Champions of Respect awards

National awards show positive side of young people

14 November 2006

An 11 year old girl who helps Rwandan orphans; a 15 year old football referee; a 19 year old car mechanic setting up a garage in Kenya; and a 22 year old raising funds for a hospital in Haiti. These young people are all finalists in the second national Champions of Respect Awards.

When we hear so much bad news about young people, the Champions of Respect Awards highlight dedicated young people who are making a real difference for others.

The Finalists are:

Ailidh (pronounced ‘Ay-lee’ ) Henderson, 11, from Kilsyth in North Lanarkshire, who has raised over £600 for ‘Comfort Rwanda’, a charity set up to help children orphaned in the Rwandan genocide.

Ailidh has visited Rwanda and has been raising awareness of the needs of the Rwandan people back in Scotland, giving talks at her local schools.

Graham Poll, watch out! At only 15, Daniel Cronin has already qualified as a football referee and will start his training as a football coach soon. Football is his passion and this training will enable him to develop his skills further.

SOULINBRENTFORD, in association with Kick London in Richmond, is looking into a potential football academy that will reach out to local young people, giving them a place to train and have fun. As a newly qualified football coach, Daniel would be able to play a key role in that academy.

Luke Clifford, 19, from Roehampton has organised fundraising events and saved up enough to buy a plot of land and set up the Amptex Garage project in Nakuru, Kenya.

He has initiated ‘Regenerate Kenya’ (www.regeneratekenya.co.uk) so that young people on the streets of the town, where there is 80% unemployment, can be trained as mechanics and employed in order to provide for themselves and their families.

With £6,000 raised so far, the building of the garage is underway and Luke has been encouraging other young people in his area to get involved. A group of them went out again this summer to help run a camp for street kids.

22 year-old Carwyn Hill, from West Wickham, has been a prime mover in founding the Haiti Hospital Appeal as a result of seeing the poverty on the island first hand. He sought advice, formed a board of trustees and applied for charitable status. 

Several fundraising events have taken place raising over £18,000. Carwyn, along with friend Jonnie Horner, has written and performed a play ‘The Dust’ inspired by their time in Haiti. The play was performed in Coney Baptist Church, where they both attend.

Carwyn has very recently been in Haiti with several friends and his father to renovate and refurbish a building in order for it to become the new clinic. This first stage is well underway.

The Champions of Respect Awards are given for two age ranges; finalists aged between 10 and 16 (Ailidh and Daniel) and between 17 and 25 (Luke and Carwyn). In addition, the ‘Anthony Walker Memorial Prize’ will be given to the finalist the judges feel has been the overall winner. This memorial prize will be presented by Mrs Gee Walker, the mother of Anthony Walker, who was murdered in Liverpool in 2005.

The Champions of Respect Awards are being organised by the Evangelical Alliance in conjunction with leading Christian youth work organisations Youth for Christ, Crusaders, Girls Brigade England and Wales and the African and Caribbean Evangelical Alliance (ACEA).

The awards will be handed out at the Evangelical Alliance’s prestigious Temple Address on 15 November. Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, will give the keynote speech on issues of respect and diversity.

The winners in each age category will receive £250 and another £250 for a charity of their choice. The overall winner will be offered the chance to travel abroad with the relief and development charity, Tearfund.

A press conference will be held, before the Temple Address, in central London on Wednesday 15 November. If you would like to attend, please contact Lucy Cooper.

For more information please visit www.championsofrespect.org.

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