Since 2020, the initiative has supported Young Leaders worldwide with Samsung Galaxy technology, mentorship and networking opportunities to amplify their stories and advance solutions across all 17 Global Goals.

When devastating floods submerged her home state in Brazil, Renata Koch Alvarenga questioned whether her work was making a difference. Instead of retreating, she doubled down, launching an ambitious program to prepare women and youth for the climate crisis ahead.

The 17 Global Goals refer to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all by 2030. They cover interrelated areas such as quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, climate action, life on land and below water, among others.

The images still haunt her. In May 2024, the state of Rio Grande do Sul faced the worst flooding in its history, submerging Renata Koch Alvarenga’s hometown of Porto Alegre under record-breaking floodwaters. Nearly 600,000 people were displaced, streets disappeared, and the airport remained closed for months.

▲ The 2024 floods in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, affected nearly 2.4 million people and caused widespread damage across 478 municipalities, including Porto Alegre, shown here.

“My heart was definitely breaking,” she recalls. “I saw so many places that I grew up going to, such as parks and museums, destroyed.”

What happened in Brazil reflects a growing global threat. Climate change is heating oceans and shifting rainfall patterns, intensifying extreme weather events like floods. By 2100, coastal flood risk is expected to increase fivefold, threatening more than 70 million people worldwide, according to UNDP. 

After years of climate advocacy and educational outreach, the devastation – some of it in the very communities Renata had worked to protect – left her questioning if her efforts were enough. “I like to say that I’m a climate optimist and always like to see the glass half full, but that was a key moment in which it was very hard to keep being an optimist,” she says. “It was very hard to keep going.”

For Renata, the choice became clear: give in to doubt, or double down on her mission.

Discovering Climate Justice

Renata’s path to climate activism began in college when she received the opportunity to attend COP21 – the 21^st United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties – held in Paris in 2015, where world leaders negotiated the landmark Paris Agreement. “I saw multiple diplomats say, ‘I don’t really understand why we’re talking about gender. This has nothing to do with climate change,’” she says.

This dismissive response sparked something within her. Renata’s studies had shown that the climate crisis impacts people differently based on gender and economic status – with women often facing the harshest consequences while being excluded from decision-making. This imbalance lies at the heart of climate justice. According to UN Women, by 2050, climate change may push up to 158 million more women and girls into extreme poverty, compared to 16 million more men and boys.

Renata left COP21 determined to change things.

▲ Inspired by what she witnessed in Paris, Renata worked to create pathways for marginalized voices in climate advocacy.

Leveraging Technology for Impact

 Following years of advocacy and study, Renata founded EmpoderaClima, a climate and gender advocacy and education organization with a simple principle: knowledge is empowerment, and empowerment is equality. It originally launched as a website in 2019 using technology to democratize climate information.

“Technology is essential for EmpoderaClima because it allows us to reach people we otherwise couldn’t,” says Renata. “The scale and multiplying effect of social media and our digital database is incredibly powerful,” she adds.

By translating resources on climate and gender equity into French, Spanish and Portuguese, EmpoderaClima broke down language barriers that excluded communities from international climate discussions. And social media enabled the organization to scale rapidly, reaching more than 60,000 people across the world.

▲ The EmpoderaClima website features climate change resources in multiple languages, making them accessible to communities across Latin America and beyond.

Expanding Beyond Digital

 As EmpoderaClima grew, so did its initiatives. The organization now runs student workshops, offers climate and leadership mentorship programs for women, and leads advocacy efforts that bring young women to global stages.

Through school visits, Renata’s team takes climate education to youth in vulnerable communities, highlighting the United Nations’ Global Goals with a focus on quality education (Goal 4), gender equality (Goal 5) and climate action (Goal 13).

▲ Students in flood-impacted São Leopoldo, Brazil, learn how their climate experiences connect to global policy.

Brazil’s floods last year exposed gaps in emergency response, including services that address the needs of women and children. In response, Renata launched the Women for Climate Resilience program, where local leaders gain skills in disaster preparedness, mental health and climate adaptation, then carry the knowledge back to their communities. So far, the initiative has reached women from three regions of Brazil.

“Today I feel empowered, strengthened, renewed,” said Janaína dos Santos, a social worker in Porto Alegre, at a recent Women for Climate Resilience workshop.

▲ Women leaders participate in EmpoderaClima’s climate resilience workshop, learning skills and strategies to better prepare for future climate disasters.

Building an Inclusive Climate Future

As climate disasters become more frequent and intense, Renata says her work has never felt more important. “My dream for the future,” she says, “is expanding our reach globally and building an even bigger network of women who are empowered and ready to take action for climate justice.” Technology, she believes, has been vital to EmpoderaClima’s evolution and will be just as critical in scaling impact in the years ahead.

