BEYOND BAMBOO BECOMES THE MAIN EVENT SPONSOR FOR THE GLOBAL YOUTH AWARDS
The Global Youth Awards are the first of their kind, created for young people by young people started back in 2012. They have provided a platform and support for hundreds of inspirational change makers all over the world. Winners receive training and mentoring and become global youth ambassadors for the round table, three global goals of educational innovation, empowering everyone and environmental rejuvenation.
This year Beyond Bamboo is the main event sponsor for the awards coming up in London on 18th November. We spoke to Tanith Harding Director of International Development at RoundTable Global and co-ordinator for The Legacy Project Global Youth Awards to find out more.
“The Global Youth Award stems from our charity, The Legacy Project. It was created because at that time there was a lot of negative chatter around young people. David Cameron, who was prime minister at the time created a positive for youth tribe. Tiffany Kelly, who was one of the co-founders of the charity went to this meeting about changing the narrative for young people, but there were no young people around the table. So The Positive For Youth Awards as it was then was created to celebrate young people doing amazing things, of which there are so so many”.
Tanith took over running the awards in 2017 and decided that celebrating young people in the UK was not enough. There are incredible young people all over the world, doing many brilliant things, and hence The Global Youth Awards was born.
“We began running in multiple countries, in LA, South Africa, the UK, and we had one Global Youth Awards online. When COVID hit we needed to change that because we obviously couldn't run live any more. We created an online event, which was sensational, it suddenly for the first time ever felt like it really was a global celebration of young people”.
The event returned to a live venue last year with the online format integrated, one event that celebrates all of the young people around the world. There are 12 awards and entries from 50 different countries now. It's run by young people for young people. The judges are young people, the hosts are young people and the performers, all young people.
“It's a beautiful, inspiring event that really makes people feel emotional when they attend because we have got some incredible young people in our societies”.
This year the awards are running at Troxy in London. There's going to be twelve performances from young artists, and some are from BBC introducing emerging talent. The awards have already received nominations from new countries, in addition to the 50 countries that have been in the past. The award categories are Education, Environment, Empowerment, and there's the new Creativity category as well. This year's awards will also see the relaunch of The Legacy Project charity.
“It's a showcase for talent being live streamed globally, it's a really good opportunity for young people”.
We asked Tanith to tell us a little bit about one or two of the standout projects in the Environment category that have have won at the awards in previous years.
“Lucas Tejedor won last year - he lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He really stood out to me. He has invented drones that can detect oil leaks in pipelines that run through various different countries, these are often what companies consider too small to be concerned about, money wise, but it does cause a massive amount of environmental damage. His drones go along the pipelines, detects the leaks, and they contact the companies and hold them responsible so that they have to fix those oil leaks, rather than just leave in them. Lucas has also created a drone that can detect fires in the Amazon rainforest. Again, we can hold people responsible and accountable”.
Another standout project worth mentioning is Kids Against Plastic a winner from quite a few years ago. Amy and Ella have been Global Youth Ambassadors since and are facilitating a global youth talk at the awards this year. Recently they also won a Pride of Britain Award. They've since worked with a tech company to create this amazing app that people can register plastics to start to see what's happening in terms of plastic pollution. They've picked up 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of pieces of plastic. Kids Against Plastic also run amazing projects in schools to raise awareness and create a global tribe of kids against plastic who really want to make a change in the world.
Beyond Bamboo is a sister company to RoundTable Global, and this year's awards main sponsor.
“It's such a great fit because of everything that Beyond Bamboo stand for and the company ethos is so much in line with what we've created through the awards. What's important to us is to have event sponsors and category sponsors that are so completely aligned with the values that we have. We need to demonstrate to these young people that we're working with companies that are inspiring and also creating change in the world”.
These awards really are creating ripples of positive change around the world. In a recent interview with Phoebe Coles, one of the winners from last year, she told Tanith that winning an award made her feel like what she was doing was valued and it really inspired her and spurred her on to do more.
To get involved in the awards this year, first and foremost, nominate your young people! Anyone that's aged between 11 to 25 in the world anywhere, who is doing something that's really amazing and inspiring. It takes five minutes and it's free. Secondly, you can attend the awards. There's a sponsorship for tables open to companies that want to support young people, however, for young people, it's completely free to attend. If you are not in the UK and you still want to join there is a live online link, you can register all your nominations and interest here.
If you are a businesses out that they would like to get involved, please get in touch with Tanith directly. The awards are still looking for some category sponsors. Tanith is happy to jump on calls with people and talk to them more about what it is they are doing and what the awards are trying to achieve. You can find out more and contact Tanith here.