Greta Thunberg, who shot to fame as a climate ambassador overnight, pledged to donate her $1.14 million prize, to those fighting coronavirus infections in the Brazilian Amazon. She won the first Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity earlier this week for environmental activism. She had been selected among 136 nominees from 46 countries for the 1st Annual prize for her ability to mobilize younger generations for the cause of climate change.
She said that she would be giving the money away through her eponymous foundation to SOS Amazonia, an environmental foundation working to protect the rainforests of Amazon. This foundation is also responsible for helping those who are fighting against this virus in the indigenous territories of the rainforest by helping them access basic hygiene, food, and health equipment. Thunberg added that she will donate the rest of the price money through her foundation to causes that help people on the frontlines affected by climate crisis and ecological crisis in the Global South.
She had also received a separate award in May for her ecological activism and she had donated all of it to UNICEF to protect children from the COVID-19 pandemic. The charity she had been awarded by, Denmark’s Human Act Foundation had matched her donation and launched a campaign to safeguard children’s welfare during the global crisis.
The Swedish teenager also added that she will donate $114,000 towards the Stop Ecocide Foundation, which aims to make crimes against environmental destruction punishable under international law.