Life Line - Stories of Changemakers for the SDGs

🇮🇳 In today’s episode, you will meet Alinery, a super inspiring social entrepreneur and Indigenous youth leader from the tribal community of Mizoram, in India. 

She founded Rochun: Pay It Forward which aims to empower youth from grassroots India through education to realize their full potential. 

📚💻 She has built 11 libraries, mentored hundreds of young people, implemented digital literacy programs and brought many international opportunities to her home State. 

She shares with us her childhood during which she questioned everything, how she excelled at school and got a life-changing scholarship to study in Bangladesh, and why she took the path of social entrepreneurship. 

It was such a great pleasure to discuss with Alinery, her journey is really amazing and humbling, so have a great episode!

🎤 “I really enjoyed school: I was always the number one! I ended up being the first one to study science, to get out of my hometown and then eventually went into one of the best universities. Reflecting on how I studied, how I grew up and then accessing a world-class education, I realized that it does not take much time for someone to have a transformation when you start providing the same resources and opportunities”.

❤️ TIMELINE:

7’ - Empowering youth with Rochun: Pay It Forward

15’ - Growing up in the tribal community of Mizoram, India

31’ - Questioning everything and discovering what’s beyond her hometown

39’ - Receiving a prestigious scholarship to study at the Asian University for Women

47’ - Discovering the development sector and its limits…

66’ - … and taking the social entrepreneurship path

80’ - Building Rochun’s first grassroots library and then another 10 libraries

96’ - Be proud of what you have achieved!

🗒️ REFERENCES:

-Connect with Alinery on LinkedIn

-Explore & support the activities of Rochun: Pay It Forward

-The Asian University for Women is an independent, international university in Chittagong, Bangladesh seeking to educate a new generation of leaders in Asia. AUW admits students solely on the basis of merit, regardless of their family's income level. Nearly all students are on full scholarship with many as the first in their family to attend university

-Read Alinery’s Story

🎧 Where to listen?

YouTube

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Google Podcasts

All platforms

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

🎤 “I was so determined to start a podcast that, every day, I would have a little goal: learning how to edit an audio, finding an intro music... It was an accumulation of tiny steps bringing me to my bigger goal: the launch date. But what I didn’t realize… of course, the launch day is just the beginning!”

🇭🇰 Regina launched Hashtag Impact Podcast to amplify the voices of changemakers in Hong Kong. She launched her podcast in 2017 to follow a longstanding dream, with no particular expectations nor previous experience. It’s now one of the main podcasts in Hong Kong and a genuine social enterprise that also empowers aspiring podcasters to get started!

🇦🇹 Regina never had a master life plan. She just wanted to do things that are not mainstream, to be happy every day and to put a smile of people’s faces. We discuss about how she reinvented herself from scratch at each stage of her life, why she’s not taking herself too seriously and how she manages to be a successful mompreneur with 3 loving kids! 

If you are looking for more inspiration, I really recommend listening to Hashtag Impact Podcast, you will love it!

❤️ TIMELINE:

9’ - Growing up directing and acting in her own shows, at home

13’ - Studying Chinese and moving to China, because it’s cool!

25’ - The importance to create your support system

32’ - Finding your podcasting style

41’ - Starting a podcast, tiny step by tiny step

49’ - Transforming the podcast into a social enterprise

🗒️ References:

Hashtag Impact: https://www.hashtagimpact.com. You will find great interviews as well as resources to start your own podcast!

Hashtag Impact Episode #4, where I appear, during my times at SoInSoGood, in Hong Kong!

Her TEDxTalk - “The Magic of Listening”.

Regina recommends The On Being Podcast!

The Story of Regina, in an article.

🎧 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.

Leave your email for the weekly newsletter. 

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

🇮🇳 Heeta Lakhani is a climate educator from India who gives all her energy to enhance the participation and power of youth in grassroots as well as international processes and policies.

🇺🇳 She is currently serving as the Global Focal Point for YOUNGO, the official youth constituency of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 

💪 Heeta found her calling after attending the COP21 in Paris, which is about bridging the knowledge gap on climate science as well as international processes among the children in India, who are at the forefront of facing the impacts of climate change in the coming years. She then took more and more responsibilities with YOUNGO to empower and engage youth for the climate, all around the world.

