Guyanese selected as finalist for Commonwealth Youth Awards

Patricee Douglas, Guyanese founder of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) is one of this year’s finalists in the Commonwealth Youth Awards.

The Commonwealth Youth Awards is coordinated by the Commonwealth youth programme. The body on Friday announced 20 persons from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Americas, Europe, and the Pacific between the ages of 15 to 29 who were shortlisted from 400 applications.

The SRHR was one of the 20 projects selected as having had a significant impact on local communities.

The project, which is in tandem with the Sustainable Development Goal 3 -Good Health and Well-Being – promotes Sexual And Reproductive Health And Rights (SRHR)with an emphasis on family planning and contraception in Guyana.

The organisation also empowers women and girls to take control of their SRHR, in addition to promoting family planning, safe sex practices and the HPV vaccine.

“This year’s focus is on celebrating young people’s contribution towards a fairer, more sustainable, more secure and more prosperous future for the Commonwealth: the four sub-themes of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) taking place in London in April,” the body said.

Regional Young Persons of the Year will be selected, with one exceptional entrant being recognised as the Commonwealth Young Person of the Year during the Commonwealth Youth Forum, in London in April.

In addition to a grant of GBP £1,000 to continue their development work, finalists will each be awarded a trophy and certificate.

The Regional Young Persons of the Year will receive £3,000, and the Commonwealth Young Person of the Year will pick up £5,000.

Last year, Guyanese Tricia Teekah who co-founded the Guyana National Youth Council and led the ‘Vote Like a Boss’ campaign which was launched in 2015, was selected as a finalist.

The leader of the campaign which used private sector partnerships to educate young voters and eventually reached more than 16,000 young people within a month, went on to win the Regional award.

The Pan-Commonwealth adjudication panel for the final shortlisting of the overall regional and overall winner of the 2018 awards, convened by the Commonwealth Secretariat, included the High Commissioner for Saint Kitts and Nevis, representatives from the High Commissions of Fiji, Malaysia, and Kenya, a trustee of the British Youth Council and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum.