Company: Green Hope Foundation, Toronto, Canada
Company Description: Green Hope Foundation is an ECOSOC-accredited young women-led Not-for-Profit registered in Canada with operations in 28 countries. We combine grassroots action with advocacy at the highest levels of policy making to create a just, equitable & peaceful world. Our actions are driven by a human & planetary lens, built on the pillars of multilateralism, collaboration & intergenerational solidarity.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Social Change Maker of the Year - Gender
 Nomination Title: Kehkashan Basu MSM, Founder-President
- Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2021 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
Here are some impacts of Kehkashan's work on gender equality since July 1, 2021:
1. Kehkashan and her team started Green Hope Foundation's first school in a rural community in Bangladesh - Green Hope Foundation Academy of Hope for Women and Girls – that is solar-powered and provides climate resilience education to girls in the mornings and functions as a sewing school for women in the evenings
2. To resolve water insecurity, Kehkashan led her team to install a solar water farm and solar water distillation system in Kiribati, a Small Island Developing State, that provides clean drinking water to the women of a severely marginalized community in Kiribati, enabling them to have the basic human right of access to clean water
4. Kehkashan has led her team in training young girls and women on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, teaching them to make sanitary napkins and breaking the taboos surrounding menstrual hygiene, from Suriname to Kiribati
5. Kehkashan pioneered the implementation of Green Hope Foundation's solar-powered mobile libraries that are taking books to the doorstep of thousands of out-of-school girls in Asia and Africa
6. Kehkashan has led the installation of agrovoltaic solar-powered irrigation systems that enable women farmers to attain socio-economic security
7. Kehkashan has led her team to install solar-powered STEM computer labs for girls in rural Western India and rural Liberia to provide girls with the skillsets to enter the job market and break them out of the vicious cycle of abuse, poverty and exploitation
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 68 words used.
More information on Kehkashan's work can be found using the following links:
https://www.thegreenhopefoundation.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kehkashan_Basu
https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/recipients/136-121718
https://standup4humanrights.org/en/hr-champions-kbasu.html
https://www.forbes.com/profile/kehkashan-basu/
https://www.ted.com/talks/kehkashan_basu_why_youth_are_key_to_sustainable_development_kehkashan_basu/transcript
https://www.thegreenhopefoundation.org/quality-education-through-clean-energy-innovation
https://www.thegreenhopefoundation.org/affordable-and-clean-energy
https://www.thegreenhopefoundation.org/clean-water-and-sanitation
https://www.thegreenhopefoundation.org/climate-action
https://www.thegreenhopefoundation.org/good-health-and-wellbeing
https://www.thegreenhopefoundation.org/decent-work-and-economic-growth
https://www.thegreenhopefoundation.org/life-below-water
https://www.thegreenhopefoundation.org/life-on-land
- Briefly describe the nominated individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 195 words used.
At only 23 years old, Kehkashan has been championing gender equality since she was 7 years old. The recipient of Canada's Meritorious Service Medal for her exemplary work on gender equality and human rights, her work addresses the intersectionality of women's rights with peace, human rights and climate justice so as to create a world where no one is left behind. She believes that every person, every girl and woman has access to their basic human rights. Kehkashan founded her non-profit Green Hope Foundation at only 12 years old, through which, for the past 11 years, she has been working to uplift marginalized girls and women, overcoming threats of physical harm, cyberbullying and violence while pursuing her mission. Her work has benefited over half a million vulnerable women and girls from 28 countries. Kehkashan has been recognised as a United Nations Human Rights Champion, a Forbes 30 under 30 and as one of Canada’s Top25 Women of Influence. Kehkashan combines her grassroots campaigns with policy advocacy at the highest levels of decision-making, engaging with governments, businesses and multiple United Nations processes to influence just policies that take into account the needs of the most vulnerable.
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2021 of the nominated woman, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below:
N/A - written answers to the questions
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 245 words used.
Kehkashan has dedicated her life to empowering everyone to find their innate changemaking potential—regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, marital status, education or any other social determinant—to eliminate the underlying hurdles for those most often discriminated against, which ultimately leads to attainment of human rights.
Over 500,000 women and girls across 28 countries have been affected positively by the impacts of Kehkashan Basu. Some statistics of her work are below:
- In Bangladesh, there’s been a 65% reduction in child marriages in the last 5 years amongst the girls in the 16 villages who are a part of Green Hope Foundation's education programs.
- In Kiribati, 450 indigenous women and girls now have access to safe, clean drinking water through the solar water farm of Green Hope Foundation.
- In India and Liberia, 70% of the girls who have been part of Kehkashan and her team's solar-powered STEM lab are now working jobs and moved away from the vicious cycle of abuse, poverty and exploitation.
- The agrovoltaic system for women and girls has directly reduced poverty and provided food security to 4 villages with a population of 42,000 people in Bangladesh and India. It has enabled 18,200 women farmers from these villages to resume climate smart agriculture. By improving food security and their socio-economic condition, there has been a 90% decline in malnutrition of women and girls and a 75% increase in girls resuming education in the last 3 years.
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