Revealed: winners of the Canon Young Champion of the Year Award at the 2021 Global Good Awards

London, UK, 22ⁿᵈ September 2021 – Canon is pleased to announce the winners of the second edition of the Canon Young Champion of the Year Award, which celebrates the achievements of young people around the world who are driving social and environmental change.

The winners of this years Canon Young Champion of the Year Award as part of the Global Good Awards have been announced. The Global Good Awards recognises those campaigning for sustainable change by recognising and promoting exceptional work by individuals, NGOs and businesses on social and environmental issues. This years submissions came in from individuals across the world, with finalists from UAE, USA, UK, Nigeria, India and Dubai.


At the virtual ceremony, UAE based siblings Mishal and Mir Firaz, were announced as the winners of the U16s category for their sustainability campaigning work, while Nigeria based Alabi Samuel Anjolaoluwa won the U21s category for his project Students of Ibadan.


 Alabi Samuel Anjolaoluwa won the U21s category for his inspiring project, Students of Ibadan, which shines a light on the struggles faced by under-served students in the city of Ibadan, Nigeria. The judges commended his project for using the power of visual storytelling to not only raise awareness of the challenges the students face, but for painting a poignant picture of the emotions that sit behind their stories.


 Brother and sister Mishal and Mir Faraz, winners in the U16s category, were praised by judges for their continued campaigning on environmental and social causes in the UAE. Aged just 11 and 14, they have already been part of several initiatives in the country for more than seven years, while also founding their own organisation “Winshares”, which allows the free sharing of used textbooks and uniforms to support access to education while simultaneously reducing waste.


 Canon recently invited Mishal and Mir, alongside many other GGA applicants take part in the UN’s Global Week to #Act4SDGs, by posting videos and photos about what they are doing to act for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  


Mishal and Mir Faraz, U16s Canon Young Champions of the Year speak out about how they are working to #turnitaround


Award winners will receive a Canon EOS 250D DSLR camera to support them to continue campaigning for sustainable change, while the other shortlisted finalists will each receive a Canon SELPHY Square QX10 mobile photo printer.


For more details on their entries, please visit the Global Good Awards website here.