Vincentian among seven to be honoured by The Queen

Vincentian Dillon Ollivierre is among eight exceptional young people from the Eastern Caribbean who will receive an award at Buckingham Palace, London on Thursday.

Her Majesty The Queen will present the Queen’s Young Leaders Awards to Regis Burton – Antigua and Barbuda; Firhaana Bulbulia – Barbados; Shamelle Rice – Barbados; Tina Alfred – Dominica; Ali Dowden – Grenada; Trevis Belle – St Kitts{{more}} and Nevis; Tevin Shepherd – St Lucia; Dillon Ollivierre – St Vincent and the Grenadines.

As the Commonwealth celebrates The Queen’s 90th birthday, this year’s award winners, all aged between 18 and 29, are being recognized by The Queen for taking the lead in transforming the lives of others and making a lasting difference in their communities. As Queen’s Young Leaders, they will be representing the Eastern Caribbean, as they join 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.

Thousands of young people from all over the Commonwealth applied to be a Queen’s Young Leader and were selected through a competitive process.

Tina Alfred from Dominica said: “I am looking forward to Residential Week, so I can learn new experiences and new ideas and share my experiences and ideas with the most exceptional people from around the world. I am definitely looking forward to meeting such exceptional young people from around the world!”

Ali Dowden from Grenada said: “I am looking forward most of all to meeting Her Majesty The Queen and receiving my award while using the opportunity to network with fellow Queen’s Young Leaders. This is a great honour and it will change my life in a very impactful way.”

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.

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 the sub-region.

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.