Yesterday the exciting final of the Social Impact Award was held at the Social Innovation Academy (SINA) in Uganda. SINA has been implementing the “SIA” for the second year. The Social Impact Award is more than an just award. Through a workshop series at the beginning of the year in universities, refugee camps and local communities, young people are supported to create ideas for solving challenges in their communities. We received 99 applications this year and an independent jury selected eight finalists based on feasibility, innovation and impact potential. The finalists went through an intense mentoring bootcamp in June at SINA to test and validate their ideas and get them towards implementation. Mentors kept supporting online till yesterday, the final pitching event. The finalists presented their social impact ventures, their progress since start and the impact it already achieved. The Jury, made up of local Ugandans and international experts from a broad variety of fields and the chance to as questions after the presentations, before they retreated to discussions on selecting the two winning projects.

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The two winners, walking away with a cash prize of $ 1,000 USD and participation in the Global Social Impact Summit in December in Ukraine, where all SIA winners from over 20 countries, as well as international experts will convene, are: Reform Africa, adding value to trash and upcycling plastics into school bags and waterproof designer bags. Bloom Toilet Spray, producing a disinfectant for public toilets and creating awareness about the common urinary tract infections (UTI), due to bacteria in public toilets. Additionally, the public had voted over the last few months the community award winner, who will also be joining the Global Social Impact Summit in December in Ukraine. With 353 votes, the community award winner is: Clay Cosmo, using a natural green clay found in DR Congo to produce health and skin products.