Legal aid for Indigenous women in Guatemala, a village-level campaign for girls’ education in India, and a land-restoration project in Mali have taken top honors at the ninth Heroes of Tomorrow awards ceremony in Rome, Italy.
Honoring Maya Women Seeking Justice in Guatemala
The Resilience Award went to the Women’s Justice Initiative, an organization designed to combat the high rates of violence, poverty, and discrimination facing Indigenous women in Guatemala. These systemic challenges are frequently compounded by severe language barriers and limited access to public information.
The initiative actively assists women and girls in understanding the legal system and leading local advocacy within their communities. According to the organization’s figures, more than 16,000 women and girls have participated in its programs to date.
I accept the UN SDG Action Award in the honour of the Maya Kaqchikel women and girls in Guatemala who are building a more just future for their communities,
said Viviana Patal, the initiative’s legal director. Ending violence against women requires all of us. Only together, we can build a future where every woman and girl lives with dignity and realizes her full potential.
Mobilizing Villages to Keep Girls in School in India
The Creativity Award was presented to Mothers of Courage, a grassroots campaign operating across rural India to keep young girls enrolled in formal education. Organizers state that over 1.2 million individuals have formally joined the movement, pledging to keep their daughters in school and actively prevent early marriage.
This award today belongs to all the mothers in those villages, all the women leaders, who are working hard to change the destinies of their daughters and their daughters-in-law,
said Khushboo Awasthi, chief curator of Mothers of Courage. Together, let’s create a world where no girl ever has to negotiate for her right to dream and to aspire and to thrive.
https://t.co/u8Tg6zMvCi 2026 Heroes of Tomorrow: UN SDG Action Awards CeremonyThe Heroes of Tomorrow: UN SDG Action Awards recognize changemakers turning the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals into reality.
Restoring Worn-Out Farmland in Mali
The Changemaker Award was awarded to Malian entrepreneur Rokiatou Traore, whose organization, Herou Alliance, works alongside women and small farmers to revive degraded soil. The initiative focuses on planting trees directly alongside traditional crops to revitalize the land.
Alongside environmental restoration, the integration of trees like moringa enables farmers to generate supplementary revenue streams through local markets. Receiving this award means a lot to me. It is a reminder of why I started this journey,
Traore said, encouraging global participation in agricultural restoration and community empowerment.
THE HEROES OF TOMORROW | UN SDG ACTION AWARDS 🌍✨The @SDGaction event in partnership w/@ItalyMFA_int returns to #Rome 🇮🇹 celebrating those who are transforming the present to build a fair, sustainable and peaceful future.📅 October 29, 6:00 PM📺 Live on @RaiPlay & @UNWebTV pic.twitter.com/lTi7DgxpkA
Global Recognition and Jury Selection
The winners were selected from an initial pool of more than 7,000 entries originating from 190 countries, narrowed down to nine finalists across three distinct categories: resilience, creativity, and changemaker. The UN SDG Action Campaign, a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General, organizes the annual ceremony to support the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
A 20-person jury panel comprising leaders from UN agencies, governments, civil society organizations, the arts, business sectors, and youth activism selected the recipients. The panel included UN Development Programme Administrator Alexander De Croo, Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar, Otto Group Vice President Tobias Wollermann, and DW Director General Barbara Massing. The event received financial and institutional backing from Italy’s Foreign Ministry and Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
