Birmingham entrepreneur Bhavesh Patel has been recognised by the Queen and The Royal Family for his charitable and business efforts at a star-studded event at Buckingham Palace celebrating the global impact of those of Commonwealth descent.
The Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, hosted the Commonwealth Diaspora Reception, an event to recognise the efforts of people of Commonwealth descent who have made a positive global impact in business, culture, education, or the community.
Invited due to his efforts to educate less privileged children and adults around the world, Bhavesh was one of only 500 guests to attend the event, with the exclusive guest list featuring celebrities, world leaders and members of society representing business, the arts, education, charities, and the NHS.
The event saw Bhavesh rub shoulders with celebrities, world leaders and global change-makers such as footballer Buyako Saka, England rugby player Maro Itoje, fashion designer Ozwald Boateng, Bend it Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha and international cricketer Sir Clive Lloyd who were also honoured at the event.
“It was an honour to be invited to such a prestigious event and connect with so many people who showed genuine interest and positive support in the Storyteller mission. Knowing that all the years of work we’d been doing had been recognised, and to be standing side by side with the Royal Family in a room full of global changemakers, as somebody who was born and raised in the small town of Walsall, made me so proud of the work we have already accomplished, and it’s motivated me to do even more at a larger scale."
This royal recognition closely follows Bhavesh's award for ‘Global Impact in Education’ that he received from PM Boris Johnson just last year, showing that his efforts to educate all are not going unnoticed. Bhavesh’s recognition comes from his dedication to educating less privileged children and adults around the world after learning that approximately 773 million adults are illiterate, with little to no access to education during his travels through Peru and India.
“There were so many children in those countries who had been denied access to the calibre of education we take for granted. I will never forget the experiences I had in those local communities. It made me understand how big the problem really was."
Within months, Bhavesh founded Storyteller, a purpose-driven business with a direct social mission to provide quality education to those with limited access and break the cycle of poverty. Bhavesh and the Storyteller team have already visited poverty-stricken areas in Punjab, Rajasthan and Nepal where they have renovated schools, created libraries, and led life skills classes for youngsters along with business skills workshops for adults.
Storyteller has also worked alongside charities such as Room to Read to promote literacy-focused programmes using books written in local languages by local authors.
Projects such as this follow educational efforts in Liberia, Laos, Tanzania, and Cuba that Storyteller has supported over the last few years. Balancing his role as a solicitor, Bhavesh continues to work with his team on building new long-term projects and thousands of educational kits for children in less privileged areas, earning Storyteller the Social Entrepreneurs of the Year award for 2021 and 2022.
Bhavesh is currently working on new education projects for 2022 in Sierra Leone while he also collaborates with local Birmingham schools to help those from less fortunate backgrounds access quality education.
Storyteller provide travel accessories handmade in Bhavesh’s hometown of Birmingham and 10% of every sale goes directly towards funding educational programmes for underprivileged children and adults across the globe.
