Doyin Fagbenro

Whilst attending school in Italy for three years between the ages of eleven and fourteen, Doyin set up the Vacation Bible School with her parents. The annual programme welcomes around forty disadvantaged children from Italy and overseas to enjoy a faith-led holiday they would otherwise be unable to have.

From the age of thirteen, Doyin has worked as a church children’s co-ordinator, offering support and guidance to young people in her parish and has extended her desire for “grass roots helping” in the wider community by volunteering with the British Heart Foundation and establishing a mentoring scheme in her school.

The soon-to-be President of the Queen Mary Pro Bono Group and current African and Caribbean Society Treasurer is behind one of the biggest charity drives her campus has ever seen. In the space of just two weeks, Doyin and other members of the Pro Bono Group were able to raise a total of £2,642 for the Whitechapel Mission by creating, designing and selling Law Society hoodies and organising events including Queen Mary’s first ever dodgeball tournament and a ‘sleep-out’.

The ‘sleep-out’ saw around twenty students leave their comfortable student accommodation and spend a night in sleeping bags to raise awareness of the plights of millions of homeless people around the world. Impressed by Doyin and her team’s efforts, City law firm Clifford Chance agreed to double the money raised by the overnight stint in the March cold. “I’ve been lucky enough to have been born with a silver spoon in my mouth”, admits Doyin, “I’ve never had to work extra hard or struggle for things like clean water or food or education. I only live once so I might as well do as much as I can”.

Moved by the injustices she witnessed on her trips to Nigeria, Doyin’s ultimate ambition is to set up a chain of orphanages across the country – and possibly even the continent. Of her greatest ambition to date she says “From the age of fourteen I’ve been telling myself I want to do this. I want to live my dream. I’m living my dream, and helping other people”.