André was born on a council estate in Peckham, where he still lives with his mother and two brothers. It is a tough area, and as a second son with dyslexia he struggled to meet the expectations of his family and neighbours. For many years his mother expected any communication about him to be trouble. Several of his school friends have already been in Young Offender Institutions.
André began attending his local youth club which his older brother also attended. At first he was apprehensive as he feared he would be in his older brother’s shadow, as he felt he had been for most of his life. But this was not the case. He found he was encouraged to develop his own aptitudes and take on new responsibilities and this began when he started his Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.
Through his DofE programme he has created, organised and publicised a local recycling programme and travelled alone to the Lake District for his Residential section. This was a particularly difficult undertaking for him due to the challenge of a solo journey to a new place and having to meet and work with people he had never met before.
His self confidence and abilities developed to the point where he was asked to be the youth club’s spokesman in a fundraising campaign for a new roof. He won awards at his youth club and completed his final expedition for Gold with his brother in the Brecon Beacons.
“I never guessed it was possible to be that wet and not be swimming. But when we finished, it was the best feeling ever.”
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