After receiving an overwhelming number of entries, social entrepreneurship programme, AdamStart, has officially closed the window on submission of entries and is set to announce winners of its COVID-19 innovation challenge on Thursday June 18, 2020.
AdamStart which is an entrepreneurship programme launched by 27 year old Adam Bradford, a young social entrepreneur and one of the UK winners of the prestigious Queen’s Young Leader Awards, a Commonwealth wide initiative.
Adam said he received over 1,000 entries from individuals all over the world for the contest.
According to Adam,”since the commencement of the competition,we have received over 1,000 entries spanning across the entire globe with more entries coming from the African continent.”
Adam added that an internal panel was setup to review the shortlisted applications in detail and avoid compromise in quality.
“All entries were screened internally for quality and basic eligibility. The panel conducted a one-one virtual interview with the shortlisted individuals to examine their person,capacity,venture and their plans.”
“An external judging panel was also setup up to judge the assessment of the internal panel earlier setup and reevaluate the entries of the shortlisted applications,” Adam said.
Speaking further, he said five individuals will emerge as winners on Thursday.
“The winners will receive funding,training,mentoring and a fully paid trip to London courtesy of AdamStart,” he said.
The COVID-19 Innovation challenge was launched last month to support young people across the country with May 31, 2020, as closing date for entries amidst the raging Coronavirus pandemic in the country.
The challenge was launched due to the lockdown that got Adam stranded in Benin Republic, the West Africa state since February.
According to Adam,”instead of wasting away time and being unproductive, we are supporting ambitious ideas from education projects through to wholesale solutions which will make this crisis much easier to bear with.”
Adam is currently one of thousands of Brits stuck abroad, after borders closed and he is stranded in Benin Republic, West Africa, where he has been since February.
Adam was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, a form of autism, at the age of 11. He was determined to set up his own business and gained a place at the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy. He launched an IT social enterprise and set up a mentoring and business challenge in his home town of Sheffield. He has since supported more than 1,000 young people to set up community projects, social enterprises and campaigns for social good. Adam also works to raise awareness of autism and gambling addiction and has worked with young ex-offenders to turn their lives around.