On July 26th, 2023, the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust (QCT) hosted its first-ever QCT Youth Assembly (YGA) with the theme “Collaborating for Change.” The virtual event brought together QCT Network members from various regions of the Commonwealth who were committed to inspiring, engaging, connecting, and collaborating to make a positive impact.

During the assembly, the QCT Network team led attendees through various aspects of the QCT Network hub, with keynote speaker Helen Baxter, QCT’s Director of Operations and Finance, encouraging members to use the platform to collaborate and create a greater impact. 

Representatives from different chapters shared successful collaborations and experiences, while thematic breakout rooms tackled challenges faced by members and encouraged the exploration of potential pathways for enhanced connections and engagement. 

Participants actively engaged in the proceedings, offering feedback that resulted in the change of the event’s name from QCT Youth General Assembly to QCT Youth Assembly, reflecting the focus of building a cohesive movement driven by the passion and vision of QCT’s young leaders for a better future.

The event concluded with a question and answer session, and the announcement of the date for the next QCT Youth Assembly will be shared on the QCT Network hub to keep members informed about future opportunities to further their impactful initiatives. The inaugural QCT Youth General Assembly served as a dynamic platform that showcased the power of collaboration and reinforced the commitment of QCT and its network members to effect positive change within the Commonwealth and beyond. 

The QCT Youth Assembly will be held quarterly to continue building a movement for a better future led by QCT’s young leaders.

The post QCT’s first Youth Assembly empowers Commonwealth young leaders appeared first on Queens Commonwealth Trust.

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.  

The post QCT network of young leaders launches a country chapter in Trinidad & Tobago appeared first on Queens Commonwealth Trust.

To mark Commonwealth Day, young leaders who are members of the QCT Network raised specially designed Peace Flags in their Commonwealth countries. The intention to raise the flags on Commonwealth Day was part of efforts to promote 2023 as the Commonwealth Year of Peace and the Commonwealth Year of Youth across the family of nations.

The initiative was supported by the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust , the Royal Commonwealth Society and Bruno Peek, Pageantmaster.

The Commonwealth Flags of Peace featured 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.

Below are the reflections of some of the young leaders who participated in the Flags of Peace initiative to mark Commonwealth Day 2023.

 The theme for Commonwealth Day 2023, ‘Forging a sustainable and peaceful common future’, reminds us of our shared responsibility to create a better world for present and future generations. As future leaders, young people must be empowered and engaged to contribute to the global efforts towards achieving a more equitable, just, and common feature. By partnering with young people, we can create a brighter and more prosperous future for the Commonwealth.

Taibat Hussain from United Kingdom

Thank you for amplifying the voice of our nations by working on our behalf to promote peace and prosperity. Happy Commonwealth Day!

Jodie Dennie from St. Vincent and the Grenadines

As we face uncertain and troubling times ahead of us in both Europe and Asia, I am reminded that the core values of what the Commonwealth represent such as ‘the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism and world peace’ are even more relevant and important than ever. May the Commonwealth countries stand together as a beacon of hope and direction for humankind to strive to promote and preserve.

Qin Yunquan from Singapore

As we celebrate Commonwealth Day, let us renew our commitment to promoting and protecting the values that unite us. Let us work together to create a more peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world for all, particularly for the most vulnerable among us. At the Grow Your Reader Foundation, we believe in the power of education to transform lives and communities. We are proud to be a part of the Commonwealth family, and we look forward to continuing to work together to ensure that every child has access to quality education, no matter where they live.

Sadia Jafrin from Bangladesh

Forging a sustainable and peaceful common future. Peace is not the absence of conflict and unrest; it goes way beyond, peace and unity must be fostered within the homes, community, and the nation as a whole. By surrendering our weapons of war to authorities does not guarantee peace and stability but we humans must first work on our minds, behaviour, and attitudes by being tolerant and expressing love to one another for a sustainable and peaceful common future.

Lamzy Jarret from Sierra Leone

Breaking barriers despite borders, embracing our differences, we stand strong. We are the Commonwealth.

