A clearer vision for a safer journey
Youth Ambassador Profiles
Wipers are grateful that our partners were able to provide our young leaders with work experience and gain practical knowledge in a range of industries.
Check out what our young people got to learn below:
CHEMES BENRKIA
Hello my name is Chemes. I am 18 years old, and I am from West London, and I work for Wipers as a youth ambassador. I love my job and I am confident and able to take in new information and learn new techniques and tasks every day which can be adapted towards completing and achieving more tasks and activities in life. I find myself very enthusiastic and comedic, and I love working as a team. I am also very caring, and I like making sure people surrounding me are comfortable.
My hobbies include my love for swimming, cooking, cleaning, going out for walks as part of maintaining my general health and for observing everything around me, visiting family, and completing all my work set before me.
I am a hard worker, and I currently have 3 jobs, with which I help and assist with multiple issues. My ability to remain comfortable working through difficult tasks allows me to effectively complete the tasks, with an example including my own upbringing as I, myself, have been a foster child in which I have been through many challenges, but I am still able to stay on my feet and protect my family including my loved ones and those close to myself which will now include my work colleagues as well.
I will be creating a video presentation on the topic of mental health. I feel that mental health is very concerning as immediate signs and symptoms should be communicated to the appropriate services immediately and can be the route to saving someone’s life. I do not believe there is enough places of accommodation for youth with any mental health concerns and this is vital to allowing all to gain the necessary support for general progression, which can in turn affect their daily lives and routines. Regular assistance should always be provided in these services and as of recently, this has not been guaranteed with youths. Organisations that strive to help should be given a larger voice to speak to aid others and to give more information for all to know what to look for, how to help and how to progress and continue with your life if you have any mental health conditions. This should be displayed not just for adults to know, but other youths to know, and so should be included as part of education for all youths.
RAIN TOMLIN
Hello all. My name is Rain and I am an ambassador for the Wipers Youth Advisory Board. I am 18 years old, and I am from North London. I consider myself to be calm, optimistic and a funny person who likes to have engage with others on a regular basis. I have two main interests which are in Norse mythology and Film.
I have always loved learning more and just generally researching Norse mythology as it’s a subject not many people know much about, but it’s always interested me ever since I was a child, and it is something that no matter what, will forever interest me.
Film is a subject that I have always liked as I have enjoyed being behind the camera and turning your vision into something real is something I love, and I view as a passion of mine. I enjoy every step of the process, even the sleepless hours hunched over a computer editing, as I enjoy the fact this brings me one step closer to creating something of my own.
The social issue I have chosen is the issue of trans rights. This is because being a trans woman, this part of my identity affects me daily. Whilst every trans person is unique and has their own story, many of us have similar experiences whether it’s being yelled at by random people with abusive language for wearing a dress or having someone physically harm you because they hate trans people, these kinds of things happen all the time to trans people everywhere regardless of age, race, ethnicity or religion and that is why this is my chosen social issue. This has also been chosen as this issue needs to be spoken out, displayed, and fought for the millions of trans people everywhere who need to know there are people out there willing to help them and because every step we take towards making positive change is a step in the right direction.
WILLIAN FERREIRA
My name’s Willian and I am 17 years old from Tulse Hill in South London. I’m very passionate about and enjoy engaging in sport, primarily playing basketball. I’m comfortable playing the sport whether it as part of a group activity or as a singular act. I always find the act of sports to be therapeutic and peaceful and I have been taking part in playing basketball for many years. I also love music in it’s entirety, and I am very open to a vast majority of most genres. I find music to be a conducive way to reflect and relate experiences to.
I’m also very passionate about the social topic of mental health, especially men’s mental health as the benefits to improving this include decreased domestic violence, crime and a safer environment and community for all. I will be presenting this as my topic agenda for my video presentation and hope the topic can be viewed with open viewpoints to reach wider and stronger paths in terms of engaging the whole genre altogether.
EMMANUEL CANDIMBA
My name is Emanuel Candimba and I am a Wipers Youth Ambassador. I am 18 years old, and I am currently an A-Level student (studying Politics, Portuguese, and History) and I am also preparing to attend university in September. With my favourite athlete being Michael Jeffrey Jordan who played basketball and is remembered as one of the greatest athletes of all time, it is only right that I am an avid NBA historian and I also play basketball in my spare time with friends and family. I have been passionate about basketball for a very long time and always like to watch any games possible. NBA history is not the only type of history I am interested in, but also pre-colonial African history and my favourite story is about Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba.
I am passionate about racial inequality and hope to someday have an impact on such a social issue. I will be presenting this as my topic agenda for my video presentation and hope the topic can eventually become viewed and strengthened with more stronger laws to protect all races against any inequality.
FREYA WYTHE
Hi. My name is Freya and I’m an ambassador for the Wipers Youth Advisory Board. I am 19 years old, and I am from South London. I am passionate about and music and have a strong interest in reading and film. Personally, for me, I feel that music is one of the most important aspects to my life. A large part of my future surrounds music and the ability to create this. Music is something that has helped me through tough times and is something that I am always able to enjoy through the good times in my life. This is why I view music as an integral part of my identity.
The social issue which I will be creating a video presentation on and invest in during my ambassadorship will be on the topic of homelessness. This topic is being looked at by myself as this is a topic that I have experienced first hand and needed my own support for. I believe it is important to normalise the education of what it means to be homeless and so this can give people the right tools to support themselves in situations where the “odds seem pitted against them” in succeeding.
Being homeless was very tough for me, and it was very easy to feel isolated by the whole situation, and even harder to find the means to help better the situation. I feel that this is definitely a hard topic and experience for all that have to go through the event. Thousands of people are currently homeless and have been homeless for a long period of time for a various number of reasons, with not all being protected by appropriate services, making this a rampant issue within the country. As all are not protected, they can become viable to illness or physical harm simply due to the vulnerability of their current position. The topic of homelessness has been displayed to the point of a normal part of society in the country. There is a large amount of information on the topic of homelessness, and I believe that there should be more means of spreading this information to all of the public so support can be facilitated in more helpful and accessible ways. I want to be part of exploring the ways in which more proactive ways of change can actually occur can be made and help dismantle the prejudices at the core of homelessness.
PHOENIX PLACZEK
My name is Phoenix, and I am one of the Youth ambassadors for Wipers. I am 17 years old and I’m from Angel in North London. I would say my interests are playing basketball, which I engage in on a very consistent basis. I also am an avid seller of clothing as a secondary job. I find this to be very beneficial as I can always find new clothing which can be considered a collectable, classical or of legendary status. My main distribution of equipment is in trainers.
I will be creating a video presentation on mental health, specifically on men’s mental health. I feel that men’s mental health is a topic which is not debated to a high priority and is also not communicated to the youth as part of their education to a high level. My objective is to spread the awareness of the topic, and to enable the youth and the adults to be able to confidently talk about their own issues, and for all to understand that all can know that it is perfectly fine to do so.
A big thank you to those who helped make this happen:
