Sandra Holden and Anika Molesworth have both taken away accolades at the NSW and ACT Regional Achievement and Community Awards and have already started to put the recognition to good use.

Ms Holden, nominated for her work improving the health of Nepalese women and girls for the past several years, was incredibly humbled to be chosen by the community.

For Ms Molesworth, winning the Agricultural Innovation Award adds to an ever-growing list of kudos for her work in agricultural sustainability.

Originally nominated for the G.J. Gardner Homes Women Creating Change Award, Ms Holden instead came away with the People’s Choice, selected from all of the nominations from every single category.

“I was literally gobsmacked,” Ms Holden said.

“You have moments where you start to doubt what you are doing, or your focus starts to waiver.

“But then something like this – to know other people see the value of what you are doing, you can sit back and think, yeah the world really needs this.

“It was a real ‘go girl!’ moment.”

Leading a team of Australian volunteers to Nepal four times, Ms Holden has provided free medical aid to young Nepalese girls, especially the Badi caste who are used for sex slavery.

After being undecided in the fate of upcoming trips, Ms Holden was pleased to confirm two trips ready and set for 2019.

One will be a reconnaissance-time mission in February in a remote, virtually untouched village in the mountains on Nepal with a team of four, and the next in November with 11 doctors, nurses and health and education practitioners to establish the Friends of Badi clinic.

Ms Molesworth, whose research has been based in Griffith, has been working on innovative ways to make farming environmentally sustainable. This is her second time taking home an award for NSW, winning the NSW/ACT Young Achiever in 2017.

“It was terribly exciting and humbling to get the recognition,” Ms Molesworth said.

“I see it as this awesome opportunity to promote farming and farmers in rural and regional Australia, who are being incredibly innovative, are caring for environment, and are forward thinkers.”

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As a sustainable agriculture advocate, Young Australian of the Year finalist and 2015 Young Farmer of the Year, Ms Molesworth was also awarded the 2018 Young Sustainability Champion award.

She heads to Antarctica later in the year for a 12 month program alongside 95 other women leading the way in science across the world.

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