Sikander Sabeer: Proud to be a Finalist for the Commonwealth Youth Award 2012

Monday, February 4, 2013

Proud to be a Finalist for the Commonwealth Youth Award 2012

Link - http://www.thecommonwealth.org/news/34580/34581/252975/010213cwyaedw.htm

The Commonwealth has announced the finalists of the Commonwealth Youth Awards for Excellence in Development Work.

The awards celebrate young people (aged 15-29) in the Commonwealth who are making a positive difference to the lives of others through development initiatives ranging from poverty alleviation to education and protection of the environment.

Young people were nominated from more than 36 countries across the Commonwealth for the awards, which are run by the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Youth Affairs Division (YAD). YAD manages the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP).

The 16 finalists will each receive a £1,000 grant to advance their development work and guidance from CYP on how their work could be further expanded and sustained.

Four of the finalists will also be awarded a further £2,000 as Regional Winners, and a further £2,000 will be awarded to the Pan-Commonwealth Winner, to be announced at an awards ceremony at the Secretariat’s headquarters in London on 12 March, following Commonwealth Day.

This year's Commonwealth theme is 'Opportunity through Enterprise' - unlocking potential with innovation and excellence.

Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba said: “The nominations we have received for the awards demonstrate that young people are making a wonderful and significant contribution to human development in our member states. As partners in development, young people are using creative ideas, new technologies and are bringing tremendous energy to meeting national development goals. All the nominees are remarkable. I am extremely proud of the young people in the Commonwealth, especially this year when we are celebrating 40 years of youth empowerment through the CYP.”

The finalists are:

Africa and Europe:

Ellen Daphine Chilemba, founder of Tiwale
Malawi
Area of work: Enterprise development, youth development
Foglabenchi Lily Haritu, sexual and reproductive health nurse-activist and Supervisor of the Women’s Health Programme of the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services
CameroonArea of work: Health and wellbeing, HIV/AIDS
Isaiah Owolabi, founder and Project Director of HACEY’s Health initiative
NigeriaArea of work: Health and wellbeing, HIV/AIDS
Evans Muchika Wadongo, founder of “Use solar, save lives” programme
KenyaArea of work: Sustainable livelihoods and poverty reduction

Asia:

Hanan Ali Abbasi, President of the National Youth Assembly
PakistanArea of work: Human rights and democracy
Anoka Primrose Abeyrathne, eco-entrepreneur
Sri Lanka
Area of work: Agriculture, small enterprise, skills training
Gaurang K. Chauhan, founder of Leher
India
Area of work: Education, peer education
Sikander Sabeer, youth leader
Sri Lanka
Area of work: Climate change/environment protection

Caribbean (including Canada):

Randy McLaren, founder of International Kreative Aktivism Network
Jamaica
Area of work: Arts and Culture
Nadine Muschette, initiated ‘The Campaign to improve the dining culture at the Allman Town Primary School’, ‘The Project Hope Foundation Summer Day Camp’, and the participation of Moneague College in the British Council Global School Partnerships Programme
Jamaica
Area of work: Education, peer education
Kemar Saffrey, Chairman and President of The Barbados Vagrants and Homeless Society
Barbados
Area of work: Sustainable livelihoods and poverty reduction
Gordon Swaby, founder of EduFocal
Jamaica
Area of work: Education, peer education

Pacific:

Melissa Edwards, founder of Heyday Festival
Australia
Area of work: Arts and Culture
Julian O’Shea, Director of the Engineers Without Borders Institute and volunteer
Australia
Area of work: Science and Technology
Chanel Tauveve, employer and recipient of the Young Farmer Award 2012 from Samoa’s Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development
Samoa
Area of work: Sustainable Livelihoods and poverty reduction
Jill Wai, Vanuatu Monitoring and Evaluation Program Managers at Youth Challenge
Vanuatu
Area of work: Education, peer education

The finalists were selected at the CYP Regional Centres in Guyana, India, Solomon Islands and Zambia.

