And so it began...

1. In October of last year, Malou attended the One Young World youth leadership conference in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Read all about her experience here.

2. Even though this experience was life changing for Malou, she could't help but feel like there was something missing. She kept thinking about other people who could have benefitted from the experience and wanted to make sure that more Barbadians would be able to attend the next conference in South Africa. The idea to have an entire team of Bajans representing our island was born and Malou got in touch with people straight away.

From Top left to bottom right: Annick Reifer, Danielle St.John,  Nikola Simpson, Dominique O'Brien, Ryan Forde, Krystal Boyea, Alan Warner, Melissa Abed, Hasani Brooks, Mikaela Davis, Alex Abed & Malou Morgan

3-4.  Krystal Boyea & Nikola Simpson - While at the conference Malou thought about Krystal and Nikola and how much they would benefit from attending a conference like this. She knew with their involvement in the environment and Krystal’s involvement in diabetes, they would benefit from attending OYW.  

Danielle St.John - Malou had blogged about her experience at One Young World which spiked Danielle’s interest. She knew she was passionate about leadership and was eager for Malou to share more about her experience. Malou encouraged Danielle to sign up to attend the conference after learning about her involvement with educational outreach. 

Mikaela Davis & Dominique O'Brien - After the article was published in the newspaper, Mikaela and Dominique expressed their interest in the conference. Dominique was looking for an outlet for her creativity and felt that coming together with a group of like minded people would be an opportunity for her to work towards a greater good. Mikaela had worked in youth development and public health abroad and was excited about the opportunity to collaborate and learn more about One Young World. 

Ryan Forde & Alan Warner - Krystal was excited about the cause and contacted Ryan and Alan, our forward thinkers, because of their background in sports and team related ventures, they were keen to work with a collaborative effort. 

Annick Reifer, Alex Abed & Hasani Brooks - Malou spoke to Annick and with her law background, we knew she would be a great asset to the team. Alex and Hasani, already involved in youth development initiatives, shared their experiences in South Africa and conferences with the group. 

Melissa Abed- Malou still excited and keen for more people to join, spoke to Melissa, with her background in public health and experience in youth education, got excited and came on board to join the group. 

5.  After talking the talk, we needed to walk the walk! We organised a meeting at Krystal's house and Malou presented the idea of Team246 to everyone. Read a more detailed account of our first meeting here.

6. We had such a diverse range of interests and as inspiring as this was, it was also going to be a bit confusing trying to collaborate as a team. How could we avoid becoming a mish mash of ideas? And, most importantly, as exciting as this all sounded, what exactly would Team246 be about and what would we contribute to Barbados? We needed to focus on our main goals and aspirations, not as individuals, but as citizens of a country that needs positive change in certain areas.  

7. After all of this, we realised that we were focussing all of our energy on going to South Africa and missing our true purpose. Team246 needed to become more than a trip to Johannesburg, it needed to be more than a group of young people attending a conference - we needed to focus on the bigger picture.

Find out more about the bigger picture in our next post :)