❤️ TIMELINE: 

8’ - Growing up loving nature & studying environmental sciences

18’ - Becoming a German translator, just because German language is cool!

22’ - Ending up in the global climate negotiations in Paris, during COP21

34’ - Bridging the knowledge gap on climate science and climate negotiations among Indian youth

40’ - Fostering youth participation in global climate negotiations with YOUNGO, especially with youth from vulnerable communities

48’ - Being a climate activist is a rollercoaster

56’ - “I’m here for the long run”

🗒️ References:

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.

Connect with Heeta on LinkedIn!

🎧 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.

🎤 “Through my journey, I can observe how different I am from being a person without purpose with the person I am today. That makes a complete difference in anyone's life.”

🇻🇳 Milie is the co-founder of Innovation Incubator, a social enterprise that aims to unleash the leadership potential of young Vietnamese. Her mission is to foster social innovation and entrepreneurship for sustainable development in grassroots communities. 

🧭 We lay down her journey discovering youth leadership, social innovation and entrepreneurship with AIESEC - the largest youth-run non profit -, with UNDP, Tandemic and APYE. She shares with us how each of these experiences successively built one brick of what Innovation Incubator is today.

💥 We discuss why it’s important for youth to find a purpose that makes them alive and how finding it for herself changed her vision of life!

❤️ TIMELINE:

7’ - Named after the 3 Soong sisters

10’ - Empowered to empower youth with AIESEC

24’ - Listening to your inner voice

33’ - Fostering social innovation and entrepreneurship in grassroots communities in Thailand with UNDP

48’ - The experience working in an innovation consultancy in Malaysia

58’ - Going back home to unleash the leadership potential of young Vietnamese

66’ - The importance to find a purpose that makes you alive

75’ - Creating a team with a common purpose 

91’ - In the end, we should just thrive to be happy!

🗒️ References:

The Soong Sisters were three Chinese women who were, along with their husbands, amongst China's most significant political figures of the early 20th century

To know more about Innovation Incubator.

Join the next Asia-Pacific Youth Exchange program!

Is there an AIESEC hub in your country?

🎧 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.

🎤 “Tokenism was definitely a large challenge. For all policies, we ensure that the most vulnerable and young people are not only consulted, but part of the development, implementation and monitoring process”.

🇫🇯 Ra’eed Ali is known as “The Plastics Guy” in Fiji for his impact with Precious Plastic Fiji, the social enterprise he co-founded. He’s also a youth advocate with the Alliance for Future Generations, a climate activist with 350.org Fiji and was the proud Fiji youth representative for the COP24 and COY14 in Poland!

💪 We discuss how he got into all these international, regional and national networks and how he’s leveraging on them to engage the youth in Fiji and make a difference. Ra’eed shares why his life is all about environmental protection and social justice and all the things that made him connect to his own power of action.

❤️ TIMELINE:

4’ - On which side is the Fiji flower?

7’ - Being humble and not taking things for granted

13’ - Leading a disaster response at 12 years old

26’ - The birth and growth of Precious Plastic Fiji

38’ - Representing Fiji at the COP24 (Conference of Parties)

48’ - Connecting with your own power of action as a youth

54’ - How to lead the biggest youth-led movement on sustainable development in Fiji

60’ - Lessons learned during his incredible journey

71’ - You don’t need to reinvent the wheel

81’ - Why Fiji will save the world

🗒️ References:

-Ra’eed is the youngest TEDx speaker in Fiji at TEDxSuva - “Youth and Innovative Practises: The Key to Saving our Environment”.

-Ra’eed was featured on a Fijian podcast: Beyond The Narrative, Episode 10 - “Believe In Your Potential”.

-COP24 and COY14 in Poland (2018): the Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme decision-making body of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (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.

-Ra’eed was inspired by Boyen Slat, a Dutch teenager who founded The Ocean Cleanup. 

-Start a Precious Plastic hub in your country.

-Check 350.org Fiji’s community fridge initiative.

-Get inspired by the Alliance for Future Generations, the biggest youth-led movement for sustainable development in Fiji.

