Priti Rajagopalan, an Indian climate change activist who works with local communities and governments for environmental change, has been awarded the Commonwealth Youth Award.
At the age of 18, Rajagopalan started a waste management programme in India with some friends, training students across 200 schools and more than 40 universities in separating waste and composting. The compost was sold cheaply to farmers. The Indian government now funds the project in more than 40 cities.
Rajagopalan has also trained women and children in rural India to make and maintain their own solar powered goods and water purifiers, and to sterilize equipment for midwives. An engineer by training, Rajagopalan matches her grassroots sustainability projects with policy work for governments and international organizations, and helping researchers and colleges exchange ideas.
At the ceremony, Rajagopalan was joined by the regional winners for Africa and Europe, the Caribbean including Canada and the Pacific, who each won a 3,000 pounds grant: Ghanaian Gilbert Addah; Christaneisha Soleyn from Barbados and New Zealander Ariel Chuang.
The Commonwealth Youth Awards for excellence in development work recognize the contribution of young people in achieving development goals. Rajagopalan received the award for the pan-Commonwealth and Asia region.
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