Bebe Akinboade

QUEEN OF ENGLAND HONOURS 4 NIGERIAN YOUTHS

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Four
Nigerian Youths were among those honoured by Queen Elizabeth II of England on
Monday night, at the inaugural Queen’s Young Leaders (YQL) awards at the
Buckingham palace. The award which was first of its kind was designed to reward
exceptional youths from across the Commonwealth nations.
The awardees
include; Isaiah Owolabi, Kelvin Ogholi, Nkechikwu Azinge and Oladipupo Ajiroba.
All the
award winners, who are aged between 18 and 29, are being recognised by the UK
monarch for taking the initiative to support others, raise awareness and
inspire change on a variety of different issues. Areas in which they have
excelled include education, gender equality, mental health and disability
equality.

According to
the profile of the awardees, Nkechi Azinge, runs a Sickle Cell Foundation. The
organisation encourages people to get tested to know their haemoglobin
genotype, and has set up sickle cell clubs in schools to inform and educate
young people about their condition. She also got support for her work from
David Beckham and the executive producer of 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen.
Mr. Isaiah
Owolabi, co-founded HACEY Health Initiative, helps disadvantaged women and
children to lead healthy lives. In 2012 HACEY launched Hands Up For Her, which
promotes the rights of African girls.The award will help HACEY develop its
Women’s Health and Productivity project; ensuring women in rural areas have
access to health services and training.
Mr. Kelvin
Ogholi, after seeing livestock farmers – including his father struggle to pay
for feeds, co-founded UNFIRE. This social enterprise has found a way to produce
poultry feeds from organic waste such as mango seeds, seaweeds. It costs half
the price of normal feeds, and so far it has helped more than 70 farmers.
Mr.
Oladipupo Ajiroba growing up with bronchitis made Oladipupo very conscious of
pollution. He set up The Environmental Advocacy and Management Initiative,
which has engaged more than 10,000 volunteers in campaigns and workshops. Oladipupo
intends to use The Queen’s Young Leaders Award to encourage greater respect for
the environment and to create green jobs.
The News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the awardees will undertake training,
mentoring and networking, including a one-week residential programme in the UK
in association with Cambridge University.
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