On Tuesday evening, The Duchess of Sussex attended the official opening ceremony of the 2019 One Young World (OYW) summit at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Meghan’s appearance this evening, without her husband, Prince Harry, is her first public engagement since the eye-opening documentary that aired on ITV on Sunday night, where she openly discussed the difficulties she has faced during this past year.
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
Meghan arrived looking radiant in a bold purple midi-dress, and was welcomed by Ian McCullough, the president of the Royal Albert Hall, and One Young World’s managing director Ella Robertson. Meghan greeted them both with a kiss on the cheek.
The Duchess attended the event in her capacity as Vice President of The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, and joined world leaders and activists to continue her support celebrating the youth of today.
Meghan, 38, has a long-standing relationship with the One Young World Organisation. Her Royal Highness first attended the summit in Dublin in 2014 as a counsellor, where she spoke about the importance of women’s rights and the role men play in achieving equality. She returned again to the summit in Ottawa in 2016.
A very warm welcome back to HRH #TheDuchessofSussex – we are delighted for you to be back at #OYW2019 for our 10th Annual Summit. pic.twitter.com/ZAnxqlDA9Q
— One Young World (@OneYoungWorld) October 22, 2019
During the ceremony the Duchess took to the stage along with other One Young World ambassadors. She clapped and smiled enthusiastically as the flag bearers completed their procession and a choir sang songs by Coldplay and Ed Sheeran.
Embed from Getty Images
Embed from Getty Images
One Young World has been the global forum for young leaders since 2010. Their aim is to create a new generation of leaders, who are the most informed, most educated and most connected in human history. OYW’s official website states: ‘One Young World identifies, promotes and connects the world’s most impactful young leaders to create a better world, with more responsible, more effective leadership.’
Since 2010 over 20.9 million young people have been positively affected by the programme.
Co-founders of One Young World, Kate Robinson and David Jones, were delighted Her Royal Highness attended the event. They said: “She is a much-loved member of the One Young World community who has supported us since 2014. She’s an inspiration to young leaders all over the world and we’re delighted to be partnering with the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, of which the Duchess is Vice President, to provide scholarships for young leaders from every Commonwealth country to attend the One Young World Summit in London.”
The annual summit sees the brightest young talent coming together to create positive change and to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems. The young people are already role models and activists from wide-ranging fields, including climate change, sexual violence and combating extremism.
Fantastic to welcome the @OneYoungWorld Summit to our city. This global forum for young leaders brings together 2,000 young people from nearly 200 countries to tackle our shared challenges – and celebrate that we have far more in common than that which divides us. #OYW2019 pic.twitter.com/KyeL3xPqVg
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) October 22, 2019
There are 2,000 delegates from over 190 countries who have arrived in London for the One Young World Summit 2019. The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust has partnered with OYW to bring 53 young delegates to the summit.
One Young World partners with over 180 global businesses, NGO’s and educational institutions who have an ever-growing commitment to young people. This year, the delegates will be counselled by highly influential political, business and humanitarian leaders over the course of the four-day summit. Companies involved this year include Audi, Chanel, Citigroup, Coca-Cola, Facebook, Google, L’Oreal, Unilever and Verizon.
Look at those beautiful flags! Four #JNJ #OYW2019 Delegates and Scholars were proud to represent their countries as flag bearers tonight, including: ?? ?? ?? ?? pic.twitter.com/JNLFKeuOzn
— Johnson & Johnson Global Health (@JNJGlobalHealth) October 23, 2019
Over the next four days, the young delegates will take part in speeches, panels, networking events and workshops ran by highly influential political, business and humanitarian leaders. Later this week, Meghan will take part in a round table discussion with One Young World leaders to discuss the issue of global gender equality.
The final act – welcome back to #OYW2019 @jaysean ? Wrapping up the #OYW2019 Opening Ceremony in style! Next up on tonights menu – #London‘s @NHM_London! pic.twitter.com/w5UH8q746l
— One Young World (@OneYoungWorld) October 22, 2019
Featured image via One YoungWorld
