Three Cameroonians receive inaugural Queen's Young Leaders Awards
HM Queen Elizabeth II has presented the Queen's Young Leaders Awards to Alain Nteff, Mallah E. Tabot and Joannes P. Yimbesalu from Cameroon
Queen's Young Leader, Alain Nteff, from Cameroon receiving his award from HM the Queen.
Her Majesty The Queen presented the inaugural Queen’s Young Leaders Awards to three young people from Cameroon at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Monday 22nd June.
Miss Mallah Enow Tabot, Mr. Alain Nteff and Mr. Joannes Paulus Yimbesalu were among 60 exceptional young people from across the Commonwealth who have been recognised by The Queen for taking the lead in transforming the lives of others and make a lasting difference in their communities. Before receiving their Award at Buckingham Palace the winners met the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron at 10 Downing Street, visited the headquarters of global social networking company, Twitter and met with senior executives at the BBC World Service.
Mallah Enow Tabot said: “I am so happy to be one of the first recipients 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 Award winners in London and get involved in all the exciting activities that are taking place throughout the week.”
Joannes Paulus Yimbesalu another Queen’s Young Leader from Cameroon described the award ceremony as “the best moment of my life since I was born. It was an emotional experience but I was comforted when her HM the Queen acknowledged the work we do at Hope For Children Cameroon with the Queens’ Young Leader Award. The journey was never easy but my Mum made sure education was the only tool u needed to create change. Be the change you want to see. Proud to have represented Cameroon and my culture with other amazing youths globally. The road was indeed tough but humility was key”.
This year’s Award winners are aged between 18 and 29 and are working to support others, raise awareness and inspire change on a variety of different issues including; education, climate change, gender equality, mental health and disability equality.
Following the ceremony on the 22nd June, Award winners will spend four days in the UK to take part in a residential development programme as part of the Award prize. The programme includes workshops at Cambridge University, meetings with UK businesses leaders, and visits to life changing social action projects.
To see a full list of Award winners and Highly Commended runners up, and read more about their stories please visit www.queensyoungleaders.com.