-We speak about Episode #1 with Linka, Episode #4 with Shomy and Episode #14 with Heeta (coming).

🎧 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.

Leave your email for the weekly newsletter. 

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

🎤 “When I look back at my life, I want to be very proud of Daastan… proud that it has empowered thousands of storytellers who know there is someone out there they can turn into when they have an idea”.

💪 In today’s episode, you will be meeting Syed Ommer Amer, a storyteller, community builder and visionary from Pakistan who co-founded Daastan with the mission to put a book in every hands. 

Daastan is an online publishing platform for aspiring writers which already supported thousands of authors to get published. However to arrive there, it took many years where Ommer had to restart from scratch a few times, overcome an endless list of struggles but he made it work in the end. 

This episode is genuinely a masterclass on entrepreneurship where we go through the challenges and joy of the entrepreneurial journey and highlight important tips for all aspiring entrepreneurs that Ommer learned the (very) hard way. 

He pays a tribute to all the people who made a difference in his life, shares funny anecdotes and stories as they come to his mind and invites us all to visit this one-of-a-kind country that is Pakistan!

❤️ TIMELINE: 

11’ - Finding your community through sports

19’ - Finding the right mentor + business plan competition = “ah-ah” moment

23’ - Giving everything for the incubation program

36’ - Restarting Daastan from scratch and lessons learned (the hard way)

50’ - Finding (again) the right mentor to put you on the right track

59’ - Their vision? To put a book in every hand…

70’ - … and change the life of storytellers

78’ - Embedding the gift culture in Pakistan

👉 References:

Discover Daastan.

Watch the TEDxTalk of Ommer - The Story of Storytellers.

Connect with Ommer on LinkedIn.

We speak a lot about Youth Co:Lab ❤️

🎧 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.

Asish Thakur is the co-founder and executive director of Glocal whose mission is to empower & build capacity of Nepali teenagers.

🎤 “I started volunteering in different organizations outside of school. I was getting into different worlds, I was meeting different people, even the high-level people in Nepal, and with all these activities… some people started telling me: ‘you are very young to do all these things’.”

💪 In today’s episode, you will be meeting Asish, a young Nepali who firmly believes in the power of youth, specifically teenagers. Very active during his teenage years, he co-founded the media platform Glocal Khabar at 18 to showcase inspiring teenagers and encourage them to continue fighting for the Sustainable Development Goals.

Glocal quickly developed skills development programs and its flagship 20 Under 20 Ceremony to award and celebrate the work of teenagers in Nepal first, then South Asia, and soon the world? 

We discuss what triggered his early social work, how he built a strong team around his mission to empower teenagers and grew Glocal even beyond Nepal!

❤️ TIMELINE: 

7’ - Realising his power of action at a very young age

13’ - “You are very young to do all these things”

17’ - Starting a positive media to showcase teenagers

23’ - Transitioning to skills development

32’ - What gave him the strength to ta be a super active teenager

40’ - Amazing stories of teenagers supported by Glocal

45’ - Launching 20 Under 20 to celebrate the impact of teenagers

📝 References:

-Read the "People Who Shaped Glocal" Series.

-Discover and collaborate with Glocal, Glocal After School and Glocal Teen Hero.

-Connect with Asish on LinkedIn.

-Episode #1 Linka - I want to spread kindness.

🎧 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.

🎤 “I want people to know that I come from the province of the Philippines, from a small town in the mountain side. And I did my best to become who I wanted to be, I created something that you would not even imagine creating. I want to spread that positivity”.

💪 In today’s episode, you will be meeting Gladys Llanes, a fearless filmmaker from the Philippines. She shares with us how she was already writing her first scripts growing up in the mountains of Mindanao, with the dream to become a filmmaker one day. 

Mission accomplished, and even better: years later, she co-founded Development Innovation Insider (Diinsider), a content creator and solution provider for entrepreneurs, development actors and partners in the bottom of the pyramid. 

She focuses on showcasing grassroots innovations, trains aspiring changemakers from all around the world to become impact journalists and amplifies the impact of grassroots initiatives.

