
The Global Solvers Accelerator brings together emergent agents of social change across the globe for an impact-driven, project-focused, learning journey. Over the course of eight months, participants learn and work together to build collective leadership competencies, refine social impact initiatives they are spearheading in their communities, and ignite transformative change that cuts across boundaries of sector, place, and identity, furthering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The global application deadline is December 15th, 2023.
Today’s interconnected world allows us to see the magnitude of solutions to pressing issues that exist around the world. Imagine if we can intersect these solutions, turning local impact into global potential and changing the world from the grassroots level to the global level and back again.
The Global Solvers Accelerator creates that space for emerging change agents to exchange and collaborate genuinely and advance their work while contributing to those of others. By embracing transformation as an impetus for sustainable development beyond business-as-usual, our 8-month program accelerates social impact projects through cross-boundary exchange and collaborative action.
Chosen among hundreds of applicants worldwide, selected participants will work together to refine and scale the social impact projects they are spearheading in their respective communities. Through an intentionally designed learning journey, subject matter advisory, leading-edge thematic contributions, and ample peer exchange and collaboration, the program provides a springboard for participants to tap into the fullest transformative potential of their sustainable development endeavors!
A signature program of the Melton Foundation, the Global Solvers Accelerator is deeply intertwined with our unique community of global citizenship practice, and, for successful participants, the program becomes a gateway to joining the lifelong Melton Fellowship. Plus, actively engaged participants will also be invited to attend a fully-sponsored week-long in-person retreat, the Global Solvers Co-Lab in July 2024.
A must-have resource for applicants - Access in-depth information about the program!
The Global Solvers Accelerator engages emerging change agents from diverse world regions around developing competencies for global citizenship, sustainable development, and collective leadership.
Over the course of eight months, participants engaged in purposefully designed module topics, blended learning, project assignments, peer exchange, and subject matter advisory in order to build their capacity and amplify the transformative potential of their social impact projects. Thus, the Global Solvers Accelerator results in cumulative impact at three levels:
The Global Solvers Accelerator is a collective learning journey with and for participants from across the globe, who are looking to transform the world!
Are you a young community development practitioner aged between 20 – 35 years, who is curious, responsible, forward-thinking, with a proven track record of social impact, and actively engaged in or leading a local impact project currently? Are you looking to connect with like-minded peers to make a better sense of the world together?
Then you are the ideal participant for our program!
Prepare your application from today!
Use the 'Application Guide' to get a sense of what you need to prepare for the application early.
By joining the Global Solvers Accelerator, participants stand to gain valuable competencies, insights, connections, and more! Here are some key benefits of becoming a part of the program:
The program is a springboard for participants to pivot their capacity in areas like collective leadership, transformative impact, and systemic design. Through stimulating thematic contributions, peer exchange, subject matter advisory, and project assignments, participants boost their leadership competencies as well as their global citizenship skills.
The 8-month learning journey connects emerging change agents worldwide to refine their social impact initiatives, activate their collective leadership potential, and together ignite transformative change that cuts across barriers of place and identity, furthering the SDGs.
Upon successful completion of the program, participants are eligible to join the Melton Foundation’s lifelong supported community as Senior Melton Fellows, gaining access to a global community of over 600 change catalysts across the globe, project funding through our Action Grants, travel opportunities to global impact events, and more.
During the program, actively engaged participants will be invited to attend a fully-funded in-person retreat. Connecting hearts, hands, and minds, the Global Solvers Co-Lab creates a space for sectors, cultures, identities, and know-how converge into something “greater than the sum of its parts”.
An integral part of the Global Solvers Accelerator, the week-long Co-Lab retreat is the space for participants to connect in person and co-create transformative pathways together. The dates and venue of the 2024 Global Solvers Co-Lab will be revealed in due time.
As Co-Sponsors of the event, the Melton Foundation and Ernst-Abbe-Stiftung will cover event-related travel, accommodation, visa-related expenses, learning resources, and materials, among others, to enable all participants to join the Co-Lab regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds! Participants, however, are required to be prepared for international travel, hold a valid passport, and handle any necessary visa processes early and responsibly. Learn more here.
Participants have the opportunity to tap into immediate financial resources in support of their social impact project. The Global Solver Accelerator Fund pools a significant percentage of the Program Fees collected from participants and will be made available to deserving projects towards the end of the program.
The Accelerator is a learning journey that nurtures your leadership capacity starting today. Here’s the roadmap for a unique journey toward deep collaborations, powerful actions, and transformative change.
The first and most important step is to submit your application using THIS ONLINE APPLICATION FORM within the application deadline.
Important consideration: Don’t rush it! When developing your application, take the time you need to share your most authentic and honest answer(s). Some questions invite you to shine, and outline the great work you do – other questions invite you to take a more critical stance. Both can be challenging, and yet we invite you to fill them in with dedication and care. The perfect application to us is the one that provides us with deep(er) insights into you and the work you do.
During the selection process, we apply a threefold filter to identify the best-suited candidates:
(a) a technical review to ensure that information provided with the application is complete and sufficiently informative
(b) an eligibility check to identify candidates who fully meet the eligibility criteria
(c) an in-depth assessment to identify well-suited candidates for the program.
(d) a 120 min virtual assessment center for well-suited candidates.
The up to 20 selected candidates will receive detailed information about the next steps, including how to pay the program fees, materials to prepare, and the onboarding process for the program.
Up to 20 best-suited candidates will be selected into the program. They will receive detailed information about the onboarding process by 1 March 2024.
Shortlisted candidates who don’t make it into the final selection may be offered a waitlist spot to be considered in case any of the finalists must withdraw their participation.
During the 120 min virtual Assessment Center, shortlisted candidates will be assessed on their collaboration, teamwork, and communication skills. Invitations to the Assessment Center will be sent to suited candidates at least one week prior to the session.
In April, selected participants will be added to the respective platforms and communication channels deployed throughout the program. They will also receive initial onboarding instructions and will be asked to complete an assessment survey to provide further details about their work, project, and expertise.
Starting April, participants embark on the collaborative learning journey to (a) build capacity at the personal level, (b) pivot transformative potential at the project level, and (c) converge networks for social change at the collective level.
Global Solvers engage with eight different thematic modules (see graphic below) to position emerging as well as established SDG projects for disruptive, transformative change at the local to the global level. Bi-weekly online sessions and asynchronous assignments help pace the journey and deepen the learning each step along the way.
The Co-Lab is the space where sectors, cultures, identities, and know-how converge into something “greater than the sum of its parts”. It’s a space for Global Solvers to deepen understanding of complex global issues, grow capacity collectively, build networks for impact, and more. A 'COllaborative LABoratory', the in-person retreat is where participants pivot their passion and broaden their impact horizons together.
Date and location for the Global Solvers Co-Lab 2024 will be confirmed in due time.
Upon successful completion of the program, participants are eligible to join the Melton Foundation’s lifelong supported community as Senior Melton Fellow.
The 'Senior Fellow Orientation' is an opportunity for eligible participants to learn how they can contribute to and leverage the life-long Melton Fellowship for personal, project, and collective growth within and beyond the Melton Foundation's global citizenship community.
Upon successful completion of the Global Solvers Accelerator, participants are eligible to become a Senior Melton Fellow. The Melton Fellowship is designed as a lifelong, supported network through which the Melton Foundation fosters and pivots global citizenship development on a very need-tailored basis, including unique learning activities, project grants, networking opportunities, and more.
A Community of Practice, the Melton Fellowship offers spaces to connect, contribute and collaborate for Fellows who are eager to do so. The underpinning mantra of our Fellowship is “what you give is what you get” – like with other unique opportunities it is eventually down to us to receive as well as to give back to the community!
- Agita Pasaribu - Founder and Executive Director at Bullyid App, Global Solvers Accelerator participant
- Hammed Kayode Alabi, Founder and CEO, Kayode Alabi Leadership and Career Initiative-KLCI, Global Solvers Accelerator participant
- Ohenewaa Constance Ankoma, Founder & Executive Director, Erudite Women's Empowerment Foundation, Ghana, Global Solvers Accelerator participant
- Khan N. Badeng, Founder, Eco-Nile, South Sudan, Global Solvers Accelerator participant
Diverse social innovation leaders chosen from hundreds of applicants around the world, our current cohort of Global Solvers Accelerator participants are refining and scaling their impact projects through the program, and upon successful completion, will join our life-long Senior Fellowship, and gain access to a network of 600+ Melton Fellows worldwide.
Meet Agita Pasaribu
Jakarta, Indonesia
Read BioMeet Arthur Cesa Venturella
Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Read BioMeet Charles Falajiki
Nigeria
Read BioMeet Constance Ohenewaa Ankoma
Konongo, Ghana
Read BioMeet Constant Odounfa
Cotonou, Littoral, Benin
Read BioMeet David Medina Andrade
Cota, Cundinamarca, Colombia
Read BioMeet Enochia Hategekimana
Kira , Kampala, Uganda
Read BioMeet Florin Badita-Nistor
Arad, Romania
Read BioMeet Hammed Kayode Alabi
London, United Kingdom
Read BioMeet Hritik Datta
Bangalore, India
Read BioMeet Jacob Peters
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A
Read BioMeet Joel Omondi Omiyo
Mombasa, Kenya
Read BioMeet Khan N. Badeng
South Sudan
Read BioMeet Marthar Nderitu
Port Louis, Mauritius
Read BioMeet Modesta Joseph Msabila
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Read BioMeet Pedro Calcagni Rojas
Santiago, Chile
Read BioMeet Satyam Gupta
Deoria, India
Read BioMeet Shivangi Jain
New Delhi, India
Read BioMeet Silvano Lieger
Horgen, Switzerland
Read BioMeet Somaya Albhaisi
Richmond,Virginia, U.S.A
Read BioAgita Pasaribu is the Founder and currently Executive Director of Bullyid Indonesia, a global award tech-charity focusing on empowering victims of harassment with digital psychological and legal support. Prior to founding Bullyid Indonesia, Agita was known as the Youth IGF Ambassador for Indonesia; it is a recognised initiative described by the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) to engage the young people of Indonesia in the discussion on Internet governance and bring their voices to the global IGF discussion agenda. Agita is also on UNESCO Youth AI (Artificial Intelligence) Ethics Steering Committee. Her contribution and commitment to youth empowerment in digital governance and cyber harassment prevention have been recognised and celebrated globally. Agita received her LL.B in Criminal Law from the University of Indonesia. Fred J Hansen Institute then awarded her to continue the exclusive leadership programme at the University of San Diego. Agita completed her M.A in International Relations from the University of Malaya and was granted the Internet Governance course by the ICANN at the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals, Barcelona-Spain.
Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Arthur is a mining Engineer, researcher, agroforestry consultant and educator, passionate about restoring ecosystems with social impact. Mining Engineer (UFRGS), currently taking my masters with research theme in “Ecological Restoration of Mined Landscapes” and specialization in Agroecology, emphasis on Agroforestry (IFC-Concórdia). I have been studying Agroforestry since 2016 with great references from Brazil and the world. In 2018, I started working with community-based projects specifically with smallholder communities in Lombok, Indonesia; in Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia; and in Bali, Indonesia. I carried out Environmental Education works at Green School Bali with local and international children of different age groups. In 2019, I participated in the 29th International Leadership Workshop for Rural Youth, at the Bavarian Agricultural House, in Herrsching, Germany. I understand regenerative systems as my life mission and I’m seeking to connect this purpose to the most diverse areas of life: academic career, professional choices and private life.
Nigeria
An education development practitioner and social innovator, passionate about solving complex problems through research, policy advocacy, and practice. With over 5 years of transnational work experience, I currently lead the overarching developmental strategy at Aid for Rural Education Access Initiative (AREAi) as the organisation’s Chief Development Officer. I design and scale innovative educational and skills development solutions for marginalised children and at-risk youth in underserved communities. My background includes active engagement with UNESCO, UNICEF, Education Cannot Wait, The Education Commission, TheirWorld, and Education Above All, among others. In 5 years, I have managed over $600,000 in multi-year donor-funded projects, reaching over 50,000 direct beneficiaries across 36 communities in 12 states in Nigeria. My aspirations are centered on transforming educational access and 21st-century digital skill development for last-mile users and children who are at risk of falling behind.
“I define myself as a youth activist, passionate about education, peace and environment protection. After over 5 years serving as a Monitoring & Evaluation Officer for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), I am currently working with the Batonga Foundation to empower hard-to-reach young women and girls to become agents of change for themselves, their community and beyond. My passion for gender equality and education for women empowerment is the reason that made me join this organization, founded in 2006 by Angelique Kidjo. Apart from my work with the Batonga Foundation, I am also a trainer and volunteer for the One African Child Foundation for Creative Learning (OAC) where I have been actively serving since 2014. Through my work with OAC, I implemented activities and programmes to promote and raise awareness regarding Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and Education for International Understanding (EIU), at country level and in West Africa.”
Cota, Cundinamarca, Colombia
At the age of 14 I began to sell homemade cakes door to door and at my school due to a family financial crisis. Thanks to it we were able to pay off the debts and pay for my degree in psychology. I did my internship creating my organization with the aim of empowering young people to address their challenges. The first project I led was sport as a generator of entrepreneurial skills for 40 LGBTI victims of the armed conflict. With this initiative, I applied to the YALI program created by President Obama, my first opportunity to have an exchange abroad, transforming my organization into what I do today: addresses the difficulties faced by emergent young social leaders and entrepreneurs to access international cooperation opportunities to potentiate their initiatives and leadership. Our program has impacted more than 240 young LGBTI, disabled, rural, black and indigenous, HIV leaders and entrepreneurs reaching more than 540.000 USD in grants and 28 scholarships in non formal education. Awarded by King Hamad Award for SDGs by UNDP and Kingdom of Bahrain.
Kira , Kampala, Uganda
“Enochia is a Ugandan born in a large family of five children with her being the only girl in the five children. She is a lover of sports majorly soccer and indoor games and music. She is engaged in health related works especially for the elderly through Elyon Homecare. Compassion and love are her major driving forces. she has achieved several of her goals such as setting up a system that helps the elderly access homecare, she has studied clinical medicine and community health and still studying palliative care and has opened up job opportunities for girls within the communities in which Elyon Homecare operates. Her hope and dream is to become one of the best geriatric specialist and also have an elderly home for those without help in Africa majorly Uganda.”
Arad, Romania
Florin Badita-Nistor is a Romanian activist who breathes the online ecosystem and uses the internet as a playground. People refer to Florin as an activist, data scientist, social entrepreneur, and artist. He describes himself as a realistic optimist, logical, and uncommon – in the best sense possible. Along with founding or co-founding 17 communities, Florin is the founder of the civic platform Corruption Kills, one of the largest civic organizations in Romania. He founded the community in 2015 after a fire killed 64 people in a club because of corruption. The biggest protests organized by Corruption Kills had 600,000 people in the street. For his work in fighting corruption in Romania, Forbes included him on the Forbes 30 under 30 Europe in 2018, Euronews nominated him as the European Personality of the Year in 2018, and Humanity in Action selected him as a Landecker Democracy Fellow 2021-2022.
London, United Kingdom
I am a nonprofit leader, author, and social entrepreneur known throughout Africa for my advocacy for education, youth, and sustainable development. I describe myself as a product of grace and circumstance. I grew up in the largest floating slum in Africa “Makoko-Nigeria”. I founded a nonprofit, the Kayode Alabi Leadership and Career Initiative -KLCI with over 100 volunteers across 6 states in Nigeria, KLCI has provided life, 21st-century skills, leadership development, and career readiness training to over 6500 secondary school students in rural communities in Nigeria. I also created the teachers-in-training fellowship that has empowered 70 student-teachers in Nigeria with innovative teaching methodologies. Outside of KLCI, I have worked with Peace First as a Regional Manager and board member supporting youth social innovation in over 150 countries. My work has earned me several awards including the MasterCard Foundation Scholarship to complete an MSc in Africa and International Development at the University of Edinburgh.
Bangalore, India
I am a mechanical engineering graduate from BMS College of Engineering, currently working at Daimler truck as an engineer in the sustainability and innovation vertical. My hobbies are playing cricket, football, chess and badminton, and if I’m not playing sports, I love to head over to terrains across India for trekking with my friends and love long bike rides. Growing up as a kid, I have always had a passion for physics, sustainability and engineering, I’m happy to see myself pursuing my dreams by working in the domain in which I was always passionate. I have always been driven and inspired by the work done for a better cause and want to follow in the footsteps of the leaders who have contributed so much to make the world a better place. I’m a passionate, inspired, disciplined and driven individual who always seeks the best in anything that I do, which has reflected very positively in my life, be it achieving good grades in education, acing sports competitions or completing projects successfully
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A
An insight into the window that is Jacob would be find a driven personality that is focused on social impact. This was birthed through my personal experience of Hurricane Katrina in a New Orleans. Seeing and being affected firsthand of devastation and witnessing social division in the rebuild of the city led me away from a potential career in investment banking to work on rebuilding the physical and social fabric of New Orleans. Using my experience in playing and coaching team sports allowed me to progress quickly in my career in with all people towards the goals of the foundation and community. To end, I would like to leave a quote that motivates me every day, “The fact that something seems impossible shouldn’t be a reason to not pursue it. That’s exactly what makes it worth pursuing.”
Mombasa, Kenya
I am a passionate community health champion with four years of experience in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights, HIV prevention, menstrual hygiene management and gender-based violence. My journey as a champion for young people started in 2018, when I witnessed alarmingly high numbers of teen pregnancies and new HIV infections among adolescent girls. I was determined to make a difference and started conducting sensitization and outreach activities on family planning, HIV prevention and youth-friendly services at the grassroots level. Along with other social contributors, I co-founded the SEYA Youth Organization, aimed at improving the health and well-being of adolescents and young people in Mombasa County. This opportunity also led me to be a part of the Youth Advisory Champions for Health Mombasa, where I have been advocating for quality standalone youth-friendly centers. I have also been a part of several AYP projects, including FAYA by Amref Health, UADILIFU by DSW, and the Empower for Change project by LVCT Health, among others.
South Sudan
I am a 25-year-old South Sudanese and a final-year agriculture student at Juba University. During my free moments, I love reading books, watching documentaries, and volunteering at community awareness programs. I am currently part-timing at Kush Farmers co-operatives Ltd as an assessment officer. When weighing career choices, many young people in my developing country South Sudan tend to shy away from agriculture. I, too, once found myself disenchanted by the small villages and the sorghum gardens I grew up seeing every day. As the conventional belief goes, agriculture means an archaic lifestyle and a future with limited opportunities for youth. But I later learned I was wrong. Plenty of evidence shows us that agriculture provides youth with a viable way to harvest success and grow sustainably. In other words, I believe youth can, and should, choose agriculture future because it is a farming business rather than a development platform in my country South Sudan is gathering momentum. I think this is a positive perspective.
Port Louis, Mauritius
In my penultimate year in computing at African Leadership university. Clothed in a fiery vigor to achieve a wholesome individualism through personal development. I have a nauseating audacity to dream. It has however come to gain its relish seeing that I have risen from being a wrinkled dry-skin girl who picked tea after school and sometimes missed school to pick tea in a rural tea plantation in Kenya. To the best student in a sub-county in the national high school examination, a recipient of a fully-funded Mastercard scholarship to study at ALU, and a Take Action Lab fellow by Global Citizen Year. I am passionate about social equality, I am a decent chess player. I treasure Maya Angelou, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Music: SZA , Brent Faiyaz.
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
I am a 23-year-old Mastercard scholar at the African Leadership University in Rwanda, studying International Business and Trade. My passions lie in social entrepreneurship, education, gender equality, and empowering youth. I have extensive experience as a leader in the fields of technology and education. I co-developed and implemented e-learning and e-mentorship platforms and have taught coding to over a thousand students in Tanzania during my time as an IT Administrator for an NGO called Apps and Girls. In addition, I am the founder of Our Voices Against Harassment (OVAH), an NGO based in Tanzania. OVAH’s goal is to create a gender-just and violence-free nation by implementing sexual violence response and prevention interventions. I lead a team of volunteers and staff to accomplish this mission. I am also 2017 We Are Family Foundation Global Teen Leader and a 2018 Africa Young Leader Fellow. My primary objective is to make a difference in society and empower young people and women
Santiago, Chile
My biggest passion is nature, so i’ve been working on different paths around it, hoping to protect it and regenerate it and our relationship with it, it’s species, and ourselves. I was formed scout in my school, and studied environmental engineering. I’ve also worked around it. I’ve participated on politics projects such as “ECOnstitución”, where we wanted to get ecofriendly candidates chosen for our attempt for a new constitution on the past few years. Also, i’ve worked in small sustainability focused companies related to ecodesign and anaerobic digestion. When i became part of the teaching team of the Institute for Sustainable Development (IDS) of my university, my life changed in a way and i started asking myself how good and critic education can be the key to a paradigm change. Not only education but formation in general, because it includes us all, and it also includes people that are living in the present. So with AoS (my current project), we are looking for ways to create collaborative learning and coenvolving spaces for all people to inspire and feel connected with our nature and ourselves.
Deoria, India
“I am an engineer by education, a teacher, project manager and data analyst by profession. I have worked in a public school, at a community centre in one of India’s most violent ghettos and with the ministry of education to run the largest ever EdTech program.
I enjoy cooking, reading and writing poetry. I am driven by the desire to ensure that people have the access to opportunities for success, and my hopes and dreams are of a world that is just, equitable and empowers everyone to lead a life of dignity.”
New Delhi, India
“I savor the autonomy of independent film-making and photography. Having pursued their MA in Mass Communication from AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Delhi and MFA in Cinema Direction from Boston University, Massachusetts; I thrive for my work to reflect cultured cinema. My films have traveled the film festival circuits around the world and garnered some awards. I, also, co-founded United for Transgender Health, an organization working for equitable and accessible healthcare for LGBT*QIA+ folks in India.”
Horgen, Switzerland
At the age of 27, I realized that I wanted to make a meaningful difference in the world. As a branding, public relations, and advertising professional, I felt unfulfilled working for companies and brands that didn’t align with my values. Seeking reflection and purpose, I traveled across the Americas for eight months and met inspiring activists who fought for environmentalism, animal welfare, and human rights. I felt empowered to use my skills to create a public conversation around something I truly believed in, and upon returning home, I decided to become an advocate for animals. I joined the activism community, learned about our political system, and engaged with relevant stakeholders to create more sustainable and just food systems. Through my work with Sentience Politics, with which I was able to create meaningful, nationwide conversations around fundamental animal rights and a world beyond factory farming, I have seen first-hand the impact that one person can make.
Richmond,Virginia, U.S.A
“I am an Assistant Professor of Medicine and a Clinical Hospitalist in the Department of Internal Medicine at VCU. My research focuses on the epidemiology, prevention, and treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis cirrhosis. In 2019 I was awarded the AASLD Emerging Liver Scholar Award for my research achievements. I was born in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. I grew up in the UAE and received my MBBCh degree in Dubai Medical College. I moved to the U.S. for Internal Medicine residency training at VCU and then transitioned to faculty position in 2019. My long term career goals are to bring science, innovation and philanthropy under the umbrella of public health; advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion in all medical fields; and lead by example. My hope and dream for my future is to become a global thought leader and a social entrepreneur.”
For more information, useful links, and insightful application tips, click through to the Frequently Asked Questions!
Whether as a participant in our program, a network partner, or supporter – we offer ample avenues for you to continue to be an integral member of our close-knit community! Take a look at the various options open for engaging with us!
Ohenewaa Constance Ankoma is a teacher and a multiple award- winning and passionate life-changing social entrepreneur; an ethical woman building a hub for Ghanaian girls and women’s development. She is the Founding Executive Director of Erudite Women’s Empowerment Foundation(EWEF), a registered women-centered nonprofit organisation in Ghana that exists to create a better world full of opportunities for girls and young women in underserved communities to thrive. Her organization provides economic empowerment for rural women; advocates for the leadership and inclusion of girls and young women in decision-making at all levels; and champions menstrual health awareness among schoolgirls in deprived communities to help them not miss school during their periods as a result of period poverty. Since its establishment in 2017, her organization has reached out to and impacted the lives of over 3,846 girls and young women in rural Ghana through her community outreaches and activism.