Photo via The Malaysian Insight
Marine Biology graduate, Mogesh Sababathy has been named a finalist for this year’s Commonwealth Youth Awards.
The 23-year-old is shortlisted along with 19 other exceptional young individuals, including creators, activists and entrepreneurs, from 18 countries.
Mogesh, who has been actively involved in environment-related activities throughout his years at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), started a project focusing on the sustainable development goal (SDG) of “Life Below Water”.
He is the co-founder of Project Ocean Hope, a youth-led group that aims to increase the visibility of ocean issues and environmental conservation through youth leadership campaigns and training.
The group has also run educational community projects to reduce littering and unsustainable fishing practices, and an ocean literacy webinar series on waste management, reaching over 10,000 individuals across 15 countries.
The award recognises outstanding young people whose projects change lives in their communities and help achieve the SDGs, and Mogesh made the cut after more than 1,000 entries from 43 Commonwealth countries were received last year.
Speaking to Bernama, Mogesh, who hails from Puchong, Selangor, said being selected as the finalist of the prestigious award was not his success alone, but it was for all young Malaysians who are passionate and have worked hard for environmental sustainability.
“I received the good news via email from the Commonwealth yesterday (November 28th) and I was really shocked when I opened the email. This is a great recognition for Malaysian youths and others in Asia. I feel humbled,” he said.
Mogesh has just graduated with a bachelor's degree in Marine Biology with honors from UMT and is currently working as a research assistant at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) while waiting for the university's convocation ceremony, which was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year, the award expanded to five regions: Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and Canada as well as the Pacific and the top finalists from each region will be announced as winners at the official awards ceremony held virtually on March 10th.
Of these five regional winners, one outstanding youth will become the Commonwealth Young Person of the Year 2021.
All 20 finalists will each receive a trophy, certificate and £1,000 (RM5,521) to expand the impact of their projects, while each regional winner will receive £3,000 (RM15,563), and the overall Pan-Commonwealth winner will take home a total of £5,000 (RM27,605).
Congratulations and all the best, Mogesh!
by Kyle Roshen Jacob
