Young Water Solutions (Latin America)
Young Water Solutions is an international non-profit organisation that aims to develop and support the potential of young people to contribute to universal water, sanitation, hygiene and water resources management. It does so by providing young leaders and entrepreneurs with the tools to carry out water and sanitation projects and to launch social businesses in their communities.
In 2020/2021, the Eurofins Foundation provided a grant to the first edition of the Young Water Fellowship in Latin America, supporting the piloting and launch of youth-led social enterprises in Latin America that tackle water, sanitation, hygiene, water pollution and water scarcity issues. The Fellowship aims to offer a fully-funded intensive training course in business and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene), seed funding grants for their pilot projects, and mentorship support from senior-level experts over the course of a year.
This pilot edition reached approximately 1,787 people, of which 286 were sanitation-related initiatives and 1,501 were water-related projects. The programme led to the organisation of stakeholder meetings in Peru and Colombia in 2022, which will bring together policymakers with entrepreneurs supported by the programme.
The programme also added value and impact at multiple levels:
- Empowering young people (with technical and financial resources) to contribute to solutions for water and sanitation issues;
- Supporting the creation of 10 start-ups that will provide employment and access to water and sanitation in years to come;
- Directly funding the delivery of water and sanitation services to vulnerable communities in six Latin American countries, through these high-performing start-ups.
In 2021/2022, Eurofins Foundation partnered with Young Water Solutions for the second edition of the YWF Latin America 2022, contributing to the participation and incubation of 19 young entrepreneurs.
In 2022/2023, Eurofins Foundation is supporting the Young Wwater Fellowship Central America, Mexico and Caribbean 2023.
This project contributes to the following United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
