A SOLOMON Islands youth leader Bethalyn Kelly has been announced as the winner of the top 2025 Commonwealth Youth Awards for the Pacific region last week.
She was nominated for the prestigious Commonwealth Youth Award for forming a girls’ club dedicated to empowering young women.
The 20-year-old was named the Pacific Regional Winner of the Commonwealth Youth Awards for Excellence in Development Work.
The announcement, made on Wednesday 12 March, coincided with the Accelerate Action event organised by the Commonwealth Youth Council in collaboration with The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
The session brought together young professional women leaders from diverse backgrounds to share their reflections, discuss the challenges they face and explore solutions to social issues affecting young women across the Commonwealth.
As President of the Resilience Innovation and Social Change Girls Club, Ms Kelly also had the opportunity to attend the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey and met with four other Commonwealth Award finalists.
She also met the Solomon Islands flag-bearer at the Commonwealth Day service, a current Chevening Scholar Gary Di’i Moli with the Solomon Islands Non-Resident High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK), Moses Mose.
The British High Commission in Solomon Islands congratulated her for the fine achievement.
Ms Kelly heads back to Solomon Islands this week.
The Youth Awards was one of the key events to commemorate Commonwealth Day on 10 March. It was celebrated by millions across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Americas, the Pacific and Europe.
For the Pacific region, the finalists were:
• Bethalyn Kelly (Solomon Islands)
• Jack Anderson (Australia)
• Malaki Tito (Samoa)
• Ruby Riethmuller (Australia)
Twenty (20) of those shortlisted as finalists and the overall winners attended the awards ceremony.
Each finalist received a £1,000 grant, a trophy and a certificate.
There were five finalists emerge for each Commonwealth region.
The top finalists from each region who have been recognised as the regional winner and received £3,000, a trophy and a certificate.
For over five decades, the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) has focused on empowering and enriching the lives of the 1.5 billion young Commonwealth citizens.
