Carlos Bareiro, Paraguay
Carlos prepares ordinary citizens to push public institutions toward high standards of integrity and transparency. He recruits and trains groups in Paraguay to monitor and root out corruption in government through connecting local efforts to a national movement for accountable public institutions. Members of the network share tactics, gather and present proof of corrupt dealings, and initiate legal action against corrupt officials.

Mercedes De Freitas, Venezuela
Mercedes is buidling a non-partisan movement for citizen participation in government to popularize Venezuelan democracy. With Venezuela’s new constitution in the process of formation, she is ensuring that Venezuela’s citizens play a key role in the design and implementation of the most significant electoral and municipal governance laws and mechanisms.

Nicolás Hernandez, Colombia
Nicolás mobilizes young Colombians aged 16 to 26 to proactively fight the rampant corruption in their country. Nicolás has identified an untapped approach to combating corruption in transforming young people’s passive acceptance of the status quo.

César Cardenas, Ecuador
César is demonstrating how to cultivate effective youth participation and youth leadership in all aspects of Ecuadorian life. He trains youth to become effective voices in their families, civic organizations, communities and even national politics in order to develop civic leaders at an early age.

Ana Teresa Bernal, Colombia
Ana Teresa Bernal is unifying and strengthening the voice of civil society so that it can play an active role in promoting peace and social justice in Colombia. She is bringing together isolated local peace organizations of youth, women, and indigenous people to form a collective voice for ending the violence in Colombia. The network of organizations create their own solutions to the country's problems instead of waiting for the actors of the armed conflict to do so.

Guillermo Worman, Argentina
Guillermo is changing the relationship between Argentina's government and the citizen sector by opening spaces and forums for civic activity within the country's public sector. He effectively raises the public's awareness of, and engagement in, state activities and grassroots advocacy projects to inform political decisions and protect citizens' rights.

Gilberto de Palma, Brazil
Gilberto believes that to create an educated citizenry two things are needed: material that puts practical, citizenship-related problem solving skills in the hands of citizens; and a municipal-level, non-partisan body that can serve as a gathering point for citizen comments and complaints. To meet these needs, Gilberto has created curriculum offerings (adopted by twelve high schools in São Paulo) as well as the first municipal-level Voters Rights Agency.

Gustavo Candia, Paraguay
Gustavo protects Paraguay's wetlands ecosystems by mobilizing citizen sector organizations to change harmful cultivation methods, offer environment-friendly jobs, and design new land use policies. By creating a bilateral, transparent and accountable environmental protection strategy, he works with institutions in other countries to jointly manage ecosystems across boundaries.

María Elena Foronda, Perú
María Elena Foronda educates Peruvian citizens about the environmental damage caused by fish processing factories and negotiates with the fish industry to find realistic, effective responses to rising ecological problems. María Elena is the first environmentalist to address the problem of contamination caused by the processing of fishmeal.