Pakistani youth bags ‘International Commonwealth Youth Award’

Pakistani youth Hanan Ali Abbasi (26) has won the ‘International Commonwealth Youth Award’ in the field of Democracy and Human Rights.

He is the first Pakistani who to have won the award and received a $ 1,000 grant to further advance, expand and sustain his development work with guidance from Commonwealth Youth Program.

The award celebrate young people (aged 15 to 29) in the Commonwealth who are making a positive difference in the lives of others through development initiatives ranging from poverty alleviation to education and protection of the environment.

Young people were nominated from more than 54 countries across the Commonwealth for the awards, which are run by the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Youth Affairs Division (YAD).

Hanan dedicated of his award to the youth, workers and labour class of the country for their role in social change. In a special message, Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba said, “The nominations we have received for the awards demonstrate that young people are making a wonderful and significant contribution to human development in our member states. As partners in development, young people are using creative ideas, new technologies and are bringing tremendous energy to meeting national development goals.”

Hailing from a rural and modest background, Hanan is also the youngest ever nominee for the highest Civil Award of Pakistan Pride of Performance. He is founder and president of a youth-led model parliament, the National Youth Assembly (NYA), which aims at providing young leaders with opportunities to enrich and enlarge their knowledge of national and international politics, public administration and policies.

The NYA has sprouted across the country with a broad network of its members and youth councillors. Malala Yousafzai, Aamir Atlas Khan, Ibrahim Shahid and including many others are members of the NYA. Hanan has also authored two books. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government recently appointed him Member of working group for Ministry of Youth, Sports and Tourism. Hanan has started the HOPE campaign, which encompasses humanitarian aid to address hunger and poverty through sustainable food sources.

HOPE’s campaign against hunger has reached out to 200,000 people in 25 districts of Pakistan and more than 150,000 poor people in 20 districts nationwide.