The Trinbagonian chapter is currently being chaired by Benedict Bryan and co-Chaired by Kurba Maria Quetelle. Speaking during this launch, Benedict Bryan said,

“We believe this chapter will enable on the ground support to young leaders in Trinbago and provide greater opportunities for peer learning and collaboration across organisations, in-country and across the region.”  

Benedict Bryan, chair of the Trinbago country chapter speaking during this launch

“QCT Network members are helping to transform their communities across the Commonwealth, and the Year of Youth is an excellent reminder of the change that young people can make for the benefit of society, and the need for us all to support them.”

Chris Kelly, Chief Executive of QCT

On behalf of QCT, Benedict Bryan joined in celebrating 2023 as the Commonwealth year of the youth and expressed QCT’s pledge to remain devoted to supporting the work of young leaders across the Commonwealth. QCT further extended congratulations to Trinbago on a successful bid to host the 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games.  

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To enable them to observe and contribute towards Commonwealth Day, the specially designed Peace Flags are being given to young people in Commonwealth countries around the world. The intention is to raise the flag on Commonwealth Day – 13th March 2023 – as part of efforts to promote 2023 as the Commonwealth Year of Peace across the family of nations.

Speaking on the initiative the Commonwealth Secretary-General, the Rt Hon Patricia Scotland KC said:

“Peace is one of the most important values on which the Commonwealth is built.

“It is fantastic that young people across our great Commonwealth family are uniting with us. It is our hope that by raising the Commonwealth Flag for Peace in each Commonwealth country on Commonwealth Day it will send a clear message – that our collective commitment to peace is unshakable.

“It is especially valuable that young people are participating in this event during Commonwealth Week, when we will celebrate the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Commonwealth Charter – the bedrock of shared values and aspirations which unites members across borders.”

Rt Hon Patricia Scotland KC, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, speaking on the initiative.

The Commonwealth Flag for Peace features a white dove of peace in the bottom right-hand corner of the Commonwealth flag, symbolising the shared values and principles of the Commonwealth, including co-operation on economic and social development, diversity, respect, friendship, and the promotion of peace around the world.

The Queen’s Commonwealth Trustis helping galvanise youth across the Commonwealth to get involved in the flag raising ceremonies as part of the 2023 Commonwealth Year of Youth. A young person in each Commonwealth country has been selected to help raise the flag and take part in the ceremonies. 

“We are delighted that members of the QCT Network will be raising the Flag of Peace in countries across the Commonwealth. QCT Network members are helping to transform their communities across the Commonwealth, and the Year of Youth is an excellent reminder of the change that young people can make for the benefit of society, and the need for us all to support them.”

Chris Kelly, Chief Executive of the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust  (QCT)

The Royal Commonwealth Society is also supporting the initiative by incorporating the Peace Flag into the Commonwealth Day Service, to be held at Westminster Abbey, London.

A Peace Flag will be raised at Marlborough House, London, the headquarters of the Commonwealth Secretariat, after the Commonwealth Day Service and further Peace Flags will also be raised in towns and cities across the UK on Commonwealth Day.

The Commonwealth Flag of Peace initiative will be delivered in partnership with the Queen’s Commonwealth Trustand Bruno Peek, Pageantmaster, in tribute to Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. This will be the first Commonwealth Day since her passing.

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My name is Marva Langevine. I am a teacher and the founder of Guyana Golden Lives Organization. I grew up in a village called Den-Amstel in Guyana and migrated to Barbados as a teenager to live with my mother and attend high school. I always loved theatre, arts and modelling, and was keen to let my passions be known to my new classmates! Because of this, I was first seen as the strange and loud foreign classmate, but my love for poetry and fashion inspired me to stay true to myself and ultimately contributed to the many great connections and friendships I made throughout those years.

Despite enjoying my time in Barbados, I missed my home in Guyana and, after graduating in 2009, I had a burning desire to return and make a positive impact to the country I‘d grown up in. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do but I just had this feeling that I was going to become a changemaker. To get the ball rolling, I decided to train to become a teacher. My love for children grew and I became a mentor to those who needed further encouragement. This sparked something in me, and it wasn’t long before my changemaker desires took a clearer direction.

Mikiesha

The moment I discovered my purpose happened in the most unexpected way. I was preparing to compete in the Miss World Guyana Pageant in 2016 and was thinking of a cause to highlight for my ‘Beauty With A Purpose’ project, which was part of the competition process. I had a few ideas, but I thought that there were already enough organizations doing great work for each of them. I wanted my project to help scope out those that didn’t yet have a support network. At a loss, I paused for a few minutes and said a prayer. Almost instantly, the name “Mikiesha” popped up in my thoughts.

