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The Young Water Fellowship, led by Young Water Solutions (YWS), provides young entrepreneurs with training, mentoring, and seed capital opportunities to create social enterprises addressing water, sanitation, and hygiene issues.
The second edition in Latin America was launched in 2022, thanks to the support of COSUDE and the IDB under the SIRWASH program. Its aim was to support the validation and launch of 8 water and sanitation startups led by young people from the region. The fellowship recipients were: Hydroplus from Argentina, Yakumay, Geowaku, and Innoaguas from Bolivia, Ver o Fruto from Brazil, WS22 from Colombia, and AWA Humana and Brixan from Peru. It is worth noting that 4 of these initiatives originated from the 2022 Hackathon on water and sanitation for informal settlements in Latin America, organized by Cewas with the support of the Inter-American Bank.
From March 2022 to February 2023, the 8 startups received both virtual and in-person business training sessions (including a Bootcamp in Lima) in collaboration with Cewas and Impact Hub CDMX, as well as coaching from experts and funding of up to 5000 EUR to validate their social enterprise and carry out a pilot project demonstrating its impact.