Leeds campaigner pushing for funding in fight against HIV, TB and malaria with the help of Richard Burgon

Gertrude Asumadu, 29, is a community leader at ONE UK, a global movement working to end extreme poverty and preventable disease by 2030.

She recently met with the Labour MP for Leeds East, Richard Burgon, who she said has promised to write to the foreign secretary regarding the campaign.

"Richard is someone that has been really supportive of my campaigns,” Gertrude explained. “Every time I have a campaign, I see him and he's always willing to help.

"He wasn't meant to be available but he made time for me. We had a nice chat and I was talking about my involvement in the new campaign with ONE UK, and how it's important that the UK government contributes to the fund and what it's going to do in fighting HIV, malaria and other things.

"He promised to write to the foreign secretary and I'm waiting to hear back regarding the response.”

This campaign is not the first Gertrude has been heavily involved in and she has advocated for the education of girls and action on climate among various other causes.

"There are so many issues and things that are not going well in the world currently,” she said. “Whether it's climate change, whether it's education, whether it's the food crisis, there are a whole lot of things.

"Young people like myself become a very big part of the world’s population. I feel as a young person, looking at a lifespan, I'm 29 now and I have more years to be on the planet.

"There a lot of things where I feel like if I use my voice, it can benefit in the long run. I'm using my voice and resources and everything I have to make the world a better place, better than I met it.

"It's for future generations, I want the people in power to do the right things for us all.”

Gertrude was born in Italy to Ghanaian parents and has now been in the United Kingdom for 10 years.

She made her first foray into working with ONE UK in 2017, shortly after securing a degree in economics from the University of Leeds.

Her initial application to ONE UK was unsuccessful but she was accepted on her second attempt and is now one of their community leaders.

"We were running a campaign about young girls education, advocating for an increase in funding for these girls,” she said. “The focus was on developing countries.

"I grew up in Ghana myself and there is inequality there and also in other countries.

"Being a person who is vey passionate about education, it was personal to me and I found it interesting to be involved in something like that.

"That's when I started working with ONE UK and that kind of propelled me to use my voice to impact the lives of people.”

She is also hoping her work inspires others to stand up for causes they believe in.

“When I'm involved in campaigns, I'm not doing it for public approval,” Gertrude said. “It's nice when someone gets inspired by what I'm doing and it would be nicer somebody sees this girl is doing something and they do something, like a ripple effect.”