Hailing from Mexico, at the young age of 16, Tere co-founded a nonprofit in her home-country Mexico to take on weighty problems that would have been intimidating to many—violence and drug addiction. Emboldened by her success, she helped launch nonprofits that repurpose plastic bottles to build solar lighting solutions for communities living in energy poverty.
“Without light, your opportunities are diminished,” a conviction that led Tere to start Liter of Light Mexico in 2013 as a joint venture with Fundacion Qohelet, the non-profit organization to prevent violence and addiction that she co-founded at the age of 16. As part of a global open-source movement, Liter of Light Mexico provides affordable and sustainable solar light using recycled bottles to illuminate homes, businesses and streets. What started out as a small project in Mexico, eventually grew into a full non-profit organization, which Tere still manages today as president and has helped incubate Liter of Light in other countries like India, Spain, Honduras and Guatemala, among others.
“We work directly with minorities and marginalized groups, including gypsy and indigenous communities, people living in slums, victims of drug cartels and migrants,” says Tere. In addition to her role as president, Tere works at the Young Americas Business Trust at the Organization of American States promoting entrepreneurship, social and economic development among young people from Latin America and the Caribbean. She is also engaged with initiatives like MTV Agentes de Cambio for Latin America to engage young people in social activism. “I am committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals for all people while leaving no one behind.”
Over the years, her passion for international development and social justice took Tere to several countries, including India and Spain, where she gained experience in communications, cultural engineering, and social entrepreneurship. She previously worked at the United Nations Foundation designing global campaigns for the Sustainable Development Goals and at the Organization of American States empowering young entrepreneurs from Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently, Tere works at the World Bank Group, where she contributes to the global communications efforts to advance gender equality.