Nadir Mendoza from Belize

As a young leader and citizen of a country that is part of the commonwealth of nations, I feel honoured to be raising the flag of peace because I believe in peace in the world, non- discrimination, and equal opportunities for all.

Drucila Meireles from Mozambique.

The post Flags of peace to mark 2023 Commonwealth Day celebrations appeared first on Queens Commonwealth Trust.

We are Chhavi Khandelwal, Manasi Mehan and Aayush Bansal, and together we founded Saturday Art Class. This initiative is a school-based intervention which leverages domestic and international art to address the void of social and emotional learning that exists in India’s government and affordable private schools.

It’s been an overwhelming journey for us to say the least. We started Saturday Art Class as a project in Manasi’s Teach for India Grade 3 classroom in 2017 with the belief that every child, no matter their background, deserves a holistic education with equal opportunities and space for expression. Today we have cumulatively worked with over 5500 children across 15 partner institutions with the help of 1200 mentors (our volunteers).

We have always believed that an idea is as big as the people it can engage, and at Saturday Art Class we have been able to engage a wide community of like-minded individuals, irrespective of age and professional backgrounds, who aim to deliver a sustainable impact by showing their support and volunteering in our classrooms as Mentors and Coaches.

We realised that our idea was relatable to the youth and we felt the need to mobilise them in solving the problem of education inequality and inequity at the grassroot level of our country. We ensured that our programme is scalable and accessible to working professionals and college students. These coaches and mentors have now become the vehicles of conducting our programme in schools, essentially working for change. To have a network of individuals not only believe but also work towards carrying out our vision, makes us proud to be a part of a generation that is committed to social good. In addition, seeing impact stories of children in the programme, observing the positive changes in them through our intervention validates its need more each year, gives us the encouragement we need to move forward.

At Saturday Art Class our vision is to have a world where all children can thrive and not just survive; they have a voice which they are confident and fearless to express and are empathetic responsible citizens of the country, who have the tools to face the future.

In order to enable our vision, our mission is to develop Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in children from low income communities, through art, by complementing the formal education system. Over the next 5 years we want to impact 12,000 children from low-income communities not just in Mumbai but also branch out to other metropolitans in India by leveraging the immense support we have received from within the community, our students, their parents and schools, institutions and the youth.

To conclude, we would like to say that it’s education that takes us into the future, and creativity and free expression is as important as literacy. The children of today will become the youth of tomorrow and it is our task to educate them not only to pass examinations but also to face the future sustainably.

Learn more about each of us by visiting our blog posts below, checking our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages or our website.

The post Leveraging on domestic and international art to address the void of social and emotional learning in India appeared first on Queens Commonwealth Trust.

Search for Thamana
Child Awareness Project began life as ‘Search for Thamana’, a Facebook campaign to find a 5-year-old girl, who was kidnapped from a beach in Chennai, India. Initially, the police and media paid little attention to her case, but the power of social media pushed this story from the columns of tabloids to major daily headlines.

A first it all felt helpless – I had started a Facebook page but only had 6 likes, and I could see that the media were already losing interest. When I called a prominent news channels to drive more coverage, all they said was that they didn’t cover missing kids. I called a national children’s helpline but they stated that they could only help if a child in need called them directly. Thamana was a pre-schooler. There was no way she’d know their number, let alone have access to a phone! In short, the response was very discouraging.

However, as a student journalist for the student edition of a leading daily at the time, I called a news correspondent there. She listened patiently to the story, called the editor and by the next day there was an article in the paper. This one break led to a cascade of events.

A radio jockey saw the story and held a segment about missing children on her show. Eventually, the news channels that had earlier refused to telecast her disappearance, reported it as breaking news. The likes on Facebook soared to hundreds within minutes. Even the Commissioner of Police became fully involved in the case. Facebook and Twitter became my key source of contact with the public. People were sharing Thamana’s photo on their page and changing their profile pictures to the missing poster. Towards the end of the week, Thamana’s photo was displayed on cinema screens and the entire nation seemed to know about the little girl named Thamana who was missing.

