Her Majesty, The Queen to honour young people from Nigeria with Queen’s Young Leaders Award on June 23rd 2016

Her Majesty The Queen will present a Queen’s Young Leaders Award to four exceptional young people from Nigeria at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, London on Thursday 23rd June 2016.

As the Commonwealth celebrates The Queen’s 90th birthday, this year’s Award winners, including Olanrewaju Adeloye, Aladipupo Ajiroba and Olumide Femi Makanjuola, 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 Nigeria 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.

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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, Olanrewaju Adeloye said: “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.”

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 Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, in partnership with Comic Relief and The Royal Commonwealth Society established The Queen’s Young Leaders Programme in honour of Her Majesty The Queen’s 60 years of service to the Commonwealth at the time of her Diamond Jubilee. Guided by the values of the Commonwealth Charter, the goal of the Programme is to enable young people to step up as leaders and improve the lives of people across the Commonwealth.

  

Each year from 2014 to 2018, 60 exceptional young people will be selected to receive a Queen’s Young Leaders Award and become ‘Queen’s Young Leaders’ one for every year that The Queen had served as Head of the Commonwealth at the time of her Diamond Jubilee.

As part of the Award, winners will receive bespoke mentoring and online learning provided by the University of Cambridge and then attend a week-long residential programme in the UK.

Looking to join the train of honours for next year?  Then step up by  applying.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 Nigeria.

Details and more information about the 2016 Award winners and Highly Commended runners up, is available at www.queensyoungleaders.com.