Nigeria’s Victoria Ibiwoye has emerged one of the 20 Outstanding Young People from across the world presented with the Princess Diana Legacy Award on Tuesday in the United Kingdom.
All the Legacy Award recipients — who come from across the U.K., Nigeria, Canada, Malaysia, Tanzania, Nepal, and India – have had a monumental impact on society, according to a statement by The Legacy Award organisers made available to the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Lagos.
Many of them only know Princess Diana as a historical figure but they carry the honour of the award with pride and admiration for whose memory it was set up in. This year marks the 20th Anniversary of the charity, “The Diana Award’’, they said.
A statement on the organisers’ official website also said the award takes place every two years.
“This unique accolade celebrates the achievements of 20 outstanding young leaders, visionaries and role models from across the world, who have demonstrated their ability to inspire and mobilise new generations to service their communities, as Princess Diana did herself,” the statement said.
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Profiling Ibiwoye, 25, among other recipients across the world on its website, the organisers wrote,
“She created ‘OneAfricanChild Foundation for Creative Learning’’, an NGO, to address the inequality in education, particularly for children in underserved communities in Nigeria.
“OneAfricanChild began as a grassroots project reaching out to two children in Victoria’s immediate community.
“Today, the foundation has worked with over 4,000 children teaching them critical soft skills as well as the importance of taking active roles in their communities.
“Ibiwoye believes that Education should be a fundamental human right but sadly, over 13 million children are still out-of-school in Nigeria.
“She understood the power of education to transform lives, break the cycle of poverty and build peaceful and resilient societies.”
The statement added:
“On a personal level, Victoria overcame struggles with dyslexia and financial difficulties in order to continue her studies. Despite these challenges, she tenaciously pursued her education.”
Victoria works selflessly to empower children to receive the best education possible.
In 2017 and 2018, Victoria was named as 100 Most Influential Young Africans by the African Youth Awards. She is also a 2019 Mandela Washington Fellow and a recipient of the Princess Diana Legacy Awards for her contribution to education and youth development.
The Chief Executive, The Diana Award, Tessy Ojo, says:
“This is a landmark event for The Diana Award as we celebrate our 20th anniversary.
“This ceremony is about celebrating young people for their selfless contribution to society, their courage and bravery, and demonstrating to young people that we value them.
“We believe that valuing young people means investing in them, so we are delighted that our Legacy Award recipients will have access to our unique development programme ensuring they continue to be positive trailblazers for their generation.’’
In addition to being presented the award by Princess Diana’s brother, Lord Spencer, the Legacy Award recipients will have access to a unique development programme.
“The programme aims to provide them with the opportunity to enhance their skills in four key areas: leadership, community development, social and technology for good,’’ Ojo said.
She disclosed that the winners were selected from a poll of nominations by an independent judging panel which included Baroness Lawrence OBE, Holly Branson and British Airways CEO and Chairman Alex Cruz.
