Rolex honours ﬁve Young Laureates who better our world

Marc Latzel

All successful organizations and countries involve their young people in decision-making. Rolex, recognizing that the future lies in youth, has started its Young Laureates Programme, and its ﬁve recipients were announced recently at the École Fédérale Polytechnique de Lausanne.
The Programme gives young people the ﬁnancial support and recognition to tackle the challenges facing humanity with innovative projects.
The 2010 winners, aged between 18 and 30, are Jacob Colker from the US, Reese Fernandez from the Philippines, Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu from Nigeria, Piyush Tewari from India, and Bruktawit Tigabu from Ethiopia.
Fernandez’s work is particularly relevant to Lucire readers: she has set up a Rags2Riches fashion label (above and left), which brings more money back to the producers by creating higher-value goods. An acclaimed local designer, Rajo Laurel, designs the goods, while local mothers create them, using scrap materials from factories. They have moved from rugs to bags and other products.
Composer and producer Brian Eno honoured the ﬁve, stating in his speech: ‘My question, really, is: if we create our worlds by the process of imagination, which is what I think we do, can we imagine different kinds of worlds? Can we imagine a world that is positive, that is hopeful, that is optimistic, rather than one that is negative and dangerous?’
Eno said to the honorees: ‘Thank you for building a future that hopefully I can be proud of.’