Happily, Thamana was located 8 days later as a result of the attention this campaign got. However, I knew that Thamana was just one of many missing children who were neglected by the media but very rarely found. So, following the success of Search for Thamana, I started thinking about how I could create a platform that would help to trace and find other missing children. The Indian government had a similar idea though and launched their own. In 2016, I renamed & officially registered the initiative as the Child Awareness Project (CAP), an organisation which works to build awareness of children’s rights issues and abuses, and encourages young people to take positive social action in their communities.

Advocacy on the ground and online
Alongside social media, where our posts reach on average 10-15,000 impressions a month, CAP’s main initiative is the Campus Ambassador Program, where we recruit students across India to conduct various pre-designed workshops in their local schools. Our aim is to have between 5-10 Campus Ambassadors coming on board each year, and between them each CA will reach between 30-50 young people.

We encourage advocacy for children’s rights both online and on the ground, centring our efforts each year around a particular campaign. Our first major campaign as CAP, tackled the issue of Child Abduction & Trafficking (https://childawarepro.wordpress.com/portfolio/lostnotforgotten/). As part of this campaign we recently started a petition to implement an Alert Broadcasting System in India to help trace missing children (https://www.change.org/p/maneka-gandhi-alertindia-implement-child-abduction-alert-broadcasting-system-in-india), which recognises that the first 24 hours of a child’s disappearance are the most important. Acknowledging the importance of a swift response and immediate media coverage formed the basis of ‘AMBER Alert’, the Child Abduction Alert system in USA, and we believe that a similar system in India could be ground-breaking in helping to protect our children from harm.

We have also had the pleasure to work with a number of different partners, including the UN Online Volunteers where we helped to publish an Online Safety Manual. We hope to collaborate on further research-based projects and publications through these types of connections. We also work specifically with certain institutions for our independent projects, such as our Soft Skills project. We are proud to say that through these initiatives and partnerships, we are able to increase the impact CAP has not only on the young people we have a direct relationship with, but also those who are engaging on social media and online.

Building a Team
Although CAP is now a reputable organisation in its own right, getting it to this place has not always been as easy as putting out a few Facebook posts and calling local journalists! Only a few months after Thamana had been found, I came across another article about a missing child and I attempted to run a similar campaign. It received a watered-down response. This made me realise that initiatives need to be creative to be able to break through and get the attention that these children deserve. I wasn’t able to do this on my own, so I built a core team of young volunteers, all who have a passion for children’s rights, who help me to plan and design the necessary interventions and keep the overall project running smoothly.

Initially, I started recruiting by posting about it on Facebook. Eventually, word started spreading through professional and personal networks of mine as well as through connections of previous interns or Campus Ambassadors. I also updated our website and we now welcome applications to join the CAP team via http://thecapro.org/careers. As it stands currently, our team comprises young people (some of whom have been a part of CAP since it was registered in 2016) from all over the world. We have a text group where we discuss issues and conduct monthly Skype meetings. In order to efficiently run an online team, we ensure that all messages are answered within 24 hours and the team is informed in advance, whenever possible, about periods of absence. Communication is key! Work hours are discussed at the time of appointment and we are flexible and open to changes as needed. On average, our team members work between 2-10 hours/week on the project.
Together, we have found a way of working that enables us to address important key issues in new and innovative ways while keeping an open and transparent discourse with each other

Learn, Adapt, Learn
I understand that, however frustrating it feels at the time, failure always teaches more than success. It teaches you to adapt and find solutions quickly and from there you learn what to do and not do in the future. For example, I found that managing people, particularly when some of the team are based remotely, was a definite learning curve! We often found ourselves left out to dry when volunteers who initially showed interest, backed out or stopped responding without prior notice. Instead of just accepting this as the norm, we created a mentorship program for all new team members to better identify their interests and abilities. This helped ensure dedication to the task at hand and by having mentors within the core team, we were able provide timely feedback which resulted in greater accountability for one’s work. Once these processes were in place, we saw our retention rate grow almost immediately.

