Guyanese youth cops 2017 Nelson Mandela-Graca Machel Award

Dec 09, 2017 News

Jubilanté Cutting

Fiji (Caribbean 360) – Young Guyanese activist and animator, Jubilanté Cutting, was one of four awardees of the coveted Nelson Mandela-Graça Machel Innovation Awards for 2017.

She won the Youth Activist category and was presented with her award yesterday in Fiji, in front an audience of almost 700 civil society leaders from across the globe.

The awards, named for human rights icon Nelson Mandela and former First Lady of South Africa and Mozambique, humanitarian Graça Machel, honour remarkable bravery and innovation in creating social change and empowering future generations.

The awards recognise outstanding efforts in four categories: Youth Activist, Individual Activist, Civil Society Organisation and Brave Philanthropy.

Cutting is pioneering the development of opportunities to help Caribbean youth shape the future of the digital and creative industries. In 2016, at just 19, she founded the Guyana Animation Network – an organisation that empowers young people with skills in digital media and animation.

“As a young Guyanese woman, the stories of Nelson Mandela and Graça Machel that I read about in my history classes felt so real but yet so far away. I could never have imagined that I would one day receive an award named in honour of these heroes,” Cutting said.

Other awardees were: (Individual Activist) Khaled Elbalshy, an Egyptian activist and journalist; Civil Society Organisation category winner, Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (MANI); and (Brave Philanthropy) Guerrilla Foundation, a German philanthropic foundation.