Each CYP Regional Centre judging panel was comprised of two representatives from Commonwealth member governments, two representatives from the regional Commonwealth Youth Caucus, and the CYP Regional Centre Director.

The four Regional Winners and the Pan-Commonwealth Winner will be determined by an adjudication panel under the chairmanship of Mrs Masire-Mwamba. The adjudication panel will comprise of the YAD Director, Katherine Ellis, high commissioners and youth leaders.

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About Me

Sikander Sabeer is a product of Isipathana College and holding a first class with distinction Bachelors of Science (BSc) degree on Biotechnology, Biochemistry and Microbiology from Spectrum Institute of Science and Technology (Sri Lanka), an outreach campus of University of Mysore (India). Presently reading for his Masters of Science (MSc) on Business Management at National School of Business Management (Sri Lanka), an outreach post-graduate institute of University of Dublin (Ireland).

Sikanders’ development work can be categorized into three avenues, namely community service and community development; youth empowerment and professional development; climate change and sustainable development. Meanwhile his development work is two phased, firstly action oriented, secondly strategic and advocacy. In the action oriented phase, he gets in to the field and implements his ideas. He works very closely with multi-stakeholders such as children, school students, youth, corporates & business firms, UN agencies, non-governmental and government organizations on diversified projects at different levels and on different capacities. With his strong grass-root level initiatives and experience, he invests equal time on advocacy, mentorship and youth policy framework, which is a unique, and a strategic bottom up approach.

Sikanders’ voluntary action oriented initiatives and his strategic thinking has given him numerous opportunities to be a guest speaker and youth facilitator; to share his experiences, best practices to motivate and inspire youth at number of National and International youth conferences. He has represented his country and fellow youth (1/4th of Sri Lankan population) at high profile youth conferences and high level UN summits/conferences, at some of the UN meetings I have served as an ‘Official Youth Delegate’ of the National Delegation team headed by HE president. Half of the world’s population is made up of young people and as a youth representative and a major stakeholder he had made several interventions on behalf of Global Youth and Sri Lankan youth at some of the UN conferences.

He has held several key positions in organizing several national and international events/programmes and he is one of the co-creators of the YOUTH is the word –Guinness World Record, where 1500 Sri Lankan youth stood to gather to form the largest human mosaic in the world.

His local, national and international initiatives on youth led community development, Climate Change; youth empowerment and youth advocacy led him to earn the most prestigious “Commonwealth Youth Awards (CYA)” for Excellence in Development Work (2012), The CYA’s celebrate and recognize extraordinary young people among one billion audiences from 54 member states of Commonwealth who are making a positive difference to the lives of others through development initiatives ranging from poverty alleviation to education and protection of the environment. This is awarded by Commonwealth Secretariat (CYP) headed by HM Queen Elizabeth II. He earned the "Global Changemaker" title of British Council Youth Empowerment Programme on 2010 for outstanding contribution for Voluntary Activities. He serves as a Youth Ambassadorial role for climate change and serves as a Youth Facilitator for climate sustainability under British Council International Climate Champion program. Apart from these major recognitions his team earned U.S. Department of States Federal Assistant Award Grant for “Green the Home” project and Global Changemakers Community Action Project (CAP) and Regional Action Project (RAP) grants for Youth Empowerment Initiatives.

Presently Sikander is serving as an Assistant Manager for Business Development and Project Officer for recycling solutions for Neptune Recyclers (Neptune Papers [Pvt.] Ltd) in Sri Lanka, a member of multinational corporate Expolanka Holdings PLC. He works very closely with multi- stakeholders, especially with school students, Industries and Corporates on recycling solutions which create an additional income from the trash while minimizing the environmental pollution.

"Do as much as voluntary activities, because volunteers Inspire in Action, they make a real change in their community, they talk less and work a lot, but never expect any personal benefits from their action, Indeed one day they will earn the rewards, that’s confirmed; Install this in your mind “I will do the best I can”

-Sikander Sabeer-