Here’s an update to our March 2024 story about Edmonds teen Soren Ghorai and his work to encourage and expand blood marrow donations among South Asians.

Ghorai has been awarded the International Baccalaureate’s Global Youth Action Fund award. He will receive a grant of up to $3,000 to fund his project and be invited to participate to attend group sessions, between August and December, on topics that will support his entrepreneurial journey towards impacting his local community positively.

The International Baccalaureate (IB) announced that 86 teams of more than 200 young learners from 25 countries have earned the Global Youth Action Fund award. The award recognizes and empowers future leaders and changemakers in IB World Schools and beyond and is organized in partnership with the IB Festival of Hope. This year, 14 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) were represented among the winning projects.

The Global Youth Action Fund (GYAF), from IB awards micro-grants to support young people’s innovative ideas and projects addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The IB announced and celebrated two cohorts of awardees from 2023 and 2024 representing over 400 youth from 60 countries.

GYAF is an award open to any student or student group ages 12 through 19 who has a project or idea they believe will make an impact in their community. Each project must be aimed to support one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).