Bright Future Alumni

Over 1 million people living in the Amazon don’t have access to power. Adriely is leader of the Biolume project. Together with her team members at the Federal University of Pará, Adriely has spearheaded the design of a streetlamp powered by biodiesel made from cooking oil.

Already, the project has installed five streetlamps in a riverside community in the regions of the Lower Itacuruçá River, with plans to operate in five more communities that would otherwise have no public lighting – improving security and sustainability.

Donna is on a mission to create a world where communication know no boundaries. Having taught herself sign language to support a family member, Donna has gone on to create GESTURA, a dedicated sign language app.

She hopes the app will help people of any age to get to grips sign language more easily, with interactive games and finger-spell translation, to provide more engaging resources than she was able to find herself when learning.

Having seen a deaf friend struggle with access to the same opportunities at school, Maria too action to establish a digital academic Olympiad specifically for people with hearing impairments and is now ready to turn it into a fully-fledged charity.

Maria has collaborated with deaf and hearing teachers and students to develop the digital platform, where the competitions are hosted – making them more accessible and engaging for deaf pupils. Now, Maria wants to turn OBMLibras into a fully-fledged NGO to host even more events in schools across Brazil.

Chloe has two passions, coding and taking action against climate change. She's brought them together through her own initiative, Code<Green/>, which uses interactive programming to raise awareness and educate young people about the environment. Already, Chloe has mentored over 150 children in Melbourne through workshops and created a prototype of an online learning platform. Now, she wants to take Code <Green/> to the next stage, expanding to reach more young people.

Íris grew up in Brazil, but just over a year ago, moved to Portugal. Since this transition, she's seen the devastating impact that forest fires can have on a community and the environment, having experienced them first hand in her local area. With dreams of being an engineer, Íris has harnessed these aspirations to begin her own project to improve safety in her home of Leiria by installing fire defences.

Manganye has a keen entrepreneurial spirit and aspires to open his very own community bakery business in his hometown of Itsani. Already, he's been part of a host of pop-up events and markets to hone his baking and business talents, and now wants to set up his own bakery to develop not just his own skills but to support other people in the community to do the same.

Kagiso is incredibly enterprising, having earlier this year set up his own community development project called 'Kagiso Kgatle Foundation'. Through the foundation, Kagiso works to inspire young people in his community to develop their leadership skills and support them to reach their personal goals. Through the project, he's worked closely with several schools in his local area to hold mini events and is currently establishing a board of young people to take the foundation even further.

Imogen is on a mission to create a support space for young people who have experienced or been impacted by the youth justice system in Australia. Unfortunately, many young people are directly or indirectly affected by crimes, which may or may not result in the perpetrator's conviction. Imogen wants to make sure these young people do not feel isolated or abandoned, by creating a hub where young people can connect and access support.

Isabel is a keen advocate of girls in sport. Statistically, girls quit sports at one and a half times the rate that boys do, and by the age of 17, over half of girls take part in no sport. This is where Isabel's innovative idea, 'HerSportHub', aims to make a difference. Through the dedicated app, Isabel hopes to cultivate a network of girls passionate about sport and to connect them with clubs and groups in their area where they can access activities. In addition, the app will provide a hub to showcase women role models in sport and to share resources and events.

Uniformity upcycles school uniforms, enabling parents at Tauheedul Islam Boys’ School in Blackburn to donate and purchase used clothing via an innovative e-commerce platform. But here’s the difference – the profits go straight into funding the school’s food bank.

Muhammad coordinates all the dry cleaning and organising stock to get it to parents. Now, as the social enterprise is growing, the team have set their sights on expanding to more schools in the area.

Thanks to funding from Bright Future Prize, Uniformity are planning to purchase their own dry cleaning machine to reduce costs and upgrade their online platform to make it simpler to donate and purchase clothing.

Sara’s bright idea started with the desire to find a more environmentally friendly way to generate wind power. Traditional fibreglass wind turbine blades are expensive and can’t be recycled. In fact, 43 million tons of fibreglass will end up in landfill by 2050. To tackle this, Sara has designed an eco-turbine blade made from wood, which she’s been testing and refining for over a year.

Sara’s design is ready to move from 3D modelling software to the machine, and she plans to purchase a computerised manufacturing machine to begin producing her blades to create self-build kits. Sara initially plans to sell her blades locally, but ultimately, she wants to take them across the world, particularly in Africa where affordable, renewable and reliable energy is so important to establish.

Since winning, Sara has continued to develop her idea, visiting an aerospace business to learn from experts and showcasing her own idea to charities and organisations. She's on track to purchase her own machine to begin producing the blades and taking her project to the next stage.

Jeffrey earned his black belt in karate aged just 13, and in the four years since has used his skills to set up his own non-profit organisation Golden Age Karate, where he teaches martial arts to senior citizens (aka his 'Ninja Nannas') in local nursing homes. Having seen his own grandparents experience loneliness, he wanted to make sure older people living away from their family had something to look forward to. Whether they’re aged 70 or 101, Jeffrey believes his students have so much to learn and enjoy!

Jeffrey’s idea is to bring together this work with his other major passion – film. He wants to create a documentary that showcases the stories behind his Ninja Nannas, highlighting their life experiences and value to the community. Jeffrey previously appeared in a film that led to him setting up several new chapters in more nursing homes. Through this documentary he will go a step further to inspire other people to give back to older people who are local to them – whether that be martial arts or something else entirely.

Using the prize funding, Jeffrey has been able to work alongside experts to develop and edit his film, which features a whole array of his Ninja Nannas. Having just started at college, majoring in film, Jeffrey is further honing his own skills too. We can't wait to see the memories and stories the project brings to life very soon!