Begina Cox in an interview with Ashley Lashley.
I recently had the pleasure of meeting Ashley Lashley — UNICEF Youth Advocate, Miss World Barbados 2018, Founder of the HEY Campaign, and CEO of Model Patrol Academy. Ashley is a young Caribbean woman, who grew up in a marginalized and stigmatized community in Barbados. She has faced many adversities at a young age but she doesn’t let those experiences to hold her back.
Ashley: Throughout my life I dealt with many troubles and tribulations that I had to overcome to discover who I am, and to help others within my community. I hear young people often saying that they don’t think they can achieve much due to their background. It is true that there is still a stigma attached to the neighbourhoods; if you are not living in a community which is deemed to be acceptable to society then you’ve got a challenge to overcome. I remember growing up my dad used to say ‘the environment you are coming from doesn’t determine your destiny’. But often young people who don’t have that mindset or the drive often overthink and don’t believe in themselves and doubt their capabilities.
Let no obstacle be greater than the cause.
My motto is let no obstacle be greater than the cause, because I believe that at the end of the day, each and every one of us has our own individual mission that we want to accomplish. As long as you stay focused, despite the obstacles, eventually, on your journey you will get to that place where you see yourself living that mission you strived to implement. Besides, people say that I am very ambitious individual and I don’t think that being ambitious is a bad thing. Each and every female needs to be ambitious to overcome barriers. I love being ambitious. There is so many people that will try to deter you from your mission and probably say that ‘you can’t’, ‘you shouldn’t’, ‘you will not be able to accomplish this’. But, I think and hear all the positive affirmations I store in my head; ‘I can’, ‘I will’, and that propels me every day to carry on.
Negative words are not my reality. I determine my own destiny.
Being ambitious, being a woman, being empowered is not as easy as people might think. There’s a lot of haters out there that just wait for a moment to come to you and say something negative. But, I believe you should always have this positive mindset that despite anything in life you can accomplish what you are aiming for. So, you can, and you will! I should say though that I love hearing all that negativity because it propels me to overcome it, as these negative words are not my reality. I determine my own destiny. And I create a space for my dreams to become my reality. I know when I achieve something that they wished me to fail at, I can say that I showed them the power behind knowing what you want in life, knowing where you want to go, and only you have the power to determine your destiny no matter the obstacles.
Begina: At the age of 16 you founded a project called the Barbados Schools Against Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD). Believe me when I say that not many 16-year old are focused on funding schools. How at that age you thought and did something that profound?
For our readers’ sake — NCDs are diseases that are not transmissible directly from one person to another. NCDs include Parkinson's disease, autoimmune diseases, strokes, most heart diseases, most cancers, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, cataracts, and others.
Ashley: When I was in school I realised that the meals that were being served at the canteen were not healthy, and that kids weren’t exercising enough. I also noticed that many members of my community and my family had a NCD but despite being affected they had little knowledge on these issues especially amongst our school population. Barbados is still dealing with rise of childhood obesity. And this is why I founded the Barbados Schools Against Non-Communicable Diseases whilst still at school. I wanted to communication an understanding on NCDs among school pupils and Barbadians at large, and tell them what they can do to eradicate NCDs, or stop it from escalating. And at times people say that kids can’t really challenge their elders, but I believe that once we provide our young children with the necessary information then they will go home and speak to their parents, and influence their choices.
Begina: Tell us more about The HEY Campaign.
Ashley: The HEY Campaign was launched by The Ashley Lashley Foundation in April 2020 and focuses on Climate Change and its impact on people's health. HEY (which stands for Healthy and Environmentally-Friendly Youth) has a global outreach and seeks to build bridges between young people in the Caribbean and around the world.
The Clara Lionel foundation pledged $15 million to climate justice organizations, and my foundation was one of the recipients.
I am the UNICEF Youth Advocate 2021, and I am proud of UNICEF supporting The HEY Campaign. Moreover, I am also pleased to say that the campaign received a generous donation from the Clara Lionel Foundation. The Clara Lionel foundation pledged $15 million to climate justice organizations, and my foundation was one of the recipients. All 18 groups that benefited from the funds are focused on and led by women, youth, Black, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+ and people of color to accelerate climate justice for those at greatest risk.
The HEY Campaign’s mission is to create a generation of young people committed to adopting lifestyles that are both healthy and environmentally friendly, and also leading global advocacy efforts to build inclusive societies where priority is given to life and dignity, rather than economic growth alone.
Begina: What role do HEY Ambassadors play in your campaign?
