Our Web Champions

Across the globe, young people are using the web to create a better, fairer future. These young leaders see the web as a tool to fight for justice, expand opportunities, and find solutions to pressing problems.

This year, to mark the web’s birthday, we’re celebrating by shining a light on the work of nine young people whose work demonstrates the web’s incredible potential to shape a better world.

Rosemary Leith and Tim Berners-Lee
Co-founders, World Wide Web Foundation

	Arda Awais and Savena Surana formed Identity 2.0, an interdisciplinary art project that opens up the conversation about digital identity in an accessible way, and empowers individuals to make conscious decisions about their interactions with digital spaces. With their work, they encourage digital platform users, as well as developers, to think about and mainstream issues of identity, privacy, and the way personal information is used. Read Arda and Savena’s story.
	While still in high school, Avi Schiffmann created one of the world’s most popular information hubs tracking COVID-19 cases around the globe. He continues to champion the web as a free source of information and data, and also created sites tracking and providing information on Black Lives Matter protests across the USA and the 2020 presidential election. Read Avi’s story.
	Chelsea Slater leads InnovateHer, a UK-based social enterprise whose mission is ‘Get girls ready for the tech industry and the tech industry ready for girls’. They work to encourage teenage girls and non-binary youth to explore careers in technology through online educational programmes. They also work with organisations to help them become more diverse and inclusive, so that the next generation can thrive in these workplaces when they get there. Read Chelsea’s story.
	Froilan Grate is an environmental educator and zero-waste advocate. He is the Asia Pacific Coordinator for GAIA, president of Mother Earth Foundation in the Philippines, and a founding core member of the global movement Break Free From Plastic. He uses the web as a tool for advocacy and activism, and as a means of reducing the carbon footprint of the environmental movement he champions — putting the theory into practice. Read Froilan’s story.
	Hera Hussain is the founder of Chayn, an online volunteer community that creates intersectional resources for survivors of gender-based violence and works to improve the online experience of women seeking support. Chayn has reached more than 380,000 people around the world since launching 8 years ago. Read Hera’s story.
	Ian Mangenga is the founder and CEO of Digital Girl Africa, a women-focused digital hub that uses critical digital skills training to bridge the gap between women in Africa and technology. Read Ian’s story.
	Using the web as a tool for collaboration and information sharing, Peter Okwoko founded Takataka Plastics, a social enterprise that transforms plastic waste into resources and also creates jobs for street-connected youth. He has provided PPE for health workers treating COVID across 25 districts in Uganda, as well as food aid for communities affected by lockdowns. Read Peter’s story.
	Salvador Camacho Hernández is an Intellectual Property Law attorney and self-described “hardcore gamer” dedicated to fighting gender inequality in the growing and lucrative esports and online gaming space. He is the founder of the GGWP Foundation, the first NGO in Mexico to take advantage of the esports and videogames industries as agents for society’s development. Read Salvador’s story.