The Milarepa Foundation of Chile has awarded the 2019 International Laudato Si’ Prize for campaigns of awareness about the care of the planet to Ms Greta Thunberg.
Ms Thunberg, age 16, has led the School Strike for Climate every Friday and has become one of the leading campaigners for the care of the planet. She received the support of Pope Francis in April 2019 and addressed the European Parliament.
The board of directors of the Milarepa Foundation of Chile through its international membership, the International Laudato Si’ Group with members in more than twenty countries, decided that the aims of climate awareness and the care of ‘our common home’ expressed in Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ have been forwarded and taken to heart by Ms Thunberg. She has inspired thousands of youth to pressurise governments and politicians to make changes in order to care for our planet.
In a recent letter to Ms Thunberg the founder and CEO of the Milarepa Foundation wrote: ‘Your personal efforts have been courageous and have inspired our own efforts to act for the protection of the planet following the reflections of Pope Francis whom you have met a couple of days ago’.
The prize consists of a formal letter of award, a small amount of money for the recipient’s work, and a Chilean lapis lazuli penguin, symbol of our efforts for conservation and for peace in the world. The presentation of the prize will take place in Sweden and there will be an international conference to celebrate Ms Thunberg’s contribution together with other youth campaigners from Sweden, India, Uganda, and Chile in July 2019 at a hotel in Santiago, Chile.
Fundacion Milarepa Chile 