2019 Oak Human Rights Fellow – Human Rights in Global Perspective
The Oak Institute for Human Rights is the College’s hub of human rights activism. Since its inception in 1997, it has brought a front-line human rights activist to the College to serve as the Oak fellow. This role allows for activists to participate in research, writing, and reflection at the College while taking a break from their crucial work.

As an Oaks Human Rights fellow, Venuste aims to address the theme Water as a Human Right. He will share his story and mission to expand his water-access project.

Read more: http://www.colby.edu/catalogue/2014/06/03/oak-institute-for-human-rights/

2019 World Water Challenge
The World Water Challenge is an international contest for water solutions, aiming to discover imminent water problems that the world is facing and to find feasible solutions to imminent water problems. The 2019 World Water Challenge was one of the signature programs of Korea International Water Week (KIWW) 2019 which took place in September in Daegu Metropolitan City, Republic of Korea.

Venuste’s ‘A Water Kiosk at school’ emerged a winner under solving the challenge, ‘Innovating financing for local water solutions’

Read more: https://www.kiww.org/home/2017/kiww/Files/WWCH_2019_rankings_FIN.pdf

2019 NextGen Franchising Award
The NextGen Franchising competition was created to help recognize and guide the future of franchising, while connecting emerging leaders to seasoned experts in the industry. Over the course of five days, the winners participated in workshops, networked with industry veterans and presented their concepts to judges with hopes of taking home the grand prize.

Out of the 12 entrepreneurs who presented in the first round, the final three concepts and fourth social enterprise franchise were chosen to move forward and present in the final round of the competition at the closing general session.

Venuste’s ‘A Water Kiosk at school’ was one of the finalists where he proceeded to win the social enterprise franchise award.

Read more: https://nextgenfranchising.org/past-winners/

2018 Takeda Foundation Young Entrepreneur Award
The Takeda Foundation recognizes that ‘A Water Kiosk at school’ not only provides clean water to local people but also promotes business education in school. The Foundation highly evaluated Venuste’s efforts and awarded him the Entrepreneurship award.

Read more: http://www.takeda-foundation.jp/en2/ytaward/yta2018_winner.html

2018 The Spindle’s Best Innovation for Development
In the category ‘Best Innovation for Development’, the Spindle rewards the best innovative concepts in the field of international development. The International Transformation Foundation won the third price with their initiative ‘A Water Kiosk at School’. Since 2016 The Spindle connects innovators among Dutch and global actors into an online and offline movement for inclusive, sustainable development.

Read more: https://thespindle.org/2019/02/21/winners-of-the-awards-what-happened- after/?fbclid=IwAR2AH-CLXLYc0HXIs6i3WWJCGExRF5rgUvKUsJ0qJ8g__jZ76qfnubj25Oc

2018 AIDF Global Innovator of the Year
At the 10th Anniversary AIDF Global Summit taking place in Washington D.C., Venuste Kubwimana was named winner of the Global Innovator of the Year Award 2018, for his work in providing school children in Kenya with safe and clean drinking water-Aid Forum.

The Global Innovator of the Year Award aims to celebrate individuals as well as teams who have introduced game-changing initiatives, created research or inventions that have made an impact on the humanitarian aid and development sectors over the past year… (Read more here http://www.aidforum.org/Topics/disaster-relief/venuste-kubwimana-international-transformation-foundation-wins-global-innov/)

2018 Top 50 Africa Innovator, Africa Innovation Summit
The Africa Innovation Summit (AIS) 2018 aimed at focusing on profiling and supporting solutions that are already examples of how Africa is addressing her challenges with new and innovative thinking.

(Read more here https://www.newtimes.co.rw/business/rwandan-social-entrepreneur-bringing-water-rural-neighbourhoods)

2017 Youth 4 South Solution Awareness, United Nations Office for South to South Cooperation
The Youth 4 South Solutions Awareness Contest purposed to promote the South to South youth leadership in advancing Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. Up to 17 development solutions that met the relevance criteria were be shortlisted. Venuste Kubwimana’s ‘A Water Kiosk at School’ was placed 2nd.

2017 Education Business Plan Competition, University of Pennsylvania
Venuste Kubwimana emerged an IdeaFest finalist, IdeaFest being the Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition (EBPC) idea path where entrepreneurs pursue ideas that could change education around the globe.(See more here www.educationcompetition.org/content/idea-fest-finalists)

2016 Global Citizen Youth Advocate
2016 American Express Emerging Innovators Cohort
2016 Nelson Mandela-Graça Machel Innovation Awards Nominee
2015 The Future Awards Africa-Enterprise Support Nominee
2015 (May) Guest Speaker, Africa Prosperity Summit (Dar es Salaam)-Ligatum Institute
2015 (April) Agent of Change Title- World Merit (UK)
2015 (February) & 2014 (June) Delegate-Regional Youth Dialogue (Addis Ababa) on Elections and Governance –Mandela Institute for Development Studies.
2014 Yunus & Youth Fellowship
2012 GSBI (Global social benefit incubator)- Santa Clara University & World Bank/USA
2012 Peace Revolution Fellowship, Thailand- World peace Initiative Foundation

Extreme poverty remains a huge challenge at international level and one that traditional education often struggles to solve. Another pressing challenge in the context of global education is solving the youth unemployment crisis, with 75 million people aged 16 to 24 currently unemployed. Therefore, it is more important than ever that they leave school not just with good grades, but armed with skills, knowledge, attitudes and values that will help them succeed.

My educational mission is to enable schools to provide a relevant education, through school based enterprises, that empower young people to succeed in work and in life. There are three core principles that guide my philosophy in education for sustainable development in line with my work concept of helping others to help themselves:

• Poverty Reduction – My programs intend to eradicate extreme poverty. My main focus is on students from low-income families and marginalized communities.
• Education – My programs also exist to educate. My educational goals supersede any other aims.
• Entrepreneurship – My programs foster entrepreneurship. I views entrepreneurship as an effective means to economic prosperity. The programs do this by promoting school based enterprises to provide students with the skills and inspiration they need to generate wealth for themselves and their communities.

Universal primary education will never be sufficient on its own to give young people from developing countries a real chance to escape poverty. It also requires post-primary education focused on practical and business skills to match genuine opportunities within their communities. Unfortunately, governments struggle to provide the resources for such education. If governments can't meet this need, non-state actors will also have to rise to the challenge. But the old model of charity-funded short-term education projects is also not sufficient to create lasting capacity - what's needed is models that allow schools to meet the need for relevant education in their community indefinitely. That is why the international education community is looking now for such approaches and models which are sustainable, but also replicable and scalable.

My drive towards education for sustainable development is pioneered through the International Transformation Foundation, which has established various educational projects, which are both educational and profitable – teaching students business and entrepreneurial skills, and generating much-needed income for schools. I believe in providing a relevant education - that bridges the gap between school and work – meaning students leave school ready to get a good job or set up their own business, and reach their full potential in life. At the same time, the innovative school business approach provides a high-quality, low-cost business and skills-based education that is reinforced by hands-on experience. Thee school enterprises build schools’ ability to generate a sustainable income and plan for their future.

It is my belief, that, the following principles transcend differences in geography, culture, religion and politics;

1. Student Welfare – Students are of great value since they are the core of the education system. Schools should provide safe environments where the physical, mental and emotional well-being and growth of students is always a priority.
2. Equality – There is great value and potential within each individual thus schools should strive to provide opportunities to underprivileged segments of society regardless of gender, race, or religion and to rectify the effects of historic discrimination.
3. Empowerment of the disadvantaged – Education programs should choose to empower people and not just provide resources. Schools should also focus on empowering their students with the capacity and confidence they need to change their own situations and assist their communities.
4. Innovation – I firmly believe that innovation is crucial to long term success. I encourage schools to embrace experimentation as a means of consistently improving their programs.
5. Transparency – Transparency is core for any institution to create and sustain trust with its stakeholders. Schools should regularly share financial, production and academic results and processes in order to build trust and get aids for organizational learning.
6. Local Ownership – I always strive to protect local ownership. Local adaptation is one of the crucial strengths of my approach and though my programs offer support and resources, schools should retain self-determination in all their programs/projects.
7. Community Outreach – Communities should be actively involved in coming up with solutions to issues affecting them. Schools should not be isolated in community outreach since they are a core part of the community. Schools can make their contribution by practicing problem-solving abilities, sharing knowledge, and giving of time and resources to make concrete positive contributions to communities.
8. Evaluation - When performance is measured, performance improves. I am of the opinion that constant self and peer evaluation enables us to celebrate successes, tackle challenges and appreciate the impact of the programs we have in communities and around the world.
9. Growth and Expansion – Education programs should strive for growth and expansion by undertaking processes of expansion and replication as soon as they are available and building a network that reaches further and further into the depths of rural poverty.

All in all, my vision is to see a world free from poverty and where all young people are able to reach their full potential in life!