E-Paper
Two Indians bag Queen’s award for youth leadership
LONDON: A visually-challenged man with a passion for education and a youth facilitator from Hyderabad are among the 60 people from across the globe who were presented
LONDON: A visually-challenged man with a passion for education and a youth facilitator from Hyderabad are among the 60 people from across the globe who were presented medals for exemplary work in their respective fields by Queen Elizabeth at the Buckingham Palace.
The two Indians are Kartik Sawhney, 21, and Neha Swain, 28.
Launched in 2014 by the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry, Queen’s Young Leaders Award are given away to 60 exceptional young people who then become ‘Queen’s Young Leaders’ — one for every year that she has served as the head of the Commonwealth at the time of her Diamond Jubilee.
Sawhney, who was born blind, is passionate about universal access to education. Though he excelled in science and technology at school, he discovered that blind students were prevented from pursuing science after grade 10.
After appealing, Sawhney enrolled as India’s first grade 11 blind science student. He faced similar challenges while trying to enter engineering colleges, so in 2013 he took a scholarship at Stanford University.
He founded Project STEM Access, which of f ers hands-on science workshops in India, as well as virtual training sessions.
Swain has worked as a youth facilitator for five years. Two years ago she co-founded an NGO Rubaroo, which aims to provide an inclusive space for young people, irrespective of their socio-economic background, to develop their leadership skills through interactive workshops.
The NGO organises workshops in schools that cannot afford such programmes free of cost. It has so far worked with nearly 2,000 young people in Hyderabad.
