Three Kenyans make it to the winners’ team of the Queen’s Young Leaders 2017. Chebet Lesan, Domtila Chesang and Towett Ngetich were among the 60 young people from across the Commonwealth who were chosen as Queen’s Young Leaders for taking the lead in their communities and using their skills to transform lives.
The Queen’s Young leader’s programme celebrates and supports exceptional young people and their achievements. It recognises and celebrates people aged 18-29 from across the Commonwealth. For one to win, they must have transformed their communities for the better. From driving change in education, the environment or social equality – to using social media to get their voices heard.
First off, Chebet Lesan dedicated to raising awareness of the dangers of indoor air pollution among the millions who cook over open fires. She founded BrightGreen Renewable Energy in order to turn the problem of waste in Kenya into a means to solve another problem – deforestation.
Domtila Chesang is an anti- FMG campaigner. She co-founded the group Kepsteno Rotwo Tipin CBO – “Let’s Abandon The Knife”. Domtila helped to end the vice in her village and now plans to hold a ‘Warriors’ Festival’ to educate the men as she believes they have a big role to play in fighting and ending FGM.
Finally, Towett Ngetich, founder and chief executive of Uthabiti, formerly Daktari Thabiti (“reliable doctor”). A social enterprise that aims to tackle the problem of counterfeit drugs by verifying the provenance and safety of medicines. This he does through a portable scanner for suppliers and a mobile app for consumers that installs a digital scanner onto a phone to help identify the legitimacy of drugs by scanning their batch numbers.
These 3 young leaders are indeed conquering the world and being honoured by the queen is one big step. All the winners received a unique package of training, mentoring and networking, including a one-week residential programme in the UK during which they will collect their Award from Her Majesty The Queen. With this support, Award winners will be expected to continue and develop the amazing work they are already doing in their communities
This, sadly, is the last of the program but congratulations these. Go Kenya!