Samantha Sheoprashad spent the last few years filling social voids within her community and battling depression within herself, overcoming odds to be one of 60 young people from the Commonwealth selected for the Queen’s Young Leader’s Programme.
The final year University of Guyana Computer Science student was selected from among thousands of applicants in the Commonwealth for recognition of her leadership work in local communities, to be a part of training, mentoring and networking activities and a one-week residential programme in the UK. She will also receive an award from the Queen during her stay.
Sheoprashad is one of the founders of the Enterprise Youth Development Group, which spearheads community development work with youth from the East Coast villages of Enterprise, Enterprise Gardens, Coldingen, Nonpareil and Block XX. The group has been in existence for three years.
The Enterprise Youth Development Group consists of 300 plus volunteers engaging in projects surrounding education, sports, arts and culture and environmental development.
The 26-year-old Sheoprashad, in an interview with Stabroek News, related the series of events that led her to this momentous point in her life. She revealed that it was while lying in a hospital bed that she had an epiphany about her purpose and all she could give to the world. She related that she knew at that point that she could not just let those thoughts and ideas go.
Sheoprashad was witness to abuse festering in the relationship between her parents, but was able to help them overcome the cycle. She had been plagued by depression and had attempted suicide numerous times. She was also involved in a battle with leukemia six years ago, which she said simply “disappeared.”
“Doctors told me I would die as a result of leukemia and even astrologers predicted my death,” Sheoprashad wrote in her personal statement. She added that she had been involved in vehicular incidents where, “the entire vehicle was damaged but I came out alive.”
Furthermore, “Many times I fell sick and watched my parents struggle in search of answers. I had situations [where] even the doctors were clueless… Then I realized I had to change my mindset and I did transcend.”The young woman noted the importance of changing one’s thoughts and thinking positively in order to change the outcomes in one’s life. She noted also that she had received counselling to get her through that period, which enabled her to change her thoughts and actions. “You are not alone, there are thousands of other people who are going through the struggle right now,” she added.
Added to her list of hurdles was her inability to find employment to pay for her education. Sheoprashad recalled sending out as many as 50 applications but being unsuccessful. And so Trifinity Solutions was born.
Co-founded with Narendra Nauth, Trifinity Solutions specializes in social media and software development, website and mobile application design and graphic design.
In June of this year she travelled to Boston, Massachusetts, to present her final year research project at the Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme. The application she developed analyses a person’s social media content to detect whether they may be experiencing depression.
And her work has only just begun. Also in the pipeline are plans for a mental health mobile application that will assess mental health and facilitate counselling service; a youth incubator to support innovative ideas among youth; and the creation of ICT hubs. Sheoprashad’s advice to youths is to embrace failure and to approach life with a goal-oriented outlook.
“Don’t be afraid to embrace failure, it’s beautiful… It might be horrible. It might be the worst thing that ever happened to you. But it’s beautiful because without failure you don’t have process. n your failing moment you are able to have the opportunity to learn, to expand,” she said.
