Her Majesty The Queen will present a Queen’s Young Leaders Award to three exceptional young people from Kenya at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, London on Thursday 23rd June.
As the Commonwealth celebrates The Queen’s 90th birthday, this year’s Award winners, Alex Mativo, Peris Bosire and Susan Mueni Waita, all aged between 18 and 29 have been recognised by The Queen for taking the lead in transforming the lives of others and making a lasting difference in their communities.
As a Queen’s Young Leader, they will be representing Kenya as they join winners from 45 different Commonwealth countries in London for five days of high-level engagements, all designed to help them further their life-changing work.
Before receiving their Queen’s Young Leaders Award at Buckingham Palace, the winners will visit 10 Downing Street and the UK headquarters of global social networking company Twitter, and meet with senior executives at the BBC World Service.
They will also meet the Commonwealth Secretary General, take part in workshops at the University of Cambridge, have meetings with UK business leaders, and visit projects that are changing the lives of vulnerable people in the UK.
Alex Mativo has been recognised for his work to tackle environmental problems in his community, Peris has been acknowledged for bridging the funding gap between farmers and financial institutions, and Susan has been recognised for her work as a field coordinator on a girls’ programme.
“I am so happy to be a recipient of The Queen’s Young Leaders Award. To be recognised for my work and be presented with an Award by Her Majesty The Queen at Buckingham Palace is such a huge honour. I can’t wait to meet all the other winners in London and get involved in all the exciting activities that are taking place throughout the week,” said Susan, who made the cut from a competitive process where thousands of young people from all over the Commonwealth applied to be a Queen’s Young Leader.
This year’s Award winners are working to support others, raise awareness and inspire change on a variety of issues including education, climate change, gender, mental health and improving the lives of people with disabilities.
The application process to become a 2017 Queen’s Young Leader opens at 8:00pm BST on Friday 24th June 2016. The programme is looking for people aged between 18 and 29 who are dedicated to creating positive changes to the lives of people in Kenya.
Details about how to apply to become a Queen’s Young Leader, together with information about the 2016 Award winners and Highly Commended runners up, is available at www.queensyoungleaders.com.