'I make a difference'

The winners!

The ‘I make a difference’ campaign recognises young people whose achievements and contributions might not be recognised by traditional awards. The following young people were recognised at a celebration evening on Friday 11 September 2009 at Leyton Orient, where they received an award and prize.

Alex Bain

Alex has represented his class on the student council and is now head boy. He has taken a very active role in fundraising activities and is responsible for encouraging and supporting the other members of his tutor group in these tasks.

He is very supportive in his relationships with other pupils, particularly the younger more challenging ones. He helps them with their coats and bags and will read or talk to them. He can anticipate their worries and problems and take appropriate action and the respect and friendship they show him is testament to his patience, tolerance and kindness. Alex arrives in school early every morning and prepares the walking frames and wheelchair in preparation for the arrival of the rest of the school. In the evening when he is waiting for his taxi, he helps put away chairs and keep the reception area clear for pupils boarding buses.

Emma Selby

Emma was born with a tumour known as Cholesteatoma in her left ear which was left undiagnosed for nine years. When finally diagnosed it had spread almost as far as her brain. She was ill, weak and doctors feared she would die. She was badly bullied at school. Even Great Ormond Street didn’t know how to treat her as this now common disease was very unknown when she was treated. She has had nearly 30 operations in her life and as a result of the tumour is deaf in her left ear.

Despite having low attendance Emma’s incredible example at school earned her the title of head girl at Aveling Park. She went on to gain all A's and B's in her GCSEs even though she only had 49% attendance that year.

Her biggest achievement has been within Waltham Forest Council. She is the longest surviving member of Forest Flava journalist group. Emma is also an active member of St John Ambulance. With over three years service and over 300 hours duty time she has developed her understanding of life saving first aid and now passes that on to her cadets at the cadet group where she is a helping adult. She teaches them life skills as well as being their shoulder to cry on.

She is forever trying to show adults that the youth aren’t as bad as they seem through her work with Forest Flava and her work with young children across the borough. She nearly lost her life and still fights so that she can live as normal life as possible.

Mohammed Suli Mohammedi

For the past two years Mohammed has been part of a number of young people working with the Commissioning and Contracts Team to evaluate tenders to provide children’s services submitted by private, voluntary and independent organisations.

This year Mohammed has taken on the role of chair of the Youth Commissioning Panel which is responsible for evaluating proposals for funding under the Youth Offer which will fund activities across the borough for children and young people. This is an enormous responsibility for an 18 year old but he has accepted this and to date has risen to the challenge. He has chaired meetings fairly and enabled all youth panelists to participate equally in the process. It is a delight to see Mohammed flourish in this role and he is a good example to the boroughs young people. A keen footballer he has recently started a football group for a group of young people in the borough.

Children in Care Council

This group of young people are all in care or are care leavers. They meet regularly with the director and cabinet member of children and young people, to discuss issues related to being in care and leaving care. They work hard to share their experiences in order to make improvements to the care system within Waltham Forest. They see it as part of their role to listen to other children and young people and take forward their views as well as expressing their own. For a number of the young people in the group any changes to care in Waltham Forest will not be of any benefit for their own lives - so they are purely struggling for improvements for others. They are also involved in a whole range of other initiatives that are also designed to improve care and leaving care in Waltham Forest and have been for many years. They recognise that change can and does take a considerable amount of time to come about and does so in small steps. However, this has not dampened their enthusiasm or their commitment.

Michael Mallinson Scout Centre Junior Crew

Transformation of the accommodation and woodland at the Michael Mallinson Scout Centre is well under way, making it a more welcoming campsite with the numbers of campers on the increase. Last year the crew hut was completely destroyed by an arson attack making it impossible for us to offer our campers activities such as archery and climbing which had been offered in the past. Thanks to the hard work of the Junior Crew these activities will be available again this summer.

The Junior Crew work tirelessly to repair, re-design and improve the accommodation provided at the campsite so that it is accessible to people of all abilities. The Junior Ccrew are looking into refurbishing the disabled access to the bunkrooms and bathroom facilities at the campsite which will include tasks such as widening doors to make them more wheelchair friendly. Work has already been completed to widen the access road into the campsite so that vehicles can pull up to the ramp into the building for easy access. The nature walk in the grounds has also been widened and cleared of debris making it easily accessible to people of all abilities offering them a fantastic forest experience in the heart of Waltham Forest.

Khadijah Babirye

Kay (Khadijah's nickname) is 17 and is taking a lead role in the 'Romance Academy', a four month course for other young people about sex and relationships in Waltham Forest. She took part in the course herself and then decided to stay on as a peer leader and share her experience with the next group. She acts as a supporter, role model and practical workshop leader. Kay has overcome great difficulties in her past and many in her situation would have lost the motivation to achieve anything let alone give her time so generously to her community. She volunteers for three hours per week on the Romance Academy and extra time for planning and leadership training. I expect her to be building her leadership skills in the future and taking on a larger role in the leadership of this project.

The impact Kay has had on her peers is very significant. As one of three young leaders she has welcomed and supported the Romance Academy group members, encouraging them to share their experiences in discussion when they are nervous, making drinks for them and helping participants to feel able to take part with confidence. She talked to the group about her own experience of doing the Romance Academy herself and explained things in a way they could relate to better than the adult youth workers. As well as having an impact on her peers, Kay is also committed to self development and is taking part in leadership training to improve her skills for the future.

Nicola Farmer

Nicola is one of our squad swimmers, who has given up her free time to volunteer as a teacher/coach for the club for six hours a week. She is using her free time to pass her experience on to other children within the club. She rises to every challenge that is thrown at her, be it learn to swim children or those who are already competing. Nicola wants to become a swimming teacher and perhaps a coach. Funding is very difficult to come by, even with this borough being a host borough for the 2012 Olympics, yet she is still striving to find a way to gain experience and do the course.

William Morris School Student Council

Since the Student Council has started, the young people have taken it very seriously and worked very hard. The first task they undertook was a major anti-bullying campaign, which they have been totally responsible for and has turned out to be a great success, winning the Princess Diana Award for the campaign. They are personally responsible for all recycling in school, and have to ensure that all recycling bins are emptied on a regular basis. They have called and chaired meetings with our school governors, dealing with students problems with our school, and a whole lot more.

They were the first students to work with T.Mobile on a brand new project on mobile phone text bullying. They have worked with Young Timebank and Radiowaves on the first ever Radiowaves web site on street crime, this involved creating a web site, blogs, and also reporting and doing surveys on street crime.

Kwame Darko

Kwame has made tremendous academic progress during this last year, in some areas he has made as much as two levels of progress. This year has also seen sharp improvements for Kwame in terms of his health. This has been due to his fantastic attitude and incredible hard work.

Kwame is a model student. He tries his best, rises to every challenge, is reliable and organised and is a credit to his school. He has worked hard outside of school hours, attending booster sessions even at the weekends! His behaviour is excellent and his desire to succeed and progress is impressive. He is well liked by his peers and is always supportive, kind and respectful of all others. He has grown into a wonderful mature, young man whom we are all very proud of.

In spite of Kwame's personal challenges, he has demonstrated to his peers that anything is possible with hard work, the right attitude and perseverance. He is a great role model to others.

Sara Afriyie

Sara is very active in the local community as a volunteer, she sits on the youth panel for the council "Team up and speak out" forum which advises the Council on issues affecting youths in the borough, she is also a member of the Youth Independent Advisory Group which works closely with the local police again advising issues, in particular approaching young black youths positively, she has recently successfully completed a mentoring course which will focus on an intervention project with gangs in Waltham Forest. Despite an extremely traumatic time which meant she could not sit her GCSE'S she has enrolled on a Youth Worker Course with George Williams College to become qualified in youth work and her ultimate goal is to become a youth Justice Lawyer. Sara's commitment and drive is like no other i have seen and she is very focused on giving back to the community.