Queen Elizabeth II will present a Queen’s Young Leaders Award to an exceptional young person from Sri Lanka at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, London next week.
As the Commonwealth celebrates The Queen’s 90th birthday, this year’s Award winner, 28-year-old Nushelle De Silva, 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 Sri Lanka as she joins 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, Nushelle De Silva has been recognised for her work on peace and reconciliation projects, having been deeply affected by her country’s civil war.
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 disability equality.
The application process to become a 2017 Queen’s Young Leader opens at 8pm BST on Friday 24 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 Sri Lanka.
Details about how to apply to become a Queen’s Young Leader, together with information about the 2016 Award winners and Highly Commended runners up, is available at www.queensyoungleaders.com.
