Gabriela Matus Bonilla

GUA

Role

Industrial Designer & IOC Young Change-Maker

Designer and entrepreneur Gabriela Matus Bonilla is the first Youth Olympic Games Young Change-Maker from Guatemala. Matus Bonilla was selected in 2014 for her passion for the relationship between sport and community development and creating a more inclusive country through design.

Inspired by her experience as a Young Change-Maker, Matus Bonilla decided to get involved in sports and community development projects by joining United Play Guatemala, an initiative based in Toronto, Canada. The project promotes overall wellness in disadvantaged communities by promoting sports activities and healthy-living workshops for children and young people. United Play Guatemala uses sport as a tool to face social challenges and help people discover new opportunities.

Using her background in design and social inclusion, Matus Bonilla founded UrbanDis, a design initiative that brings together design and accessibility in order to create more inclusive products, services and environments throughout Guatemala.

Matus Bonilla is a member of the IOC’s Women in Sport Commission, the Guatemala NOC’s Women in Sport Commission, and Global Shapers’ Guatemala City Hub.

The speakers

Using the unique power of sport to bring people together, the Olympism in Action Forum saw a range of global players, including Olympic Movement stakeholders, athletes, private and public sector leaders, NGO representatives, academics, artists and the media come together to talk on topical contemporary issues. Chosen because of their ability to effect change and their wide range of sometimes differing opinions, the speakers led lively debates and seeked to challenge received wisdom to inspire new ways of thinking.