South Africans Nosipho Bele (25) from Verulam, Emma Dicks (25) and Patrice Madurai (22) from Cape Town were honoured by Queen Elizabeth II on 22 June for the impact they have made on their communities.

They were among a group of 60 young people between 18 and 29 years old from the British Commonwealth who received the Queen’s Young Leaders award.

The Queen’s Young Leaders started the day by having breakfast with UK Prime Minister David Cameron and former prime minister John Major at 10 Downing Street, followed by a visit to Twitter’s headquarters in London and the BBC World Service.

They then received their awards from Queen Elizabeth at a ceremony attended by high profile guests including the likes of David Beckham.

Bele, who studied as a teacher at the University of Cape Town (UCT) started a mentoring programme in 2012 called Mentor Me to Success, which provides one-on-one support for school goers, especially girls.

Dicks, who studies business sciences at the University of Cape Town, co-leads Innovate South Africa, an initiative which asks high school students to identify a problem in their community and recommend a solution. Dicks also started Code for Cape Town, a programme which introduces girls to web-building skills.

Dicks posted the following to Facebook:

“I never imagined that I’d ever be inside Buckingham Palace. What incredible recognition and support for Code for Cape Town and Innovate South Africa. I can’t wait to see where some of our innovators end up!”

Madurai, a UCT student from ­Woodstock, founded the project Cupcake reSolution. The project hosts mobile offices to help people living in the townships to register as citizens and get identification documents. Cupcake reSolution also brings cupcakes to schools for children who have never really celebrated their birthdays in such a way.

Photo by Facebook