We discuss why it’s important for her to work with grassroots communities and improve the lives of the underserved, how she never gave up her dream to become a filmmaker and the crazy journey behind Diinsider that expanded across the world!

❤️ TIMELINE:

7’ - Growing up in the mountains, with the dream to become a filmmaker

15’ - Listening to your inner voice

28’ - The birth of Diinsider as a positive media

33’ - The secret to boost her self-confidence

40’ - About Diinsider’s international expansion: it’s all about the team

52’ - The future of Gladys and Diinsider 

60’ - From the grassroots, for the grassroots

📝 References:

-Diinsider & Diinsider’s Change Mag.

-Connect with Gladys on Facebook.

-Episode #1 Linka - I want to spread kindness.

🎧 Where to listen?

YouTube: http://bit.ly/9gladysyoutube 

Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/9gladysapple

Spotify: http://bit.ly/9gladysspotify

Google Podcasts: http://bit.ly/9gladysgoogle

Deezer: http://bit.ly/9gladysdeezer

🙏 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.

🇮🇳 Shaan - Miss Earth India 2017, Climate & Gender Advocate.

🎤 “I used to get very affected with what people were saying, but I think it's a skill you have got to learn, especially if you are ambitious. Because any single time you are trying to reach a place where you become visible to other people, there will be some people who want to be in your place, but cannot for whatever reason, and they are going to hate you for it".

💪 Shaan is a gender, climate and youth empowerment advocate. We discuss about her life-changing experience with Teach For India, where she discovers the education crisis in her country by teaching in low-income communities. We discuss about her transition being a model to live her childhood dream and inspire others with her climate advocacy. 

She walks us through how she became Miss Earth India 2017 and her following journey exploring climate action, social entrepreneurship and now gender equality. Shaan shares with us what she learned along the way becoming a public figure and her plans for the future to keep on learning and inspiring others!

❤️ TIMELINE:

5' - Realizing the flaws of India's education system with Teach For India

19' - Following her intuition & starting small to create a documentary on Teach For India alumni

26' - Going back to her dreams of being a model

38' - Developing her environmental and climate advocacy

47' - Becoming Miss Earth India 2017

68' - Stop thinking that you haven't done good enough

71' - How to receive criticism

81' - APYE and Jagriti Yatra: 2 life-changing experiences

104' - The dots will connect... be patient!

👉 Reach out to her on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.

👉 References: we speak about Teach For India, Climate Tracker, Miss Earth, Asia Pacific Youth Exchange, Jagriti Yatra, World Merit and Wedu.

🎧 Where to listen?

YouTube: http://bit.ly/8shaanyoutube

Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/8shaanapple

Spotify: http://bit.ly/8shaanspotify

Google Podcast: http://bit.ly/8shaangoogle

Deezer: http://bit.ly/8shaandeezer

All platforms: http://lifelinethepodcast.com/post/8shaan.

🙏 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.

🎤 “Connecting with your own art is about connecting with your creativity and emotions. I want to help people express themselves, no matter through which channel: you can sing, you can dance, you can write, you can paint, you can cook!”

💪 In today’s episode, you will be meeting William, a French-born Vietnamese artist whose life mission is to empower people to express themselves through art, whether it’s through singing, dancing, playing instruments, or acting!

We discuss why he quit everything to become an artist and why being an artist is actually not what fulfils him. What gives him genuine energy is to transmit his knowledge to other people. We discuss why he thinks everyone is an artist and how he wants to help people connect with their own art. Finally, William shares how his spirituality and Vietnamese identity ultimately connect with his life mission!

❤️ TIMELINE:

5’ - The turning point: from the human resources world to the musical & spiritual world

15’ - Be stronger than your ego

20’- How to make people express themselves through art

28’ - Going “back” to Vietnam

38’ - The importance of cultivating a spiritual practice

44’ - Finding a life purpose that connects all the dots

👉 Stay in touch with William:

Contact him on Facebook.

Article about William’s relationship with Vietnam.

🎧 Where to listen?

YouTube: http://bit.ly/7williamyoutube

Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/7williamapple

Spotify: http://bit.ly/7williamspotify

Deezer: http://bit.ly/7williamdeezer

🙏 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.