International Young Campaigner 2009

 

This award is aimed at young people campaigning across the same 52 countries targetted in our International award. This award is open to anyone who is under 24.

This award is sponsored by Plan UK.

Winner

Nixon Odoyo

Keeping Girls in School, Kenya

Nixon, a 16 year old student from Nairobi, is campaigning to mobilise and distribute sanitary towels free of charge to girls to enable them to stay in school full time.  Many girls in Kenya regularly miss school during their monthly periods because they do not have sanitary towels.  As Nixon highlights in his campaign, this has a knock on effect, not only on their academic performance but also on their self-esteem.  As well as distributing sanitary towels Nixon plans to work with community leaders, parents and teachers to highlight the importance of supporting girls to stay in school. 

Finalists

Gulalai Ismail

‘Aware Girls’, Pakistan

Gulalai is campaigning to promote peace, non-violence and tolerance among young women and female students of MADRASSAs (religious schools) in the north-west frontier province of Pakistan.  Through raising awareness and strengthening the capacity of young women to analyse the complex realities of the conflict and promote peace in this province Gulalai aims to combat the forced indoctrination into the Taliban among young women in this area.  She has already identified activists who have been trained as ‘Ambassadors of Peace’ and ‘Agents of Change’ and hopes to spread this message further through peer-to-peer education. 

Regina Nyafwono

‘Magoro women poultry project’, Uganda

Regina is campaigning against the early school drop-out rate among young girls in her village.  Men and boys offer girls small gifts in exchange for sex which sometimes results in pregnancy and HIV/AIDS infection and leads to their leaving school early.  Regina has recently established a poultry project. The income it generates will enable girls to buy the kind of basic items that are offered to them as gifts, to enable them to say no to men and boys who offer such items for sex. To date Regina has raised 50 birds and sold some to generate income for her campaign. 

Mitchelle Odiaka

‘African Girl-child Education, Nurturing and Development Action’ (AGENDA), Nigeria

Through AGENDA, Mitchelle campaigns on several issues that girl-children are most vulnerable to and affected by in Nigeria; female genital mutilation, early marriages, sex exploitation and HIV/AIDS.  Her campaign aims to give girl-children a voice within their community. Through a programme of information and awareness raising she wants girls to be better informed and confident about how these issues affect them and consequently enable them to achieve their full potential.  Mitchelle has already successfully organised several school programmes in her area to train and sensitise young girls on issues concerning them. 

Pauline Ponyene

‘I am a child but I have my rights too’, Liberia

Pauline campaigns on the promotion and protection of child rights in Liberia. Her work focuses on both children and parents - their rights, duties and responsibilities - and tries to enable children to speak out on issues that affect them.  Through her media campaign and radio shows, Pauline encourages discussion about important issues affecting girls in Liberia such as girls’ education, female genital mutilation and early marriages.  Pauline has already trained 28 children to host live radio shows on child rights promotion and protection and hopes to involve children more in decision-making processes on issues that affect them in Liberia. 

 

Award judges

Sandra Brobbey

Sandra Brobbey is a Media and Communications Officer for Plan UK. She has been working for Plan's press department for five years. In that time she has helped to secure press coverage of the charity's work in Asia, Africa and Central America.

Connie Wessels

Connie Wessels has worked in the youth sector for four years, encouraging young people to take positive action for change. Connie recently moved from a Policy and Advocacy role at Girlguiding UK to the Youth Team at UNICEF UK, where she will support young people's advocacy and campaigning on issues such as HIV and AIDS, sex and relationships education, and child trafficking. Connie has a Masters in Gender and Politics from Birkbeck College and a Bachelor's degree in Politics and International Relations from the LSE. She is passionate about action for gender equity, action against gender violence, sex and relationships education, poverty eradication, and environmental sustainability.

Lyndall Stein

Lyndall Stein is a leading authority in campaigning, income generation and communications.

She has been Executive Director of Concern UK since 2004. She was responsible for launching the new UK Charity, whose HQ is based in Dublin, and developing the founding Board of Trustees.

Prior to that she was recruited to ActionAid as International Marketing Director, to lead a major change process to raise profile, develop campaigning, and create new income.

She was Interim Director of Marketing at the Terrence Higgins Trust 97-99 and Head of Fundraising from '92-'95. She was the first Fundraising Director for the Big Issue Foundation from '95-'97.

Lyndall developed the first individual fundraising program for the African National Congress in the 80's and Chaired Votes for Freedom, the initiative that raised several million for South Africa's first democratic election.

She is founder Editor of Positive Lives, a ten year photographic project showing the global human response to HIV/AIDS, an exhibition seen worldwide by over two million people worldwide - and Co Founder of HIVI International, a volunteer group committed to raising support for the HIV crisis in the developing world.