From a more practical standpoint, I did not comprehend the extent of paperwork, registrations, regulations and tasks that all build up, especially when first starting out. With so much going on, it is easy for things to slip or to get deprioritised. One good example is minute-taking in meetings. At the time I considered it pointless paperwork so decided to stop, but, as our team is placed globally, I quickly saw that this was a mistake. We soon lost track of things discussed and people it was discussed with. We had no central record of what had been agreed or what the next steps were. It was a nightmare! As a result, we now religiously document every meeting and have reaped the benefits since. I would like to credit our Campaign & Advocacy strategist for her conscientious efforts in getting us organised!

Finally, in the start-up world it is all too easy to keep going and keep going without actually taking pause to breathe and reassess where you are. To help even out the pace and to better manage the team’s workload, we now run pilots for all our major programs before full-scale implementation to help us get a better understanding of the resource and team requirements before launching on a bigger scale. We then conduct surveys to monitor on the ground responses and use the feedback to modify our projects before scaling up.

The post Child awareness Project – young people fighting for children’s rights appeared first on Queens Commonwealth Trust.

Jonathan Andrews is a disability advocate, qualified solicitor and co-Founder of the Commonwealth Children and Youth Disability Network (CCYDN). In this blog article, he shares some of his personal experiences of being on the autistic spectrum and outlines steps that can be taken to create a more inclusive world.

When I was identified as being on the autistic spectrum as a nine-year-old child, I was very quickly assured by my parents that this wasn’t a weakness, or something to be ashamed of. It meant I faced challenges in certain areas – including social interaction with those I wasn’t familiar with, and sensory differences – but it also brought about certain strengths too, such as having a very strong focus on areas of interest (often leading to me developing great knowledge in these areas) and a different way of viewing the world.

Looking back now, it’s clear being autistic hasn’t stopped me from achieving many ambitions: I attended a top university and have become a qualified solicitor. Indeed, it has rather helped in certain endeavours; my knowledge of autism has undoubtedly assisted with my years-long campaigning on opportunities for people with disabilities in the UK and pan-Commonwealth, for which I was honoured to be recognised as the UK’s fourth most influential disabled person by the Shaw Trust in 2020.

However, from my experience it is also clear that a lack of understanding around disability remains in many parts of society – and this, as opposed to the disability itself, is usually the greatest barrier.

At least 10% of the world’s population are living with a disability. With the Commonwealth’s population reaching 2.4 billion, this would indicate that at least 240 million Commonwealth citizens have disabilities. These are individuals who face significant barriers, but also have so much untapped potential. It’s therefore vital that steps are taken to tackle the lack of understanding, awareness, and opportunities for young people with disabilities across the globe in order to build a more inclusive world where nobody is left behind.

Far too often, businesses can be unaware of the advantages of hiring people with disabilities, and wrongly assume that we won’t have the skills to contribute. More widely, too, a lack of awareness and acceptance of disabilities in society remains incredibly high. This appears in many forms throughout the Commonwealth; from the overt (like a belief that autism is a mental health issue which should be ‘cured’, or evidence of possession or witchcraft and not a natural form of neurodivergence) to the more subtle (such as an assumption that people on the autistic spectrum do not want or need to socialise – true for some, but for many, it is more true that they socialise in their own way, and being misinterpreted by others then forms a barrier).

It’s for these reasons that, following the first-ever Commonwealth youth disability roundtable at the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting 2018, I worked with fellow young Commonwealth changemakers to found the Commonwealth Children and Youth Disability Network (CCYDN) in 2019. Our overarching goal is to ensure children and young people with disabilities have the same access to legal rights, and the same societal, economic and political opportunities as their peers living without disabilities. Despite being less than two years old, CCYDN already has hundreds of members, with committee representatives from each Commonwealth region, and is growing each year.

Our network has allowed us to advocate on a pan-Commonwealth level as to the barriers young people with disabilities face and how best to tackle these. We have also successfully campaigned for the continued legal protection of people with disabilities in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. My fellow co-chair, Parmi Dheensa, and I signed an open letter to NHS England, along with many other key leaders in the UK disability sector, successfully calling for any action taken in response to COVID-19 to not infringe upon the hard-fought rights of disabled people. We also argued for the restoration of rights which had already been affected by the pandemic – such as obligations in relation to education, health and care plans for young people with special educational needs – to be restored as soon as possible. Our efforts helped ensure this was achieved by September 2020.

