For most, doing DofE is an opportunity to build confidence, learn new skills and make lasting memories, but it can also be a chance to celebrate culture, heritage and traditions. For 2026-27 Youth Ambassadors Faith and Albira, their DofE programmes did just that. Read more about how they reconnected with their heritage and celebrated diversity.

Faith

For my DofE Skills section, I chose to learn cooking. With university coming up, I wanted to explore Nigerian recipes that I grew up eating, but that I had never managed to make myself.

I have always loved fried plantain, so this had to be one of my choices. I enjoyed figuring out how to get it soft and sweet inside, while still making it golden and crispy on the outside.

Yam porridge was something I had eaten many times but never made from scratch. I enjoyed putting all the ingredients together and discovering how the spices create such a delicious dish.

Of course, I had to include jollof rice! Getting the flavour and texture right took a bit of experimenting, but making a dish that is such a staple at family meals made it especially fun.

These dishes are such a big part of my Nigerian heritage, and learning to make them myself made me feel really connected to that part of my identity. Food holds so many shared memories for me, and I love knowing I can keep those traditions with me wherever I go!

Albira

My DofE taught me something I didn’t expect: it is so important to be surrounded by people from different backgrounds.

During my Silver expedition I was lucky to be in a group of people from across the globe, like Africa, South Asia, North America and the UK. This diversity with my group made us so knowledgeable. For example, South Asia has so many plants, poisonous and not and my friends from South Asia were able to identify these, making our routes so much easier without having to deal with the stress of injuries and poisonous plants.

My friend from the UK travels a lot and it made navigating the map so much easier because they knew all the different routes and all the different signs.

In Africa we have a lot of different types of meat, so I was able to bring different types of meat and tell my friends what types of meat were best over a long period of time without going bad.

This diversity is so important within DofE and by all these people around the world doing DofE, it will give you so many opportunities to learn and understand.