asha frank

Asha Frank

Founder

BarbudanGO

Nominated by Kathryn Mengerink

Asha Frank is a staunch advocate for improving the environmental, social, and economic future of her home Barbuda, a small island in the Carribbean. She founded BarbudanGO in 2018, the first exclusively Barbudan-led non-profit on the island. BarbudanGO strives to restore the island in environmentally and economically sustainable ways, with programs for water harvesting, upcycling, environmental outreach, and capacity building for ocean management. Through BarbudanGO, Asha is filling a critical gap, able to serve as project executer and fiscal sponsor for international efforts on a range of topics, including disaster relief, ecotourism development, and youth empowerment. Asha was witness to the devastating Category 5+ Hurricane Irma and was a crucial leader during the clean-up, rebuilding, and recovery efforts. She was instrumental in building and implementing the process of returning evacuees to the island. In 2017, she was elected to the Barbuda Council as the Chairperson of Tourism, Culture, and Youth Affairs, where she fought for the rights of Barbudans to maintain ownership of their own recovery efforts. As a former secondary teacher, she is a strong advocate for Barbudan youth and their tremendous potential to create powerful change for their island and the world at large. Asha holds a Bachelors of Arts in Caribbean Studies and History from London Metropolitan University, where she gathered the material for her book on the history and development of land ownership on Barbuda.