Alice Palfreyman to speak out on extreme poverty

Alice Palfreyman, from Edinburgh, has been selected as one of this year's Youth Ambassadors for anti-poverty group, the ONE Campaign.

Alice Palfreyman

A fifth-year pupil at Liberton High School, she will be working in the Capital to highlight the importance of international development and how communities can get involved.

Alice, 16, said: “I am looking forward to begin working as a Youth Ambassador in my local area because I think that extreme poverty is such an important issue to tackle.

“I also want to show people that it can be easy to campaign on these issues, and that their voice does make a difference.”

The Youth Ambassador programme sees hundreds of young volunteers across Europe working together to raise awareness of the fight against extreme poverty.

As part of the programme, Alice will be looking to meet her MP, Daniel Johnson, and other members of the local community in the South Edinburgh area. She will also travel to Westminster to take part in large national events.

As well as promoting the positive impact that aid has around the world, she will be campaigning for more action to support women’s economic empowerment in developing countries, as well as calling on the UK to continue supporting overseas development aid.

A former Girl Guide, she currently volunteers with a Rainbow group in the Liberton/Gilmerton area, and has been actively involved in a number of school projects, involving fundraising and support for local primary school pupils.

Romilly Greenhill, UK director for ONE, said: “We have a fantastic team of Youth Ambassadors this year.

“They will be engaging with their communities and political leaders, calling for a fairer world and an end to extreme poverty. By focusing on women’s economic empowerment and girls’ education, they will be addressing some of the underlying issues causing extreme poverty.

“In tackling these issues, they will be fighting to improve the lives of women and girls and contribute to sustainable development.”

This is the fifth year the Youth Ambassador programme has run in the UK.

Previously, Youth Ambassadors have been to the UK Parliament, the European Parliament and attended the G7 Summit in Germany to call on world leaders to act on extreme poverty.