Line, you can:

Share this episode and speak about Life Line to your friends! ❤️

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

🇫🇷🇻🇳 Thuan is a French-Vietnamese PhD student who is exploring the coffee of tomorrow, or in other words, the coffee that can adapt to climate change. 

He is passionate about popular science, tried to be a renowned YouTuber, and has been writing about environment, climate, coffee and his daily life stories on his personal Medium blog since 2015. 

☕ We discuss about the journey of discovery that led him studying coffee for his PhD, what the coffee of tomorrow might look like and his secret to continue publishing hundreds of articles! 

🎤 “I don’t care about what people think. I have my own goals and the things I want to do in life, for myself, for people, and I don't really mind if people agree with me, I just do it, you know? Because I don't like validation. I think a lot of people need validation to do what they do… and for me, I tried to avoid this bias of being validated by others.”

❤️ TIMELINE: 

6’ - Having multiple identities

10’ - Exploring the world to discover different cultures

19’ - Falling in love with popular science

23’ - Exploring the coffee that can adapt to climate change

37’ - What citizens can do to support sustainable coffee producers

45’ - Trying to be a travel YouTuber ;)

47’ - Starting a blog to keep on learning

64’ - Detaching yourself from peer validation

🗒️ References:

Thuan’s talk at TEDxYouth@Hanoi - The coffee of tomorrow.

TEDxTalk - My journey to thank all the people responsible for my morning coffee.

Thuan’s YouTube channel.

Thuan’s Medium blog: https://thunsarzynski.medium.com

Connect with Thuan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thuan-sarzynski-4b1a99a8 and on Twitter.

Thuan’s conference - A cup of resilience.

🎧 Where to listen?

YouTube: 

Apple Podcasts: 

Spotify: 

Google Podcasts: 

Deezer: 

🙏 To support Life Line, you can:

Share this episode and speak about Life Line to your friends! ❤️

Subscribe on on your favourite platform.

Leave a 5-star review on the Apple Podcast app.

Leave your email for the weekly newsletter. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.