Mikiesha was a dear friend who died from a rare form of cancer in 2014. I spent every afternoon at the hospital with her during her final months here on earth. She was the mother of two beautiful boys, who were one and four years old when she died. She left a little booklet containing all her hopes and dreams for them. After her death, I made a promise to fulfil at least one wish from that book.

When her name appeared in my thoughts, I didn’t understand at first, but that evening it became clear. I decided to get on my laptop and typed in “what happens to children after their parent/s die”. I sat there for hours reading through articles on childhood bereavement awareness – the first time I had even heard about such a thing. That night was the moment I discovered my purpose. I had found a cause that I felt immediately connected to and by finding something that was close to home, it just fuelled my passion. I believe this was a vision from God and I give him all the glory. There is also a scripture which states that true religion entails being there for the fatherless and widows in their time of distress, which I also found poignant.

That year I used my place in the pageant to launch my Childhood Bereavement Awareness project, which was committed to educating as many people as possible about the impact of death and loss on children, and pledged to create the appropriate services needed to provide comfort and hope. I did not win the pageant that year, but I won the ‘Beauty With A Purpose’ Award for my project – the first of its kind in Guyana.

The moment I discovered my purpose happened in the most unexpected way. I was preparing to compete in the Miss World Guyana Pageant in 2016 and was thinking of a cause to highlight for my ‘Beauty With A Purpose’ project, which was part of the competition process. I had a few ideas, but I thought that there were already enough organizations doing great work for each of them. I wanted my project to help scope out those that didn’t yet have a support network. At a loss, I paused for a few minutes and said a prayer. Almost instantly, the name “Mikiesha” popped up in my thoughts.

Mikiesha was a dear friend who died from a rare form of cancer in 2014. I spent every afternoon at the hospital with her during her final months here on earth. She was the mother of two beautiful boys, who were one and four years old when she died. She left a little booklet containing all her hopes and dreams for them. After her death, I made a promise to fulfil at least one wish from that book.

When her name appeared in my thoughts, I didn’t understand at first, but that evening it became clear. I decided to get on my laptop and typed in “what happens to children after their parent/s die”. I sat there for hours reading through articles on childhood bereavement awareness – the first time I had even heard about such a thing. That night was the moment I discovered my purpose. I had found a cause that I felt immediately connected to and by finding something that was close to home, it just fuelled my passion. I believe this was a vision from God and I give him all the glory. There is also a scripture which states that true religion entails being there for the fatherless and widows in their time of distress, which I also found poignant.

That year I used my place in the pageant to launch my Childhood Bereavement Awareness project, which was committed to educating as many people as possible about the impact of death and loss on children, and pledged to create the appropriate services needed to provide comfort and hope. I did not win the pageant that year, but I won the ‘Beauty With A Purpose’ Award for my project – the first of its kind in Guyana.

Beginning Guyana Golden Lives Organization

After the pageant, I knew I had to continue my ‘Beauty With A Purpose’ project. I renamed it to Guyana Golden Lives Organization, but maintained the core objectives of raising awareness on the impact of grief and loss in childhood and providing support for bereaved families. The support services include everything from mentorship and support groups through to scholarships, home visits and retreats. Our vision is always to help grieving children “grow, cope and develop”.

When I first started out, I spent a lot of time and personal funds to create spaces where people were willing to have conversations about grief. Death is a taboo topic in the Caribbean and people are often uncomfortable talking about how they feel, so many of my initiatives were initially met with a lot of rejection. One of those initiatives was a camp for children and teens. I wanted to create a safe space where young people could express themselves and receive comfort, guidance and hope. It was an ‘unknown’ area, and getting volunteers and garnering the support from businesses – and even the surviving parents – was a tough task. They either didn’t understand, were unable to see the importance of the work or just felt too uncomfortable talking about it.

Kind donations from a few supporters in the diaspora and local community, along with help from friends and family members, successfully helped fund the camp. Thankfully, my friends and mentors who are trained in the field of social work volunteered for the camp as mentors. The camp was amazing. The children shared their stories, laughed, cried and learnt valuable lessons. During that time, I saw the campers express their feelings without being afraid. They all left with bright smiles on their faces and hope for the journey ahead.

Buoyed by the positive impact the camp had made to so many bereaved children, I journeyed into communities to educate people about coping with grief and how to provide appropriate support for children. Being a teacher, I planned a ‘grief in the classroom’ workshop and was able to facilitate this workshop with other teachers from several schools in my region.

Eventually, people started seeing the importance of this cause and started to champion our work. It was difficult but I never gave up. I am incredibly proud of the work I have achieved so far; the growth and impact of my organization on the lives of the bereaved families we work with will always remain the most important thing to me.

For us, the future is big and bright, and I would like to grow Guyana Golden Lives Organizaton to have various grief support and awareness hubs across the Caribbean. I would also love to train to become a qualified grief counsellor.

