Two of Canada’s Top 20 Under 20 award recipients talk to school children 

in Toronto on Thursday, May 25

TORONTO - In honour of the Milk International Children’s 

Festival of the Arts celebrating its 25th Anniversary, Harbourfront 

Centre is pleased to present Brave Young World, an outstanding festival 

addition. School groups are invited to hear how two extraordinary young 

Canadians16-year-old Shamin Jr. Mohamed and 19 year-old Cheryl 

Pereratalk about how they have innovated, led, and achieved. They share 

their stories and offer suggestions about how others can help change the 

world too. For the past two years, Mohamed organized World Visions 30 

hour famine at his local high school, which raised close to $10, 000. 

After seeing the images of suffering children around the world, 

especially the sexual exploitation of young children, Perera realized 

she needed to help combat this growing problem. Both award recipients 

speak on Thursday, May 25 at 1 p.m. 

Brave Young World is presented in partnership with Youth in Motion. Top 

20 Under 20 is a national youth awards program created by Youth in 

Motion. The awards program honours young Canadians who have demonstrated 

a significant level of achievement, innovation and leadership but have 

not yet reached the age of 20. 

The Milk International Children’s Festival of the Arts also showcases a 

stellar lineup of incredible, breathtaking and inspiring performances 

from Canada and around the globe including Belgium, France, Germany, 

Mongolia, The Netherlands, Poland, the U.K. and the U.S.A. The festival 

takes place from Sunday to Sunday, May 21 to 28, at Toronto’s 

Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay West. For tickets and information, 

the public can call 416-973-4000 or visit 

www.harbourfrontcentre.com/milk; teachers can call 416-973-4000, option 

5.

Volunteerism has always come easy to Shamin Jr. Mohamed. He is currently 

planning the third annual World Vision 30 hour famine. His experience 

with the famine relief fundraiser together with his ability to lead, has 

led to Mohamed starting the Children's AIDS Health Program 

(www.LetsStopAIDS.org), a registered charity to engage fellow teens in 

helping the plight of kids with AIDS around the world. Their long term 

goal is to build a health care centre in third world countries 

specializing in AIDS for children. Mohamed has a mature view of 

leadership. According to Mohamed, being a leader doesn't always make you 

right, it simply gives you the opportunity to make decisions that will 

benefit the whole group. In 2003, he was awarded the DARE arts Leadership 

Award.

At age 17, Cheryl Perera traveled to Sri Lanka for three and a half 

months to conduct research on child exploitation. She interviewed child 

prostitutes, soldiers, and laborers and caught their images and stories 

on tape. She met with several government officials, including the 

Minister of Mass Communications and the Advisor to the President of Sri 

Lanka on social Infrastructure, to discuss the plight of children and 

youth taking action.

Wanting to truly understand the lives of children in the child sex 

trade, Perera volunteered to act as a decoy in an undercover operation 

that yielded a successful arrest of a 40-year-old pedophile. Her 

experience in Sri Lanka was life altering. In addition to her work in 

Sri Lanka, she is also a board member of CASE (Canadians Addressing 

Sexual Exploitation) and has spoken to over 20,000 individuals through 

countless speaking engagements and has logged over 6000 hours of 

community service. Perera is now the director of a youth-run initiative 

designed to mobilize the travel and tourism industry in Canada to take 

action against child sex tourism. In 2004, she was the recipient of the 

Cinram International Scholarship Award for exemplary involvement in the 

community.

The Milk International Children’s Festival of the Arts is sponsored by 

the Dairy Farmers of Canada and generously supported by Agropur-Division 

Natrel, LEGO, Good Humor Breyers, Laurentien, Canadian Heritage, the 

Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, the Toronto Arts 

Council and the Ontario Arts Council.

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Festival Media Contact:

Linda Liontis

416-973-4381

lliontis@harbourfrontcentre.com