Pacific winner named Commonwealth Young Person of the Year [1]
Thursday, April 19, 2018 - 17:35
Usman Iftikhar (27) from Australia was awarded the Commonwealth Young Person of the Year by Prince Harry in London this week.
He was one of four outstanding young people aged 15-29 years honoured with Commonwealth Youth Awards.
Usman (27), who was also named the regional winner for the Pacific founded Catalysr, a startup incubator that enables migrants and refugees in Australia to start their own businesses and create a sustainable future for themselves and their communities.
The three other regional winners awarded by the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Education, Damian Hinds, included Vanessa Paranjothy (29) for Asia.
She co-founded Freedom Cups with her sisters, providing underprivileged women with menstrual products in a buy-one-give-one model.
Jonathan Barcant (29) was awarded the regional winner for the Caribbean and Americas. From Trinidad and Tobago, he founded Vetiver TT, a cost-effective bio-engineering scheme to build climate change resilience.
While, the regional winner for Africa and Europe, Sherifah Tumusiime (29) from Uganda was recognised for Zimba Women, a social enterprise she founded to help underserved women get internet access.
The awards recognized young people whose innovative projects have had a significant impact on their communities. This year it celebrated young people’s contribution towards a fairer, more sustainable, more secure and more prosperous future for the Commonwealth: the four sub-themes of the Youth Forum at the Commonwealth Summit.
The Regional Young Persons of the Year received £3,000 and the Commonwealth Young Person of the Year received £5,000.
Finalists had also received a grant of £1,000 to continue their development work.
Twenty finalists were shorlisted from more than 400 application for the awards from around the world, coordinated by the Commonwealth Youth Programme.