Young people are the future

I believe it is important for young people to be seen as leaders in their own right because they are capable, creative and passionate about what they do. The world is changing, and, excitingly, young people are taking up spaces they were never traditionally allowed to be in.

My three tips for young people with great ideas but may not know how to make them a reality are:

1. Read, read and read some more. Do your research and become familiar with everything about your area of interest. This gives you that extra push to take action.

2. Start small, get creative and network. Do this with whatever resources you have. Even if it is $1 and a small space. Don’t stop talking because that will help you to build a strong network.

3. Invest in yourself. Make sure you write down your personal definition of leadership and keep reviewing it. Great ideas on their own will not make you a great leader. Invest in yourself as much as you would do for your idea and you will achieve everything you set out to do.

My motto is “Be A Mentor, Make A Difference”. I hope you are motivated to do the same thing.

Hugs!

Follow the work of Guyana Golden Lives Organization on Facebook.

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Currently there are 121 million children without access to education. There are 69 million too few teachers to hit country education targets and even if we combined the entire global budget for education, we wouldn’t come close to reaching every child. It is clear that the traditional approach to tackling the education deficit does not work – we need an affordable, scalable and world-class solution for ALL children, no matter where they were born or where they live.

Good news is, we have a solution. With Hello World, there is potential for children to learn and explore a global body of knowledge, right in the centre of their community, wherever they are in the world, even in the absence of teachers and schools.

Access to the world

If you have access to the internet, you have access to the world. However, getting Wi-Fi in certain parts of the world can be a challenge to say the least! It was clear then that any solution we came up with would need to be able to overcome this. At the same time we had been inspired by educational researcher Sugata Mitra’s ‘Hole in the Wall’ project which delves into children’s ability to learn and teach themselves. It was these thoughts and challenges that got our Founder and CEO, Katrin McMillan, thinking about how she could turn her own obsession with ending the education deficit into something that would deliver real social change. Collaborating with coders, designers, researchers and engineers, she started to shape a solution that if successful, would have the potential to take education to all children regardless of a lack of schools, books or teachers. Hello World was born, and with it, the Hello Hub.

Built for the community, by the community

The Hello Hub is a solar-powered outdoor Internet kiosk, with state-of the art technology including high quality solar panels, satellite connectivity and 8 weatherproof touchscreen ipads, camera and audio equipment. One Hub can provide unlimited internet access for over 1500 people.

By connecting communities to the internet, the Hub opens up access to the vast number of resources available online, including vocational education and business-related best practices. Each hub provides access to preloaded educational material plus apps and tools for teachers. By working closely with partners and local education providers, we have been able to develop lesson plans and supporting materials for classes empowering individuals to go out and teach those who otherwise would have missed out on education.

It is important to us that any solution we find is self-sustaining, empowering and ultimately mobilising communities to create their own change. One of the most important things that we have learnt is that mutual investment in the cause, and a real sense of collaboration between us and the community, is essential for creating successful ventures.

This is why we approach all communities as partners and insist that we work together to build their Hello Hub.

Not only are we empowering the local community to take control of their future, but we are also creating engineers and advocates who will go on and share their knowledge with others. In an outdated sector, this is a truly innovative approach to addressing educational development needs, particularly in poorer parts of the world.

Constantly learning

We now have a total of 9 live hubs; one in Suleja, Nigeria, four in Uganda and four in Nepal. Excitingly our Hello Hubs are being used by their communities nearly 19 hours a day on average.

The Hello Hubs are designed to constantly collect data allowing us to better understand who uses them, what they are used for, and also what impact they have on the users. Current findings show that most of the Hello Hub users are children, three quarters of whom are of school age. Of those, 25% have had no formal schooling. It is exactly these children that Hello World exists to reach and inspire with educational resources. 98% of Hello World community members say that the project has positively improved their lives.

Taking a pause

Despite our early successes, Hello World wasn’t quite ready to scale. Our first kit was too pricey and the Hubs weren’t quite rugged enough. Transport with huge solar panels was problematic and our keyboards kept breaking. On top of that, our two UK-based staff were both about to go on maternity leave and Katrin’s husband had sadly recently been diagnosed with stage three cancer. We thought about shutting-down the whole operation. Thankfully, we had supportive funders, friends and advisors who backed a decision to pause, regroup and consider next steps once the babies were born!

For the following months, we effectively shut down everything except remote support to our 5 communities. But behind the scenes, we could not stop thinking about the potential of the model.
We knew there was a way to take the idea to scale and have a genuine shot at reaching some of the world’s most marginalised communities with education, connectivity, power and, opportunities.
So we asked our Hub communities what worked, what didn’t, what they did and didn’t like, what they’d like to see more and less of and how Hello World could be better. We added that feedback to our own requirements (reduced cost, transportability, ruggedness and sustainability) and partnered with a design-team in the US, sent them the brief and waited to see what came back. They did not disappoint! Over the past 6 months we have been working with them on the new Hello World design and it’s seriously impressive!

