tv Young Citizen Awards 2017 BBC News April 8, 2017 8:30pm-9:01pm BST
8:30 pm
she spends her time volunteering, helping out with a number of schemes, and tries to change the way adults deal with other young people in care. she was nominated for the award by the rotary clubs of doncaster and doncaster st leger. this is her story. hi. may i have two cadbury's cream eggs. have you signed in yet? my name is abbey. i'm 15 and i'm from doncaster. i've been in care forfour years. i remember the first few years was a major struggle for me emotionally, because i had so many different people and so many things going on in my life. i knew what i wanted. i knew what i wanted to say. i knew i had my own opinions on things, but i was never really given that chance. i was just dismissed. when i found the courage to speak out myself, ijust thought, right, that's it. i now know that i can say this, so i'm going to let other children have that opportunity. i've just give it them. we've got sports going on... abbey is one in a million
8:31 pm
to be honest with you. she gives her time freely. she's a great advocate for young people. she offers them support. she offers them advice. she very much helps shape the service the way the independent visitors scheme runs. for me, before i came into care, i didn't really have a childhood. i basically raised my two young brothers. i was, sort of, given all the family's dilemmas and problems, they were put on my shoulders. care changed my life. i did things that a normal 13—year—old should do instead of staying at home and cooking meals. it was difficult, but at the same time, easy. it was just a massive relief. have you signed in yet? i don't think i will ever stop doing what i'm doing, never, ever stop. for me, i'm going to take it further and make sure that every child in care has a voice and every child is loving being in care. applause.
8:32 pm
abbey is here with me now. congratulations on your young citizen award. how do you feel? it's really, it's all a whirlwind really. i never expected to win this award. i never really expected to be here with these amazing people too. but like i've always said, this award is never really for me. it's on behalf of all the children that work alongside me, the people that work with me as well. and all the different organisations that i help. you've done wonderful work. what was it about your experience in care that made you want to reach out to other young people? well, i was never really listened to. i know how frustrating it is and annoying when you know you have something to say but you just can't say it, because people sort of believe that you're not old enough or you don't know how to say it or you don't have the confidence. for me, i thought, i needed to stop and children needed to have that courage and confidence to come forward themselves. so i sort of became a voice for young people.
8:33 pm
obviously, it must be quite challenging being in care, i'd imagine it's not the easiest situation for children. you said you want to make it a happy experience for children. how do you think you can achieve that practically? by encouraging them to come alongside myself an the other children i work with to some of the presentations that we do, that show the fun and the work we do. and just talking to kids and explaining my story and how it's similar to other kids. and just getting them engaged and involved in different activities and showing them the positive side, instead of the negative side of care. indeed. i'm sure you will go on to do more great work. congratulations. thank you. applause. what generally happens on tuesday
8:34 pm
evening is local kids coming to learn how to cope. we use kids as young as seven to come in and get them involved, not just young as seven to come in and get them involved, notjust being users of technology but creators of technology. i'm 18 years old and i'm a legal research student. i'm the director of the company. i have a passion for technology an eye enjoys sharing that with the kids. i think it's a great opportunity to be able to show them they cannot just use
8:35 pm
technology but learn how to build things to control technology as well. these kids are very much my generation. people on facebook and twitter who were just using you tube. but they're not, they understand somebody's build it and they understand if they put a lot of work in and understand the technology, they can build the next facebook, google, twitter and do business online. i don't do it for the recognition. i never did it to receive trophies or awards, it's just an added bonus. it's encouraging for me to go on and do other things afterwards, a good motivator. it's great to be able to get involved in something that the kids enjoy it, enjoy doing, and to be able to share the passion of technology i have with other people. especially when the kids get the opportunity to go and better things. applause. congratulations. how do you feel? i'm honoured to
8:36 pm
receive the award. as i said of et, i don't do it for the awards recognition. it's nice to get the awards and great to be on stage so many amazing young people. it's great. it's good for the kids, as well. good for the kids younger than me to see hardware compassion can lead to great things. why coding? that's a good question. i suppose it's just because i think it's the future. everyone has a phone in their pocket, everyone has a laptop 01’ their pocket, everyone has a laptop oran ipad and their pocket, everyone has a laptop or an ipad and i think it's important we don't just or an ipad and i think it's important we don'tjust become users of the technology but builders and creators of technology. i think it offers so many opportunities for young people and i think they will have a great future if they can understand not how to use about how to build them. any future bill gates' among your lot? i bet they pick it up quickly, quicker than i
8:37 pm
would! it's incredible. some kids come in and can code websites or build apps but cannot tie their own shoelaces! you're coming in and you're going, they might be the next bill gates, but they will still need their mums and dads with them! it's their mums and dads with them! it's the future, and you are part of it. congratulations. well done. applause our next winner is mohamed khalil. mohamed grew up in syria. he was forced to flee the country with his family when he was 10, having been shot during an attack on his school. he watched his friends die and had to play dead to survive. having moved to england, mohamed started going to leeds city academy. he was nominated by the rotary club of leeds. ian bucknell has been to meet him. mohammed is a 16—year—old, growing up in leeds,
8:38 pm
getting ready for his gcse in foot technology. —— food technology. nothing remarkable about that, but how he got here, well, that's another story. mohammed was growing up in syria, when his school was attacked. he saw his friends being killed and was himself shot in the leg. to survive, he pretended to be dead until the attackers had gone. i cry when i sleep because i can remember my friends. in my head, it's not going from my head. like, i close the room, i sit in and i cry because every time i think about the bad things that happened to me. mohammed's family fled syria and eventually made a home in leeds. his mum has had surgery for cancer and his dad injured his back at work. so mohammed looks after them both and helps support the family with money that he makes from working in a restaurant. his teachers are astonished at the progress mohammed has made. in school, as at home, he's made it hisjob to help others. his story is what pushes him.
8:39 pm
his story is what makes him want to change things. seeing the war at such a young age, he speaks about helping people that have been through that, that aren't managing as well as him. mohammed plans to dedicate the the rest of his life to helping other people. sometimes i feel like i don't need a lot of money, i want to help, if i have money i want to give it to other people. if you help children, you feel like happy. applause. congratulations, how do you feel to be here? happy. you went through some terrible things in syria. how do you think they changed you as a person and made you who you are? made me more stronger and confident and to help other people who have bad life before. now you work a lot here, to look after your family.
8:40 pm
yeah. you've had some problems with things here as well. my mum got sick, she had operation of cancer and i was very worried for her because my mum is just all the thing i have in my whole life, my mum and my family. when she got sick, i was like very worried. i went shopping for her to help her more because i'm the big and i want to help her shopping, bring my brother from the school and my dad is sick as well. he can't work properly. that's why. so, a difficult time for you and you work in a restaurant as well as keeping up with your school work. yeah, i was work in the restaurant to help more to make more money to give to my dad and my family to bring more stuff. so how does it feel now to be given this award and for everybody to be saying well done, we recognise how hard you're working. thank you. i feel like very excited because people read my story and i really happy about the award.
8:41 pm
i want to thank everyone who is here. i want to say thank you to everyone. congratulations to you. thank you very much. thank you for talking to us. applause. for the second year, we're presenting the rotary young citizen wheelchair sport award, sponsored by the british wheelchair sport charity wheelpower. the award goes to 15—year—old kare adenagan. kare, who was born with diplegic cerebral palsy, was inspired by the london 2012 paralympics to take up wheelchair racing. four short years later, she brought home three medals from rio. she nowjuggles the life of a full—time athlete as well as taking her gcses. nick clitheroe has been to meet her. pushing hard in every training session to be the best. but fast times on the track aren't the only target for 16—year—old kare this year.
8:42 pm
maths and french revision are just as important with her gcses around the corner. it makes for a busy schedule. i go school for about 8, i go to school for about 8am, then lessons to apm. then an hour at home and onto the track. on the track for two hours. after the track session, i have home work as well. it's busy, but i know it will all be worth it injuly. kare was born with cerebral palsy diplegia. she took up wheelchair racing after watching london 2012. four years later, she came home from rio with a silver and two bronze medals, to the delight of fellow pupils at school. i was so proud and ijust, i almost cried, well i did cry. my family gathered in front of the tv about half an hour before the race, waiting to see her. when we saw it, it was fantastic. i was so happy for her. their support will be important this year.
8:43 pm
they're not the only ones. this sport doesn't come cheap. this new chair has cost her more than £11,000. the world para—athletics championships in london are the target. expectations are high, but so is the bevel of competition. i want to medal at london 2017. i've been working quite hard and been training hard. ijust hope that i can get a podium finish, despite gcses and despite what a busy year it is. i just want to be there in front of the home crowd. but kare is determined that she will inspire the next generation, as she was inspired by the london paralympics. that was kare adenagan — winner of the rotary young citizen wheelchair sports award. she can't be here today, as she's at a family birthday party. we wish her well. and send on our congratulations. applause. our next award goes to 14—year—old aidan jackson. aidan‘s raised over £16,000
8:44 pm
for charity in just two years. he was diagnosed with asperger‘s syndrome in 2011, so sometimes struggles with everyday situations, making his fundraising efforts all the more incredible. aidan was nominated by the rotary club of widnes. andy gill has the story. i don't like that picture. aidan and his mum caroline flick through a scrapbook of his fundraising exploits, at their home in widnes. he started on a small scale, but the death in 2014 of his close friend 0livia alice walker, at the age ofjust 15, really lit his fundraising fuse. i wanted to help out her family as much as possible and when they wanted to set up a charity, it was like the main, like they ignited the spark. last august, aidan filled a sports stadium with 10,500 teddies to raise money. why is it so important to you that you do this,
8:45 pm
that you do help people? even if it's just one person, that one person it's going to make a big change to their life. it's going to help them out a lot. and all this despite the problems caused by his asperger‘s. day to day things were a struggle. they still are. but when it comes to fundraising, he'sjust a different person. as well as asperger‘s, aidan has a condition which causes him to walk on his toes. he may need surgery, which would keep him in plasterfor six weeks, and in splits for a year. i have to just try and deal with it, at my own pace, just slow down a little bit. aidan‘s raised more than £16,000 in just two years. he'll find out next week if he does need an operation or not. applause. congratulations. how do you feel? it's just brilliant to receive this award. i mean, it's just showing that
8:46 pm
there's not always just bad stories in the newspapers and the tv. it's showing that there is a lot of young people doing good things, showing that it's just brilliant what people can do when they put their minds to it. it's lovely to have good news about young people. tell us about asperger‘s, what difficulties have you had with that? mainly social and just trying to get around really. as a child, i struggled with making friends and trying to strike up conversations with people, but during my fundraising, it's been a lot easier to actually get to know people, giving people topics to talk about and just genuinely making new friends. what drove you to fundraise? what made you think one day, you know what, i'm going to raise some money? mainly to keep my friend olivia's memory alive and to help out other people, making sure that what happened to her doesn't happen to anyone else. indeed.
8:47 pm
fantastic work, congratulations. thank you for talking to us. thank you. applause. our next award winner is 18—year—old molly comish, she was determined to act after seeing so many homeless people living and sleeping on the streets of ireland. she was nominated by the rotary club of bray for her idea of giving packs of essential items to homeless people in her hometown. let's see her in action. i was walking around dublin in december of 2015, and i just saw the amount of homeless people and i decided that i needed to make a difference. so i'm trying anyway. i'm 18 years old and i live in county wicklow ireland. for me, dignity is being clean. so, i thought maybe i could put together a pack of things
8:48 pm
that we take for granted to keep us clean, that homeless people might not necessarily be able to buy. so ijust decided to put it in a rucksack as well, because it's reusable. there's everything from scarves to gloves, to socks, to ear buds, to deodrant, deoderant, toothpaste, pretty much everything we all take for granted but need. everyone's smiling and thanking me when they receiving them... hi guys, i'm going to leave some stuff here for you. that's just an amazing feeling in itself. people are just really happy to receive them, which makes it ten times better. it makes me really sad that people do have to live that way. but i'm trying my best to help them, make it a little bit easier. winning the award is amazing. i never in my wildest dream thought that i would have won it.
8:49 pm
so to win it is incredible. yeah, i couldn't believe it. i was over the moon. applause. congratulations, how do you feel? i'm over the moon. i can't believe i've won it. it's amazing. it's such a simple idea, but such a lovely thought. what gave you the idea to come up with these dignity packs? i just saw so many homeless people on the streets, and i thought this isn't right. i decided i wanted to make a change. i decided to make 30 by myself. i didn't tell my mum or dad or no—one. then they caught me bringing in 30 wet wipes and they were like, "what's going on? stop putting tooth brushes on the shopping list! then i had to tell them. it's expanded. we made 120 this year. wow. what's the reaction from people when you pass them over? everyone's so happy. they want to hug you.
8:50 pm
it's a good feeling when you put them out. are you looking to expand it? we have our stage one charity status. now we're going to stage two. we want to expand nationwide and maybe to the uk as well, which would be great as well. we would love to get in contact with charities and maybe other rotary groups, because they are supportive of this idea. we would love to expand out. you had some attention from people like the irish health minister. are you surprised by how much attention it's got? yeah, it's kind of crazy. i thought it would be a little thing that no—one would know about. to be up here now in front of everybody is incredible. it started off as a small seed and now it's a big tree. congratulations to you. good luck with the future. thank you so much. applause. 0urfinal award goes to sisters amber and sophia cowburn, aged 23 and 24. they founded the mental health charity, invictus trust, in 2011, after their 18—year—old brother killed himself in a psychiatric
8:51 pm
unit in cornwall. they were nominated by the rotary club of truro, as noel phillips reports. 0ur brother was a party animal, life and soul of the party. he was a fashion student. he was very popular. he wasjust like the greatest person. in 2010, ben was just 18 when he took his own life in an adult psychiatric unit in cornwall. within a few hours of losing ben, we were in disbelief. it shouldn't have happened. ben shouldn't have been able to take his own life in a mental health hospital. his sisters wanted to keep ben's legacy alive. so they set up their own charity, the invictus trust, as a way to support other teenagers with mental health problems. after ben had passed away, not very long after, my mum sat down with us, my sisters and my dad and just said that she felt really strongly that we had to change the services, really didn't want to be
8:52 pm
a family that became bitter, because we felt that ben had been let down. we needed to change what was available for teenagers in cornwall and what support and services could be enhanced and better provided. after three years of campaigning for a mental health unit for young people in cornwall, it was recently announced that the nhs will be building the first ever specialist unit in the county. it feels amazing. it's been seven years now that we've been running the charity, sometimes it's gone so fast. sometimes it's gone so slow. we've been lobbying for a unit. it's been a long, hard journey. we finally have confirmation that a unit will be built for young people in cornwall. applause. congratulations. how do you feel to be getting this award? yeah, we are so thrilled. we're overwhelmed at receiving an award. we didn't think that this would get recognised in this way. we're just really proud of what invictus has achieved. we're a family—run charity.
8:53 pm
we're really proud. how do you feel, tell me, about how your brother was let down by the existing services in cornwall at the time? i think as a family, it was really devastating. ben was 18, but onlyjust, and went into an adult unit. we felt that the care didn't suit him. it wasn't very hopeful. it didn't understand him as a young person. we really felt that it let him down. but then increasingly through our work, we realise had he been under 18, he wouldn't have been seen in the county, as we have no mental health beds for young people. that became what we were lorying for, that there should be a young person's unit. we have the news that it will be built. this is a unit uniquely 18 to 25—year—olds, it crosses that bridge. currently it's £5 million put aside to start the build next year. it's for under 18s, because there's no under 18 provision in patient care in cornwall.
