Awards
2010: V Inspired Legend Award
APP Founder and Director Alexander McLean won the Legend award for leadership in the first annual national V Inspired Awards.
2007: Beacon Prize for Young Philanthropy and Overall Winner
Overall winner Alexander McLean receiving the Beacon Prize for Young Philanthropy from Beacon chairman Martyn Lewis in 2007
Alexander McLean, Founder & Director of the African Prisons Project, won the Beacon Prize for Young Philanthropist of 2007 and was named as the 2007 Beacon Prize Overall Winner. The Beacon Prize Awards honour outstanding individuals who have given money, time or skills to create and help causes that enrich our communities in a wide variety of powerful ways.
Beacon chairman Martyn Lewis said: “Alexander’s achievement is phenomenal. He and his colleagues had to overcome so many hurdles. This is an incredible example of self-sacrifice, which shows real results in improving the lives of those less fortunate”.
“The achievement of Alexander McLean and his colleagues is outstanding and they have had to overcome numerous hurdles to achieve an incredible feat. Their self-sacrifice to better the lives of those less fortunate is highly commendable.”
- Amanda Rose, British High Commission, Nairobi, 2007
“African Prisons Project is a truly remarkable venture, helping some of the most vulnerable people in the world. This is exactly the kind of work that the OTS wants to see thrive.”
- Campbell Robb, Director General of the Cabinet Office - Office of the Third Sector, 2007
2007: Real World Graduate of the Year
In 2007 Alexander McLean won the Real World Graduate of the Year award for his work with the African Prisons Project, as well as being Vice-President of the Nottingham University branch of UNICEF. Real World’s founder, Darius Norell, said: “Alexander’s achievements are a real inspiration to us all…it was his commitment to improving conditions in African prisons that particularly grabbed our attention”.
Jointly sponsored by graduate careers magazine Real World, global professional services firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers and graduate headhunters Moloney Search, the Real World Graduate of the Year competition recognises that there is more to university than just academic achievement. Students are rewarded for extra-curricular, work-based or campus activities that demonstrate their attitude, energy and commitment whilst at university. This could be through voluntary work, setting up a business, student union activities, environmental work or other contributions to society at large. Alexander said: “I think the award is a good way of highlighting the fact that students are capable of achieving a lot whilst at university, much of it outside of the lecture theatres”.
2007: University of Nottingham Alumni Laureate
Alexander McLean receiving the University of Nottingham Alumni Laureate award in 2007
At the age of just 19, while studying law at the University of Nottingham, Alexander McLean raised money for books and spent his Easter and summer holidays working in a youth prison in Sierra Leone. He received two sets of funding from The University of Nottingham Association Fund Award to help him with his work.
For Alexander’s work with APP he was awarded the 2007 University of Nottingham Alumni Laureate Award. Many of the students initially involved with APP studied at University of Nottingham.
2006: Charity Volunteer of the Year
Alexander McLean receiving the UK Charity Volunteer of the Year award from Prince Edward in 2006
APP Founder Alexander McLean was named Charity Times Volunteer of the Year in the 2006 UK Charity Awards. The award was presented by His Royal Highness, Prince Edward the Earl of Wessex.
Charity Times said: “Alex has carried out a variety of renovation work in prisons in Uganda, Sierra Leone and Kenya. He has set up agriculture projects for inmates and has supplied some 30,000 library books. His work in both Uganda and Sierra Leone is a risky business for which he has put aside his personal safety to carry out. The work he undertakes with prisoners and their harsh conditions is harrowing, but his empathy and humanity for prisoners is refreshing and his understanding of the needs and potential of those prisoners is enlightening. The judges said he represented everything that is special about volunteers, volunteering, and about the voluntary sector. They said it was amazing what one person could do – such a short sentence but such a big statement”.