Queen Elizabeth II To Award Young Motswana
Staff Writer | Monday June 13, 2016 15:35
As the Commonwealth celebrates the Queen’s 90th birthday, this year’s award winner, 23-year-old Moitshepi Matsheng, has been recognised by the Queen for taking the lead in transforming the lives of others and making a lasting difference in her community.
As a Queen’s Young Leader, she will be representing Botswana as she joins other 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.
Selected from a competitive process where thousands of young people from all over the Commonwealth applied to be a Queen’s Young Leader, Moitshepi Matsheng has been recognised for her education work on HIV/AIDS. She is co-founder of Young 1ove, which has worked with over 32,000 students.
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 June 24, 2016.
The programme is looking for people between ages 18 and 29 who are dedicated to creating positive change in the lives of people in Botswana.