By Ayaan Rai (Y12)

The Young Activists Summit 2025 proved to be a standout moment on this year’s global youth calendar. Held at the United Nations, the summit provided a world stage for five extraordinary young laureates whose self-driven initiatives are already creating meaningful, large-scale impact within their communities. Among them were Aminata Savané of Côte d’Ivoire, upholding digital safety; Dev Karan of India, the youngest laureate at just 17; Marina El Khawand, founder of Lebanon’s Medonations; Salvino Oliveira, driving reform in Brazil’s favelas; and Rena Kawasaki, a Japanese environmentalist advocating for a more sustainable future.

From Hashtag to Action: Create, Relate, Motivate

It constantly feels as if our planet is falling victim to tragedies daily. Our feeds prescribe increasingly more doses of doom—wildfires, heatwaves, melting glaciers. It’s overwhelming, and honestly, it makes us feel numb. That’s the problem: when everything feels too big, too tragic, too constant, people shut down.

This year’s Young Activists Summit took a different approach. It leaned into its motto—From Hashtag to Action—by grounding global issues in personal stories and lived experience. One of the most beautiful things about the event was watching each laureate take the stage and speak in their mother tongue. Their voices carried the music of home: French, Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese—and Hindi, when it was Dev Karan’s turn. It made the room feel more human, more honest. And for me, being able to understand Dev’s words directly added an unexpected layer of closeness to his messages. He brought his authentic voice to the global platform.

The Antidote: Create, Relate, Motivate

Instead of more doom, the summit focused on solutions—on the power of content and initiatives people can relate to. The ActNow app is a perfect example. A simple idea that has already motivated 28 million people to log their climate actions. It proves something vital: people want to help. They just need a path that doesn’t feel overwhelming.

Enter Dev Karan: the Pond Saver

Then there’s Dev Karan, the 17-year-old revitalising India’s neglected ponds through his project, Pondora. His story isn’t a polished hero narrative—it’s a slow-building, real one. When Dev started, time management was chaotic. Resources were limited. He was trying to balance school and the enormity of climate work. But he kept repeating a line that stayed with me:

“If you put your heart into something, slowly but surely you’ll get there.”

He studied how larger NGOs operate—how many are run by people with strong educational or professional backgrounds. Useful frameworks, yes, but often disconnected from the communities they serve. Dev saw the gap clearly:

If the people living in rural areas don’t speak up, nothing moves.

If the people using the ponds aren’t involved, nothing lasts.

So he set out to train locals, converting everyday villagers into environmental caretakers. Not activists in the hashtag sense, but hands-in-the-mud stewards who understand their land.

Tech That Works for Everyone

Dev realised early that technology only helps when everyone can use it.

“When I started working, I saw that privileged people know how to use tech—but if the people on the ground aren’t trained, you can’t make a real impact.”

Too often, he explained, ponds are cleaned once and then abandoned. So Pondora created simple tech tools and guideline kits, teaching volunteers exactly how to maintain the ponds over the long term.

And when they noticed many ponds were also used as drinking sources, they pushed further—designing natural-resource filters to reduce waterborne illnesses like diarrhoea.

It’s slow work. It’s practical work. It’s humanity-first work.

And it’s exactly the kind of action that actually sticks.