Source: British High Commission - Maputo |

Mozambican activist to be honoured with Queen’s Young Leaders Award

HMQ will present a Queen’s Young Leaders Award to winners from 45 different Commonwealth countries at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, on 23rd June.

MAPUTO, Mozambique, June 15, 2016/APO (African Press Organization)/ --

Her Majesty The Queen will present a Queen’s Young Leaders Award to one exceptional young activist from Mozambique at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, London on Thursday 23rd June.

As the Commonwealth celebrates The Queen’s 90th birthday, this year’s Award winner, Drucila Meireles, is being recognised by The Queen for taking the lead in transforming the lives of others and making a lasting difference in their communities. As a Queen’s Young Leader, she will be representing Mozambique 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 through a competitive process where thousands of young people from all over the Commonwealth applied to be a Queen’s Young Leader, Drucila said: “I am so excited to receive my Award. I feel so humbled and honoured to be representing Mozambique as a QYL for 2016. This is like a trigger for me to realise the importance of the work that I do with so much love and passion and it gives me the energy to carry on and make change in other peoples’ lives.”

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 equality, mental health and improving the lives of people with disabilities.

2017 Queen’s Young Leaders

The application process to become a 2017 Queen’s Young Leader opens 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 Mozambique

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.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of British High Commission - Maputo.