For Renata, the flood marks in her hometown represent not only loss, but also resilience and an opportunity to rebuild with justice at the center. Her vision is clear: a world where women and youth don’t just endure climate challenges but shape climate solutions.

Lerotholi Polytechnic’s Rector, Prof. Spirit Tlali, said, “This strategic partnership is exactly what our institution needs at this time. It is also a much welcome opportunity for our students as it will give them the necessary skills to make a meaningful contribution in the technology-driven revolution the global community finds itself in right now. A partnership such as this one, with a global technology giant like Samsung is something no institution of higher learning can ignore. We are fortunate and proud to be able to facilitate this for our students and to help them get ready for the exciting field of work.”

After being introduced in South Africa earlier in 2022, the programme has already been launched in two South African tertiary institutions. With a low volume and high impact approach, the SIC’s courses include Coding and Programming, Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data. LP will undertake the training and assessment of the students in line with the content provided by Samsung.

Samsung holds the belief that the future of any country lies in the hands of young people and that education gives them the greatest chance to realise their full potential and prepare themselves for that future. This is why Samsung is deliberate in working to equip young people with the skills and knowledge they will need to build a better world. The company is committed to empowering the youth with the tools they will need to drive and effect meaningful change.

Hlubi Shivanda, Director: Business Operations and Innovation and Corporate Affairs at Samsung South Africa said, “Samsung is heavily invested in the development of people and communities and we believe that that can only be achieved through working together with others. We are driven by bringing about positive social change and building a better world for all, not just through our products and services, but also by creating opportunities for learning and growth. The Samsung Innovation Campus aims to provide an opportunity to deserving youth from under-served communities to gain skills that combine future core technology capabilities with soft skills and job preparation. We are confident that the programme will open many doors for the beneficiaries and that our partnership with the institution will continue to grow as it empowers the youth.”

Samsung proudly supports Busan’s bid for the World Expo 2030

The Samsung Future-Innovation Lab, which began in September 2019, aims to provide an opportunity to previously disadvantaged youth to gain skills in software development and digital social innovation. The six-month programme focuses on:

• The development of software development skills and portfolios that can open doors to employment or further training;
• The development of transferable skills and experience in digital social innovation and
• The fostering of pathways into industry networks.

In addition to the six-month development experience, Samsung and UWC partnered with the Microsoft AppFactory to deliver an advanced nine-month software development programme to address the gap of high-demand software skills. The target group for this programme is more experienced software developers who lack practical or work experience. The programme aims to facilitate hands-on, real-world experience through creativity and fun in a learning and working environment.

“Samsung has prioritised education and training in software development, engineering, business management and entrepreneurship skills. In doing so, we believe that as the programme grows, more of South Africa’s youth can successfully apply their new skills, which are highly sought-after in the country’s digital economy.The programme is also aligned with Samsung’s global mission ‘Enabling People’, which is aimed at aiding people, discovering and developing their full abilities and harnessing the potential for success that exists in the technology sector., “said Hlubi Shivanda, Director: Business Innovation Group and Corporate Affairs at Samsung South Africa.

The programme is an integral part Samsung’s R280-million Equity Equivalent Investment Programme (EEIP) launched in 2019. The 84 students are now the proud beneficiaries of this long-term vision for growth and success. The graduates included 36 students from the short course in multi-platform software development, 41 students from the short course in Digital Social Innovation and 7 students from the Microsoft AppFactory programmes, who can all now begin a well-supported career in the ICT sector. The graduates were pleased to have received this incredible opportunity.

Student Mikaela Gabriel, who described the programme as ‘life-changing’, said: “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine an opportunity like this could happen to me. I have not only acquired a new skill set, but this course has also helped me grow in more ways that I never knew I would. There were challenging days but the entire world was going through those challenges with COVID-19; this taught me to never give up.” Another student, Tegwen Galant, added: “When I started this course, I was very anxious as I was trying to find my feet and make my mark in the tech world. It’s great to know this platform exists and will help ease unemployment.”

The Samsung-UWC partnership will continue to make a meaningful difference in young people’s lives through capacity building programmes such as these. This life-changing opportunity raises the prospects for employment for these students. Samsung is looking forward to the new intake of recruits for the new academic period and wish them well on their journey of success.

“The students in the second cohort of the Future-Innovation Programme, our innovative partnership with Samsung, were onboarded on their learning journey amid the Covid-19 lockdown. For these young students, many of which are coming from challenging backgrounds, the realities of the pandemic were very real. One thing that we all learnt during these trying times was the fact that digital technologies can empower us to connect in inspiring ways,” said Professor José Frantz, UWC’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation.

Prof Frantz also commended Samsung for comprehensively supporting students by ensuring that they had sufficient data to learn and access to the devices they needed. “We celebrate this partnership as it is helping us to live our motto of ‘making research and innovation count through connecting possibilities’, by bringing hope through skills development, leveraging technology for connecting to human problems and enabling learning even in difficult contexts.”