Lesotho receive incredible outcome from global project

A group of young social innovators who are former Portmarnock Community School students have significantly improved the emergency services, healthcare, ecological and infrastructure outcomes for the Kingdom of Lesotho, an enclaved country within the border of South Africa.

The Global Citizens Mapping the Future project, which was initiated in 2015 in response to the annual Young Social Innovators (YSI) secondary school programme, saw the creation of a detailed online map for the country for the first time, including street view and 3D viewing options.

Lesotho benefactors receive High Impact Award 

Today, the Global Citizens Mapping the Future project was recognised with the coveted High Impact Award at YSI’s annual awards ceremony.

Now in its 19th year, YSI’s purpose is to empower Ireland’s young people to reimagine the world and the communities they live in, and to collaborate with their peers to help propagate a fairer, more equal world.

The High Impact Award was first introduced in 2017 to recognise the teams and projects that emanated in secondary school, but whose impact continued to effectuate positive social change with long-lasting effects.

Commenting on today’s High Impact Award, YSI Co-founder and CEO, Rachel Collier said:

“I am absolutely delighted to award the Global Citizens Mapping the Future project, and the many Portmarnock Community School students who have worked on its continued development over the years, with the High Impact Award today.

It exemplifies what Young Social Innovators is all about – empowering young people to reimagine the world, come together, and bring their ideas to life.

“The remarkable ingenuity, purpose, and unwavering focus of its creators and participants is truly something to behold.

In this case, students used open source technology to provide an innovative solution, not to mention motivating and harnessing the energy of hundreds of others to enable a whole country to be mapped!

The development of the project and the phenomenal results achieved by the students is not only an inspiration to all of us in Young Social Innovators, but also to the next generation of young social entrepreneurs who are focused on selflessly creating better communities and a better world for all.”

The project was led by former Portmarnock Community School pupils Colin McAndrew, Ravi Gollapalli, Ahmed Joudah, and Luke Peyton whilst they were still at school, but involved hundreds of students in Ireland, Lesotho, and other countries over the years, along with the guidance and support of teachers and YSI Guides Niall Fitzgerald and Colette Cronin and original project mentor Ciaran Staunton of Fingal County Council.

A former 2016 YSI Gold Award winner, the project went on to win the SAGE World Cup in 2017, the prestigious global entrepreneurship competition that emphasises civic duty and responsibility amongst second-level students.

While the Portmarnock students were the driving force behind the Lesotho mapping initiative, they also received support from other key stakeholders including Fingal County Council, Action Ireland Trust, IBM, OpenStreetMap, and Swedish mapping company Mapillary, which supported through the provision of its 3D mapping technology.

The hugely successful initiative is held in such high regard in Lesotho that the school was personally visited by His Majesty King Letsie III and Her Majesty Queen Masenate Seeiso as part of their official visit to Ireland last year.

Commenting on the Young Social Innovators programme, the originator of the Global Citizens Future Mapping project Colin McAndrew said:

“I’d like to thank Rachel and everyone at Young Social Innovators for recognising us with this award. Through my own involvement with YSI I learned how I can make a difference and what I can bring to the world.

Most importantly I learned how we can connect through the Internet with people from all over the world with efficiency, and for the benefit of the world.

“Young people like myself have a lot of energy that we can expend to make the world a better place. YSI is a platform to help young people get out there to learn about their environment and change it. It is essential that a powerful programme like YSI is available to young people.”

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