The post Jonathan Andrews – disability equality matters appeared first on Queens Commonwealth Trust.

It’s been almost two weeks since I organised and co-hosted our third annual MENtal health open mic night, and I’m still beaming.

In March 2017, a month after Olly’s passing, I was faced with a challenge. I had met and had heard about other young people who were struggling with their mental health. Battling feelings of anxiety and depression, often triggered or made worse by their studies, students did not have an outlet for their emotions and kept things bottled up. It didn’t help that UCL’s mental health services were massively under-funded, and senior management seemed unwilling to accept or even acknowledge the university’s shocking suicide problem.

After Olly’s passing, I remember I approached UCL’s Student Psychological and Counselling Services seeking support. I’d never really dealt with bereavement before, not least the unexpected passing of a close friend. I emailed, explaining the situation, only to be told I had to wait six weeks to be seen.

This prompted me to think. Surely there were many more students like me who had no choice but to wait out the pain. I realised I was right. There were other students who had been bereaved, who were feeling anxious, depressed and even suicidal whom the university’s dire mental health provisions were failing.

People were bottling up their emotions, not because they wanted to, but because they had to. A six-week waiting list left you on your own to battle your demons. It just didn’t seem fair to me.

I wanted to create a platform for students to come together to speak up about their experiences, especially young men. To help them realise that they’re not alone. That there are people who care, and more importantly, people who want to listen to their story.

I collaborated with UCL’s Welfare and International Officer at the time, and we created Olly’s Future and Heads Up’s first-ever MENtal health open mic might in March 2017, aimed specifically at breaking the stigma around young men speaking up about their mental health. We didn’t know what to expect. We’d spent the weeks preceding the event telling as many people as possible to come along and share their stories, be it through spoken word, poetry, singing, or even just speaking their mind. We’d advertised the event on Facebook, through departmental mailing lists, and had plastered UCL’s walls with posters.

Around 60 people attended the open mic night, with the audience made up of students and young professionals. I remember looking out across the room, seeing people squished all the way to the back like sardines, who remained standing throughout the entire thing because there weren’t enough chairs for everyone that came along.

It was clear to me that there was a real need for an event like this.

And so we hosted the event the year after.

I remember a girl bravely coming up on stage, saying that she’d seen the event pop up on her Facebook timeline. At the time she wasn’t even sure if she was going to come, let alone come up on stage and share her story. She sat on the chair, and sobbed for a very, very long time. It was the first time she’d ever really acknowledged what she’d been going through. It was the first time she’d ever opened up to anyone about her mental health, not even to a friend or a family member. Yet she opened up to a room full of strangers.

That was when I realised the power of an open mic night.

By providing a platform for students to come together to speak, you’re telling them we’re here. You have a story and we’re here to listen.

This year we hosted our third MENtal health open mic night. And it was our most inspiring and empowering event yet. We heard mainly from male speakers who spoke on a variety of different topics including anxiety, anorexia and mental health from BAME and disabled perspectives, and from female speakers who spoke about depression, eating disorders and grief.

My heart warmed when one after the other, speakers ended their story with a Q&A session with audience members asking them how they had dealt with relapses and setbacks. It wasn’t a one-way dialogue. It was a conversation.

A male speaker who on the outset seemed typically “manly” (whatever that means…), opened up about how he had been battling with suicidal thoughts and had made several attempts on his life. He spoke with bravery, passion and eloquence. He told us that sport was an outlet, that jiu jitsu had saved his life. It allowed him to focus his negative energies on something tangible, on something productive. Here he had met his coach, who was now a close friend and a mentor, and someone who had experienced the same things that he’d been going through. He encouraged people to find their outlet. To find their passion, and to use it as an anchor to help them fight their darkest feelings.

On the surface many of our male speakers had typical “masculine” traits – tall, broad and bearded – characteristics that are often associated with stoicism. Yet together we had created an environment where these young men felt comfortable enough to open up, and even cry to a room of strangers. The courage and grace these young men had in opening up about their intimate experiences was so moving.

It made me think.

