A young Guyanese entrepreneur who works in disadvantaged communities to reduce suicide has been selected to represent the Nation at the Queen’s Young Leaders Award (QYLA) in the United Kingdom, next year.
Selected was Samantha Sheopersaud, the President of Enterprise Youth Development Group (EYDG). The EYDG runs several initiatives, including providing food and clothing to low income families, organising Christmas parties for children living in orphanages and offering community computer classes.
According to the QYLA, under Sheopersaud‘s leadership, EYDG has a suicide prevention project, which offers support to people at risk. The QYLA recipient recently completed the research thesis ‘identifying depression from social media content’ and created an algorithm which processes natural language to detect ‘depressive statements’ in social media posts.
The Queen’s Young Leaders Programme discovers, celebrates and supports exceptional young people from across the commonwealth, leaving a lasting legacy for her majesty the queen. It recognizes and celebrates exceptional people aged 18-29 from across the Commonwealth, who are taking the lead in their communities and using their skills to transform lives. Winners of this Award will not only receive a unique package of training, mentoring and networking but also a one-week residential programme in the United Kingdom during which they will collect their Award from Her Majesty, the Queen.
