[CORRECTED VERSION] Italian doctor and Afghan educator selected as Sunhak peace prize winners

By Park Sae-jin Posted : November 30, 2016, 09:46 Updated : December 3, 2016, 20:58

[Courtesy of Sunhak Peace Prize Committee]


An Italian surgeon dedicated to helping war victims and an Afghan educator championing the rights of women have been selected as the winners of the Sunhak Peace Prize.

The Sunhak Peace Prize Committee said its prize winners are Gino Strada, 68, and Sakena Yacoobi, 66. The award ceremony will be held on February 3 in Seoul.

Strada's achievements are widely known for advancing "emergency medical aid" over the past 25 years, the committee said.

His compassion for humanity has taken him beyond national borders, even into the epicenter of conflict in the Middle East and Africa, and his work has brought healing and relief to seven million people around the world, it said.

Sakena Yacoobi has been widely recognized for developing educational programs linked to refugee resettlement, working especially in Afghan refugee camps put under additional stress by years of war, the committee said.

The committee annually awards individuals or organizations that contributed to the peace of humankind. The prize includes a cash award totaling one million dollars.

The first laureates were Anote Tong of Kiribati for improving global awareness of the severity of climate change, and Modadugu Vijay Gupta of India for developing aquaculture as an alternative solution to the future food crisis.

"As a prize founded on the vision for peace of 'One Family under God,' the Committee presents the refugee crisis as its core theme for the 2017 awards," committee chairman Hong Il-sik, former president of Seoul's Korea University, said in a statement.

"Today, facing the largest refugee crisis since World War II, the citizens of the world must remember the value of each human being, which binds us together. Through solidarity and cooperation we need to solve this problem together, he added.

Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
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