Perhaps the problem is not that these “macho men” are unable or even unwilling to talk about their feelings. Perhaps we’re the ones failing them by not providing them with an outlet to speak, to open up.

Hosting the open mic night for the last three years has opened my eyes. It’s made me realise that if you provide young men with a platform to speak, and if you create an open, non-judgemental and warm environment where they feel supported, then you will hear their stories. Every single last inch of the pain that they’ve been holding in up until this moment.

I came away from this year’s event feeling inspired, empowered and hopeful for the future. It made me realise that when people come together, we can change things.

Don’t wait for other people to act, not least the ones who are supposed to be looking after your best interests. Because often they won’t.

I’d encourage students to come together to organise initiatives like this. Open mic nights provide a rare and unique opportunity for students to speak up about their mental health. They’re invaluable.

Ayesha and Olly

Olly and I studied History together at UCL and he was such a huge part of my time at university, as he was to so many of his friends. Olly graduated with a First in 2016, and he was someone who sought opportunities wherever we went – from being involved in the Dance Society, to becoming fluent in French and German, and even taking on a compering role in the Jazz Society’s show at the Adelphi Theatre, among many, many other countless achievements!

After Olly passed away, friends and family were struck with a huge hole. Olly radiated so much love, warmth and positivity. It’s crazy how that can all be taken away in a split second.

We came together to form Olly’s Future to support young people who are experiencing similar things that Olly felt, especially young men, who are so often reluctant to open about how they’re really feeling. We want to show young people that they are not alone, that they’re never alone. By funding and delivering suicide prevention training, we hope to establish a strong framework of people all over the UK who are fully trained to provide young people with the support needed to help save their lives.

Olly’s Future is Olly’s legacy. And we hope to spread his Love & Light through our work, so that the love, warmth and positivity Olly radiated in our lives endures in the lives of others.

I opened up this year’s open mic night by saying: “I know it’s a daunting prospect – the thought of coming up on stage speaking to a room full of strangers about how you feel. But look around. Every single person who is here today is here because they care, here because they want to listen to your story.”

We all have a story. And I believe we have a duty to provide young people, especially young men, with the space to open up.

To laugh. To cry. To heal.

Together.

For more information on Olly’s Future, check out their Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages, or visit their website here.

The post Olly’s Future – focusing on MENtal health appeared first on Queens Commonwealth Trust.

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.

The post Raising awareness on the impact of grief and loss in childhood and providing support for bereaved families appeared first on Queens Commonwealth Trust.

“Just live in the moment.”

It’s easier said than done, especially when thinking about the issues of the world as well as challenges in our lives. These experiences can brutally knock us down and off course for a period of time. Admittedly, it’s hard to choose peace when experiencing rough patches in life. The mind easily gets caught up worries and stresses during such periods, as it feels like the quickest and only response to things that have happened.

One needs to realize that peace is always available, and to obtain this state of mind, it requires effort. Circumstances will affect our mental state, but they don’t have to control them, based on our choice not to allow them. There are countless things we can do to create peace of mind, both in response to events in our lives, and towards the curve balls thrown our way in life.

The mind is like a butterfly which floats from one thought to another all the time. Persons have been developing the habit of thinking all the time – for all their life. Mind-wandering is the cause, not the consequence, of unhappiness. Allowing this to happen can often lead to unhappiness, afterward. This is why it is important to pay attention to what the mind is doing.

To learn how to calm the mind, it is important to understand how it works. Then, make small but effective changes that can stop the brain from being overactive. Practicing awareness is what is needed. Awareness can be thought of as stopping the mind from time to time during the day for small intervals, helping you to find peace.

Practice stopping what you are doing during the day and observe the things around you. Look at your surroundings, hear its sounds, step back and observe yourself; experience each moment. This will cause your mind to stop thinking for a moment and train it to be calm. Take each day breath by breath, one step at a time. Give yourself the needed time and permission to explore and heal.

“It isn’t as bad as it seems. Through healing and growth, you will come out a better person as a result.” Repeat this mental thought daily. This is the truth. Put your full trust in yourself by following your intuition and doing your best, and then move forward one step at a time with faith and confidence in what the future holds.

