Rotary is pleased to announce the 2014 winners of the Rotary International in Great Britain & Ireland (RIBI)Â Young Citizen Awards. The winners will receive their awards at the RIBI Annual Conference in Birmingham on Saturday April 12, live on the BBC News Channel at 10.30am.
The awards celebrate the positive citizenship and responsibilities that are shown by many young people. The winners are nominated by Rotary clubs across Great Britain and Ireland and all of them are youngsters who have gone to great lengths to help others, often overcoming adversity themselves. Winners receive a trophy and a donation of ÂŁ500 to their project. The winners are:
Bethany Eason – nominated by the Rotary Club of Bebington
This 16 year old from the Wirral is deaf and campaigns on behalf of deaf youngsters, fighting cuts to services for deaf children. She currently has a teaching assistant at school to help her which has been vital for her education, but these assistants are under threat from the cuts she says.
Davis College – nominated by the Rotary Club of Mallow
These youngsters started a missing persons campaign which has led to the Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny declaring Ireland’s first annual National Missing Persons day. They mounted a billboard campaign outside Taoiseach’s Leinster House to get their message across and helped establish a child abduction alert system in Ireland. They recovered the remains of a missing teenager and produced a calendar of photos of missing people, missing person posters and missing person place mats. The campaign is now spreading to London, Europe and China has been backed my Kate McCann, mother of Madeleine.
Eastlands Primary School – nominated by the Rotary Club of Rugby Breakfast
Pupils in year six at this school have made a film called The Anti Social Network about cyber bullying. They wrote the script, a song and acted the roles in the film, which is set in the Old Crown Courts of Warwick. Building on the success of this, they are touring a theatre show around local schools which they have put together called Not Such a Sweet Tweet.
Harvey Parry – nominated by the Rotary Club of Edmonton
Eight year old Harvey lost both his legs and part of his hand due to contracting meningitis as a baby and also had a stroke. Despite this, he has won 19 medals, mostly gold, for Great Britain competing in disability games in America. His parents campaigned with the support of Rotarians for funds to help get Harvey prosthetic legs in America and his Mother Carol, is now setting up a support group to help other children who have missing limbs.
Lucy Daldy – nominated by the Rotary Club of Redbridge
Lucy, 24, lives in Essex and was sexually abused when she was aged just eight years old by a family friend who was subsequently jailed for the offences. She now helps run a charity, Step Up in Dagenham that is helping young victims of sexual abuse and showing families how to recognise signs of abuse such as grooming. Lucy gives talks in schools and runs an outreach programme visiting families.
Nan McCreadie, President of RIBI said: “The achievements of these youngsters are a lesson to us all. They have all earned their RIBI Young Citizen Awards through hard work, selfless actions and by demonstrating that age and adversity need not be obstacles in the pursuit of helping others. I am very proud of all our winners and look forward to hearing about their successes in future.”
