Irish journalist Sally Hayden has been nominated a European Young Leader (EYL40) this year by the Brussels-based think tank Friends of Europe for her work on migration, conflict and humanitarian crises.
Hayden, who reports from Africa for The Irish Times, was named Journalist of the Year at the Irish Journalism Awards in 2023, and her first book, My Fourth Time, We Drowned: Seeking Refuge on the World’s Deadliest Migration Route, which focuses on human rights abuses fuelled by anti-migration policies in Europe, was awarded multiple times.
This year, Hayden joins a class of European Young Leaders including an Olympic swimmer, a glaciologist, politicians from various levels of government, green tech entrepreneurs, start-up founders, and other award-winning journalists.
“With 2024 being the biggest election year in history, which could herald a major shift in the face of Europe and beyond, we look forward to welcoming this new class of young leaders whose commitment to changing the world and tackling key challenges of the 21st century through leadership is enlightening,” Geert Cami, co founder and secretary general of Friends of Europe, said.
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Motivated by “the urgent need to tackle the increasing disconnect between citizens and policymakers, and to rebuild the trust that is vital to democracies”, Friends of Europe launched the EYL40 leadership programme in 2012.
The European Young Leaders represent “a new generation of leaders from all over the Continent and various backgrounds, including politics, business, civil society, academia, arts, science and the media,” a statement from the organisation said.
Previous EYL40 from Ireland have included Irish Times columnist Una Mullally; Ifrah Ahmed, founder of the Ifrah Foundation; and Malcolm Byrne, Irish senator for the Cultural and Educational Panel.
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The 2024 Class of European Young Leaders includes Jason Arday, who learned to talk at 11, read at 18, and then became Cambridge’s youngest black professor; Alina Șerban, a Roma actress pioneering feminist political theatre and addressing the topic of Roma slavery, and Ryyan Alshebl, a Syrian refugee turned Mayor of the German town of Ostelsheim.
Others nominated to the class this year include Luka Mesec, the Slovenian deputy prime minister who established the Ministry of Solidarity-Based Future; Heïdi Sevestre, French glaciologist, explorer and “glacier doctor”, and Valeriya Ionan, deputy minister at the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation, where she oversees European integration.
The EYL40 network includes more than 400 people from 35 countries, including Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament; Oleksandra Matviichuk, Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; Antonio Zappulla, CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, and Raphaël Liégeois, career astronaut at the European Space Agency.
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