We often want life to give us everything exactly as expected. However, whatever is sought will rarely ever come in the form we hope it to. See and accept things as they are instead of as hoped, dreamed or expected. If it didn’t turn out like you had envisioned, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t exactly what is needed for you to move forward.

No matter how ashamed or helpless or frustrated you feel about your situation, there is someone in your life who has similar experiences and who can help. Let such a trusted person enter. They will not solve your problems, but be by your side to face them. You are not alone.

By taking these steps, you will master awareness and enjoy living in the moment. You will better be able to make decisions and take action with a refreshed mind. In the quest to accomplish world peace, one must start with finding peace within.

Discover more about The Mind Matters SVG on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The post Jodie Dennie – creating mental health awareness appeared first on Queens Commonwealth Trust.

Hey! I’m Jo, I’ve just turned 18 and I’m a student, public speaker and award-winning social entrepreneur from Oxford, England. To say life is busy would be an understatement – but I love it, and I hope that by sharing my thoughts and experiences below, I will maybe inspire you to think about social entrepreneurship for yourself too!

Firstly, I’m the founder of She Dot, a social enterprise which aims to bridge the socio-economic gap for young girls pursuing traditionally male careers, such as STEM and entrepreneurship, through skills workshops, talks and career insight days. I’ve also founded a number of start-ups (although the key word here is start!), which include an economics magazine and a tech podcast, developing an attachment for toothbrushes designed to improve the brushing habits of young children, and creating a series of children’s picture books which tackle important social issues – more on these later.

I also do public speaking, which has taken me to some amazing places. For example, for International Women’s Day 2018, I had the opportunity to host a panel for Facebook – an incredible experience and I got to meet and speak with some awesome, pioneering women. Later that year I spoke at World Summit AI, and was immersed in two days of what I can only describe as brain-bending awesomeness; while with TEDx, I spoke first at TEDx Oxford Brookes University about how we could get more young people involved in social action, before being invited more recently to give a TEDx talk in Rome to several thousand people. This made national television and I even got approached for selfies (as big of a taste of celebrity life as I will ever get!). There I talked about reverse mentoring and why we should have more of a youth influence in decision making – both in the corporate and political sectors – and the importance of the youth teaching adults, not just the other way around.

My experience: starting out as a social entrepreneur

As mentioned above, one of my current initiatives sitting under the She Dot umbrella are our new collection of story books. These take traditional fairy tales and re-write them with a modern twist – tackling themes such as sexism, disability discrimination, racism and homophobia. The idea for these came from a volunteering trip I did to a local primary school, which made me realise how many people don’t have access to the same resources that I was lucky enough to have. I wanted to do something to bridge that gap and to better represent the experiences that they’re living. The books therefore sprung off some very personal experiences of my own, but also those of others who had experienced discrimination in some form, and I used that inspiration to find a way to make a positive change.

Something I was once taught is in entrepreneurship you don’t need to make your real product straight away to prove your idea is successful. In fact, testing, learning and re-iterating is an extremely important part of the process. Starting out small and creating something known as the Minimum Viable Product (or MVP), allows you to show that, in theory, your business model would be successful as a fully developed product. By creating a simplified version of your bigger plan, you are showing investors that there is a real problem being solved and customers are willing to pay.

At She Dot, we applied this MVP technique when launching our range of children’s books; after initially fundraising through creating sweatshirts for local productions, drafts were written and read to school children, and LOTS of market research was completed to prove we had a viable product. We were then able to develop the stories knowing that we had an interested audience and a viable market for our offer.

However not everyone has always been supportive of our mission. A prime example of this was when we attended a trade fair to promote and sell our books, and we unexpectedly came under attack for creating and selling stories that openly tackled issues such as sexism, racism and homophobia. These people simply didn’t believe in the need for ‘classics’ to be retold, and it was really difficult to directly face hate for something that should only be seen as a positive narrative for young children to see. Despite finding the experience very upsetting, it ultimately only reaffirmed in my mind that we were doing the right thing. If no one came to us and said they’d rather the princess was white or skinnier, or that they preferred that a girl wasn’t the heroine of the story, then there would be no need for the books in the first place.

I’m now proud to say, that despite these very rare negative reactions, the books’ success speaks for itself. They are now available in 7 languages, and come in paperback, e-book and audiobook variations. I’m proud to say that they’ve also received the endorsement of key figures such as Peter Tatchell and Miriam Margolyes – which I’m really quite chuffed about!

Dealing with negativity and learning from failure

I’d definitely describe myself as quite an impatient girl with big dreams, and I often catch myself setting these wildly unrealistic goals. I therefore set myself up for disappointment when I expect to achieve huge success in the blink of an eye and fail to remember that achievements take time. I know how important it is to pace yourself and celebrate every step, and I’m making an effort to give myself the space to appreciate that.

I was really fortunate to have a school and people around me who really supported everything I did, but there are always going to be people who don’t understand why you are doing what you’re doing. At one point a teacher refused to let me miss his lesson to do a talk at a school because “I didn’t need it for my CV”. I think he missed the point that I do what I do not to add something to my CV, but because I truly love it and I care about making life better for others. This presumption that it’s all for personal gain is common, and it’s taken some time for me to be able to rise above it and stand my ground in situations such as these.

People are quick to say that failure is the most important part of success, and this is absolutely true, as you do learn a whole lot from making mistakes. However, we often forget that it’s really hard to deal with failure emotionally. For me, the greatest obstacle is learning to see failure in a positive light and learning that criticism and mistakes can be constructive. The best advice I can give to someone who also struggles with this is, be kind to yourself. Take the time to appreciate what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and carry on shining.

Feeling proud and looking to the future!

I guess my proudest moments divide into two parts; the particular events I’ve been most proud of, and perhaps also a turning point I’m most proud of. A couple of occasions that first spring to mind have got to be giving a TEDx talk in Rome which was pretty incredible, and also presenting to HRH Princess Anne. Having said this I’d have to say I’m really proud of the moment I realised that success doesn’t have to be individual – helping other people’s successes is just as big of an achievement.

I’ve always aspired to leave the world in a better place to the way it started – we’re only around for a short amount of time; we’ve got to make the most of it and every opportunity we’re presented with. With this in mind, my biggest success measure will be how much have I made the people around me proud of what I do. There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing people smile, grow in confidence, or develop their character and skills as a result of something you’ve done.

Looking to the future, I have lots of ideas! I’d like to grow the She Dot programme to at least 15 new schools over the next year, and onboard ambassadors to deliver the sessions to schools near them. I also recently spoke to a former player of the US national women’s soccer team who now runs programs for disadvantaged school kids to get them into the sport. It was awesome to discuss ideas together and see where we could go next via collaboration. I’d also love to do some sort of ‘agony aunt’ service, focusing on mentorship of other young girls.

Now it’s your turn!

I’m sure we’ve all heard in our time: “what do you want to be when you’re older?” – but why when we’re older? Why not right now? I think it’s so important to showcase and celebrate young talent to not only thank and recognise the work they do against all adversity, but also to inspire as many new young people as possible to get involved, creating a butterfly effect.

Here are my top 3 tips for starting out as a young entrepreneur:

1. Identify the problem and lay foundations. It’s super important to really think out the problem you are trying to solve, rather than get carried away by your fantastic idea. Remember to lay down all the groundwork for your idea before you hit the ground running. Ask yourself the tough questions and deal with the boring bits – it’s just as important as the exciting idea.

2. Do something you love! There’s no point pursuing something just because you think it makes the most money or seems easy – it will really show and doing something you don’t believe in wholeheartedly will be really tough to dedicate so much time to every day.

3. Be kind and make connections. This is something that one of my greatest inspirations, author, motivational speaker and women’s advocate, Pinky Lilani CBE DL, taught me. Kindness is often left out of the leadership equation but doing one kind thing a day will make more impact than you will ever know for someone. You never know when something someone else does for you could change your life, and vice versa.

Follow She Dot on Instagram, or check out www.shedot.co.uk for more information. You can also follow Joana on Twitter and discover more about her via www.joanabaptista.co.uk.

The post Joana Baptista – experiences of a young social entrepreneur appeared first on Queens Commonwealth Trust.