One of the 50 selected from a list of 300 young social entrepreneurs from all over the world, André Leonardo, from Terceira, took part from 6-17 February in Tbilisi, Georgia, in the social entrepreneurship school where they sought to develop social projects that have a real impact on the world. In an initiative that included 10 teams full of inspiring young people from the four corners of the world, it was André Leonardo's team that won the final competition with the “SocialSummits” project:
“In my projects I've always tried to bring positive change to society. I've been promoting the entrepreneurial spirit and the will to make things happen in Portugal and around the world for almost 10 years. If there's one thing I can say about all my initiatives, it's that finding the support to realise them isn't easy. For the project where I travelled the world collecting inspiring stories from entrepreneurs, I spent two years knocking on almost 100 company doors... there are lots of people, NGOs and organisations with social projects that need and deserve this support. On the other hand, it's important for large companies and foundations to have a space where they can share ideas, policies and measures on how they can have a greater and better impact on the world. So we created a project that aims to create a major global event where we bring together social entrepreneurs from all over the world, full of energy and ideas, with major foundations and companies for three days. We're still going to make a few adjustments, but the bottom line is that we want to put these players in touch with each other and give them the opportunity to make themselves heard, to talk and to make things happen!” - André Leonardo.
The “SocialSummits” project was the unanimous winner of the competition, scoring maximum points in 4 of the 5 juries, and is scheduled to take place at the end of 2017. The Azores made an impact. “As a proud Azorean and Portuguese, I'm always talking about the Azores. I suggested to my team-mates that we book this event for ‘some incredibly beautiful islands, situated in the middle of the Atlantic, where there are volcanoes, unbelievable lagoons, whales and at the same time a structure that would allow us to make this event happen’. They didn't know. They were intrigued. I showed them photographs and they were dazzled. We presented them to the jury and everyone raved. Let's give it a go. The team is international and this competition has opened doors in various locations, and there have even been talks about Central Europe. Everything depends on contacts that will be developed soon, but if I can bring this event to the Azores I won't hesitate,” says André Leonardo
André Leonardo's team is made up of Ryan Johnson, English, Agne Ignataviciene, Lithuanian, Alona Revko, Ukrainian, Lynn Spendel, Dutch and Eva Tuske, Hungarian.
Elected in 2016 by PANGEA, Spain, as one of the “Seven young people who are changing the world”, André Leonardo is taking another step towards international recognition.
It should also be noted that as a prize in this competition, the team was awarded funding so that they could take the first steps in developing the project.