Ashley: Since the inception of The HEY Campaign, my team and I have had a group of forty active climate activists between the ages of nine and twenty – six years old from around the world from the following countries Afghanistan, Aruba, Barbados, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, India, Nigeria, Uganda and Trinidad and Tobago, Ghana, Jamaica, Dominica, Mexico, Ecuador, United States of America, Bahamas, Bhutan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Senegal, India, Uganda, Cameroon, Nepal, Bangladesh and Barbados and I am hoping to extend this network of two hundred ambassadors this year for the third phase of the campaign.
We at HEY understand the crucial role to which awareness and education play in this climate justice fight. It is the very reason that to date we have engaged with youth from across the globe to educate them on climate change, and how they can get involved in the fight for a better tomorrow. We believe that this inaction must come to an end, and we must stand together as educators, youth and parents in educating and agitating to ensure a future for the generations to come.
Begina: You said that one of the HEY Campaign’s main objectives is to advocate for inclusive societies — where priority is given to life and dignity, rather than economic growth alone. Can you expand on that strand of the campaign?
Ashley: We want to provide a voice for the voiceless. We want to engage people with learning disabilities, to speak about environment related issues that are affecting them. We want people from LGBTQ+ communities, marginalized people, and women and girls to join HEY. This year we are also looking at encouraging refugees and asylum seekers. Out there is a multiplicity of topics interconnected to climate change, so though our focus is on health we know that every person joining our campaign has their own voice and all people, of different ethnicity and background, should speak for themselves. Also, by advocating for inclusivity we really believe that every government, stakeholders, private sector, everyone should be looking at developing policies aimed at promoting life to ensure a more sustainable world and be environmentally friendly.
Begina: What are your biggest achievements?
Ashley: On the occasion of World Environment Day, The Ashley Lashley Foundation was proud to release ‘We are HEY!’ video as part of the HEY Campaign. The 6-minute video delivers a powerful message of hope and the vision of a re-imagined future shared by 19 young people from the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Africa. Through ‘We are HEY!’, we wanted to illustrate what we mean by being a healthy and environmentally friendly youth, and express our wishes and dreams for a better future.
In July 2020, as part of the HEY Campaign, in collaboration with UNICEF and the Children’s Environmental Rights Initiative, we organised the Global Youth Network Summit on Climate Change and Health Summit. We brought experts from around the world together to discuss and examine the health impacts of climate change and seek solutions to tackle these multidimensional problems we are facing as citizens of this planet, particularly in Small Island Development States and among most vulnerable countries.
In August 2021, in collaboration with The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) we organised the Global Youth Network Summit on Sports for Climate Action. It brought experts from different organizations including World Athletes, World Sailing, The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and others to discuss the possible use of sports for climate action. The summit focused on five thematic areas which are, ‘How does Climate Change Affect Sports and People’s Health?’; ‘Sustainability of Sports in a Changing Global Environment’; ‘Creating an Enabling Sports Environment for Young People Living with Disabilities’, and ‘Empowering Youth through Sports and Sustainable Sporting Fashion’.
The same year, observers of the HEY Campaign have witnessed a group of diverse young people from across the world participating in the very first online Global HEY Parliament by engaging in intergenerational debates with experts from the Pan American Health Organization, United Nations Environmental Programme, The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNICEF), Green Economy Canada and many others aimed at formulating recommendations on all issues and matters relating to climate change and health, specifically on creative solutions towards healthier environments for our children (including children living with disabilities), and share information on key initiatives at the local, national, regional and global level.
Begina: And you are 22. You are an example to us all. It’s never too early nor too late to show all the haters! Are you also a mentor?
Ashley: I love assisting with the development of young people and I continue to mentor them and work along with them. One proud example of this is Ranako Bailey who is a young leader from Barbados that began his work around gender equality in 2017 as a Youth Gender Champion with the Canadian High Commission in Barbados. Since this Ranako has been involved in various activities around gender such as ‘16 Days of Activism’ and ‘Gender-Based Violence’ initiatives with the Institute for Gender and Development Studies: Nita Barrow Unit. With many years of experience around ‘Gender-Based Violence’ and ‘Violence Against Women’ initiatives, Ranako decided it was time to further involve men in such a dialogue and enable men to move from a position of cause to one of solution. With this came the birth of a safe space where men can share and be educated on not just matters of ‘Gender-Based Violence’, but issues affecting and perpetrated by men. In December 2020, Ranako founded ‘WeTalkingBois’ and has engaged with men and boys across the island of Barbados. Ranako continues to seek gender justice and equality in a Caribbean and world where all can live outside of fear and harmoniously. I am so proud of being his mentor!
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