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“While still a high school student in Kenya, Alice refused to live the life of a child bride,” Amal Clooney tells a packed audience at London’s Royal Festival Hall.
She is, together with husband George, the star guest at The King’s Trust Awards and proudly presenting one of the winners.
This particular line, however, is not included in the media pack, nor was it divulged to the many journalists involved in reporting this event. Such is the human rights lawyer’s knowledge of the winner she helped choose. And such is her passion for Alice’s story.
The Kenyan was facing the prospect of life as a child bride after her father died when she was in her early teens, leaving her family with no bread winner. Alice saved herself by building her own craft business, making products using beads, while still a high school pupil in Form 2, which in Kenya is around 15 or 16 years old.
The King’s Trust charity, founded by King Charles III, helped her learn to scale her business and pursue high-demand products, in time earning enough money to support her mother and siblings.
In honor of that achievement, Alice, 19, was given the Amal Clooney Women’s Empowerment Award during the star-studded ceremony on June 26. “Amongst this year’s incredible nominees, Alice’s resilience, courage and entrepreneurial spirit really stood out for me,” Clooney continued. “She turned this craft into a lifeline not only for herself, but also to support her whole family.
“And she didn’t stop there. Now an employer as well as an entrepreneur, she trains other girls in the school holidays, so they too have the means to forge a livelihood of their own. With her bright spirit, Alice has shared her skills with those around her, bringing together young women in her community and inspiring them to carve out their own path.”
Inspiring Stories
On the red carpet, Clooney told Newsweek: “They approached me to present this award and I’m able to play a part in selecting the recipient every year, and it’s always really inspiring stories and girls who’ve really made the most of the training and upskilling that the King’s Trust International provide.”
Clooney has been the official partner for the Women’s Empowerment Award since 2019, and this year her actor husband joined her not only for the award ceremony but also at a Buckingham Palace reception in honor of the winners the day before. On the red carpet, he told Newsweek: “My wife has an award named after her so it’s pretty fun to be here, but, look, we get to draw attention to the young people who could use the attention for the hard work they’re doing, and that’s always a good thing to do.”
Newsweek is an official media partner for the Global Sustainability Award, won by Pascal, 20, from Uganda, for his work turning plastic bottles into everyday products, including vases. He got to meet the king at the palace reception, sharing a lighthearted moment during a group photograph with other award winners.
“I recycle plastic bottles,” Pascal later told Newsweek. “I get different products from plastic that I collect around the towns. And I make products like key holders, sugar bowls, flower vessels.
“I have a number of days that I normally go to collect the bottles. I will use one hour to collect the bottles and the other remaining hours to work on them. Mostly I do that during the evening after school time. Plastic bottles are a big problem in the town where I live.
“I really enjoyed meeting the king and I was very happy.”
And he has an impressive record, having gathered 300kg of plastic waste in a single month as well as reducing the amount of waste going to landfill in his community by 80 percent. On the red carpet, Pascal told Newsweek: “When I go back to my motherland, I will take a concern to inspire other young people to take action in my project so we can save the world with the issue of climate change.”
The Handmaid’s Tale actor Joseph Fiennes was also at the ceremony. He told Newsweek: “I’ve been supporting [the awards] since the moment I was kindly invited almost 25 years ago.
“I was invited to be a part because it really celebrates the extraordinary journey that many, many young people have gone on, from fighting adversity from being disenfranchised to being mentored by the trust and all the partners with the trust to get back on track.”
“We’re talking tens of thousands of people over many years who have been brought back from total situations, so it’s great,” he added.
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