Two Malaysian Youths Will Be Receiving This Prestigious Award From Queen Elizabeth II
The two will be honoured at a ceremony held in Buckingham Palace, London on 26 June.
By Katrina Khairul Azman — 14 Jun 2018, 11:02 AM
Two Malaysians have been chosen to receive the Queen's Young Leaders Award 2018, an award recognising individuals from across the Commonwealth for their transformative solutions to global issues
On 26 June, Siva Nagappan Visvesvaran and Wen Shin Chia will be honoured with the award from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at a ceremony held in Buckingham Palace, London, Free Malaysia Today reported.
The two will be joined by 240 exceptional youths from 53 Commonwealth countries who are also driving change to make the world a better place.
At the tender age of 20, Visvesvaran is being recognised for developing an innovation that enables rainwater to be stored in a fraction of the space usually required
According to the Queen's Young Leaders website, the 20-year-old from Selangor hopes to deliver more sustainable and affordable sources of energy to developing countries.
The electrical power engineering student is also the co-founder of Project Paplet, an organisation which turns used paper into booklets and donates them to 50 refugee schools throughout Malaysia through the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
The group provides toolkits to 11 other institutions around the world that explain how to make the booklets and to empower people to create new products out of everyday rubbish.
Also an environmentalist, Chia uses her innovation and entrepreneurship to reduce pollution in Malaysian households
The 26-year-old founded Green Yards in 2016, an organisation which deters people from disposing of household oil down drains by offering free soap in exchange for every 5kg of oil returned to them. The environmentally unfriendly oil is then recycled into eco-cleaning products and candles.
According to the Queen's Young Leaders website, Chia's Green Yards has prevented 4.7 tonnes of cooking oil from being dumped in just one year.
As part of the Queen's Young Leaders programme, the two Malaysians will take part in a year-long leadership course run by the University of Cambridge
Winners of this prestigious Award will be receiving a unique package of training, mentoring, and networking, including a one-week residential programme in the UK to help them develop as leaders and work with even greater impact.