8:54 pm
what we're really lobbying for is to go 13 to 25. our view is that ben didn'tjust turn into an adult from going to bed at 17 and waking up at 18 the next day. which of us do, you hit the nail on the head. do you think your brother would be proud of the work you have done in his memory? we really hope so. invictus is completely in his memory. it's named after his tattoos and we use the anchor logo. it's a brand, young people would want to identify with. what's next for you ? it's busy. we go into a lot of schools and do talks and challenge and break down the stigma, make everybody aware that everyone has mental health itjust depends where you are on the spectrum on that day and it changes.
8:55 pm
with eare campaigning to make sure this build is innovative and cornish children are cared for in cornwall. they're in good hands. congratulations both. thank you very much for talking to us. thank you. applause. and joining me now is the president of rotary international in great britain and ireland, eve conway, who started the rotary young citizen awards ten years ago. i did, you were there as well. we were there ten years ago. i can't believe it. we still look as young as we did then. of course, younger! what about the stories that you've heard here today? inspirational. that's why the awards were started ten years ago, to show case positive young role models like the people we have here today and overcome negative stereotypes. because then as now, the headlines are so often dominated by bad news about young people. we know that the majority of young people aren't like that. with rotary, we have so many projects, young citizen awards, with our inspirational youngsters today, youth leadership awards, young musician, we know that young
8:56 pm
people are our futures. we need to invest in them really. and celebrate their achievements. yes. thank you very much. eve conway, thank you forjoining us. so congratulations to all this year's winners, who were nominated by rotary clubs across britain and ireland. i'm sure you'll agree we've met some very impressive youngsters. we've been moved and i'm sure we've all been inspired. i know i have. congratulations to all of you. thank you very much forjoining us this year. bye— bye. hello, good evening. some changes on the way for some of us tomorrow. but it has been a super start to the weekend. not quite make hay while the sun shines, but the tractor was
8:57 pm
very busy here in shropshire. the farm outlook was clear blue skies across much of scotland today. we have seen some cloud lingering in the far north of scotland, up towards the northern isles, otherwise clear skies. this cloud could start to push back towards north—west scotland and northern ireland in the night. 0therwise, north—west scotland and northern ireland in the night. otherwise, as you are but the mist and fog forming across southern counties of england. it will be quite chilly after the warmth of today, looking at those sort of temperatures in towns and cities. a few degrees less in rural areas. warming up quickly, the fog clearing away, lots of sunshine in england and wales and eastern scotland. here is the change, cloud and a little rain coming from the north—west and eventually cloud coming into western parts of england and wales. clouding over across the whole of scotland. not much rain for eastern scotland. it will be liked and patchy. cloud riding in northern ireland and then this rain in the afternoon. not much rain but
8:58 pm
temperatures will be lower than today. it will cool down quite a bit of the afternoon in wales and west in england as the cloud arrives. highest temperatures midlands and eastern england, 211—25 across east anglia. this is the peak of the heat. the warm air will be pushed away by this weather front. very little rain as a head southwards but it is introducing colder air. the wind direction is changing from the southerly we have now to a north—westerly on monday. you will notice a big difference in the weather. most places will be dry. a little sunshine at times. more cloud around and some showers, mainly for northern ireland at northern scotland. could be some snow on the mountain tops. those temperatures across the board are lower than this weekend. significantly lower across england and wales. that cool north—westerly airflow doesn't last too long, it gets cut off by this high—pressure moving in. around the top of that, a westerly atlantic
8:59 pm
flow, blowing in cloud across scotla nd flow, blowing in cloud across scotland and northern ireland. in north—west scotland, some heavy rain perhaps for a time. england and wales, probably a dry day but temperatures at best 15 celsius. this is bbc news. i'm nicholas 0wen. the headlines. the foreign secretary borisjohnson has called off a visit to moscow, saying the chemical weapons attack in syria changed the situation ‘fundamentally‘. two people have died and 33 others were rescued after a fire at a care home in hertfordshire. swedish police say a man arrested in stockholm after yesterday's fatal lorry attack is almost certainly the driver. and — coming up in 10 minutes — political leaders and commentators from the baltics, america and russia will be exploring what the new era of putin and trump could look like in global questions.
59 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
BBC News Television Archive Television Archive News Search ServiceUploaded by TV Archive on