The new kit is seven times cheaper at only £5k per unit. It’s more transportable and comes in a crate which itself becomes part of the Hello Hub our communities create. The design is extremely rugged – able to withstand extreme sun, heat, rain, cold and dust. Hello World 2.0 can take more children working simultaneously than the previous iteration and, crucially, can be applied in a range of settings and multiple configurations. As our abilities grow, so do our ambitions. We’re getting ready to scale over the next couple of years and as of January 2019 we are starting to test the new design in four communities in Nepal.

By 2021, our goal is to have worked with 350,000 children at 50 Hello Hubs in developing countries. We want to show just how far children can take their education when they’re given the tools and a space to learn. We’re proud of where we’ve taken Hello World in just a couple of years and know we didn’t get to the place where we can think big and consider real growth without some hiccups along the way. We’ve dealt with failure, setbacks and made many other mistakes, but were also brave enough to know when it was time to take a break and re-evaluate what we are trying to achieve and how best to get there. 2018 was a crazy non-stop sprint to get things ready but we’re getting there, and we can’t wait to see what’s going to come our way next!

Our 3 Top Tips:

1. It’s vital to work with funders in an open and transparent way that allows for mistakes, failure and innovation. We were lucky to have supportive funders who believed in the underlying principle of Hello World and in our ability to pull it off at the right time.
2. It’s OK to get things wrong: in charity, like in business, we must allow for mistakes to be made. Without this, we’ll never see true progress. By getting some things wrong with our pilot we were able to see how we could improve.
3. Taking a pause can get more done: Stepping back from the ‘thick of it’ allowed us to see clearly how we could make improvements and get ourselves prepared for the next stages with Hello World. Had we kept business-as-usual going we may never have looked up for long enough to see the potential we had within our network, and ourselves!

Follow Hello World on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

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I am scared, really very scared about how my life will turn out if I relocate to another country. I’ll have no network, no knowledge of the language, the food or the customs, no friends and no real understanding of the challenges that await me. That’s how I felt when I considered moving from Uganda to Rwanda in search of a new life.

“Sometimes it requires completely changing our environment to discover new challenges to meet and new solutions to problems.”

Let me tell you my story.

As a young graduate in Uganda I found myself at a crossroads and facing an important decision. Should I follow the more traditional and predictable path of finding a job in a law firm, having graduated as a lawyer, or take a more unconventional, unpopular and often shunned route, choosing to serve humanity over making money?

I knew my calling…

Every society has its challenges and my home country of Uganda is no different. It’s a patriarchal society where women and girls had minimal say in many things, including who to love or marry. Human rights violations including victimization and incarceration, particularly against the youth, are commonplace.

Amidst both upheaval and transition, it was climate change that had become the most significant threat to our society. Our compromised environment and the related breakdown of political, social and economic structures had brought us to our knees, especially in small and vulnerable villages where the majority of our poor communities lived, including some of my own relatives.

I felt compelled to act.

Through a project called Young African Leaders I led a team that trained women, the youth, farmers, local leaders, religious figureheads and the business community on climate change science and mitigation and the use of renewable affordable energy sources like solar panels, bio gas and hydroelectric power. Our movement had significant impact. With local community support we planted over one million trees. Women, who are most vulnerable to the impact of climate change, found support and become empowered.

As a Queen’s Young Leader we are trained and emboldened to lead change in our societies and communities, but having contributed my service to the Ugandan people through climate change projects, as well as human rights defense cases and awareness projects within Ugandan youth society, I felt the need to seek a new challenge outside of my own country.

I made the decision to move to Rwanda. In Rwanda I found both a new life and a new challenge. The plight of the local children who live and die on the streets became my cause.

These children are denied the life that you and me probably lived, a life of going to school and having the security of a home and the love of a family. These children needed and deserved help. To be taken off the streets and given an education and a safe environment to live and thrive in.

I quickly found and joined Root Foundation, an organization devoted to helping street children.
We give street children a place they can call home. We teach them important personal development skills. We provide a program of sports and activities every day.
And every day we see children flourish. Every day they are more positive and promising than yesterday.
Through our new “Root Village” programme we want to eliminate Rwanda’s street children issue for good, and we have ambitious plans to scale-up the programme by making it available to other countries that face similar youth issues.

I’m very proud of the decision I made as a graduate and even more proud of the impact my work has had, be it at home or in Rwanda. I’m also very proud to help children even further afield than Rwanda. Shortly, I will be volunteering as an advisory board representative with the Indian organization Sakonsa, that helps children attend school and get a better education.

While I know that my part in leading positive change is just a drop in the ocean, I truly believe that if we join our efforts together we can become the ocean. At that point, anything is possible.

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