BUNKER
ROY AND MALALA YOUSAFZAI TO RECEIVE TOP US AWARD
India environmentalist Bunker Roy and
Pakistan's teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai were declared winners of
this year's of the prestigious 'Clinton Global
Citizens Awards'.
Roy is the founder of the Barefoot College, which
has been providing solutions to problems in rural communities for more than 40
years.
As a result of Barefoot's work, one million litres
of rainwater have been harvested to provide clean drinking water to over
239,000 school children in more than 1,300 communities worldwide.
The Barefoot Approach is a proven community-based model, providing basic
infrastructure for power and water in remote, rural areas, as part of an
integrated solution to alleviating global poverty.
Roy has been named one of the 50 environmentalists
who could save the planet by the Guardian and one of the 100 most influential
people in the world by TIME magazine.
The model of community-owned, managed, and financially sustained household
solar light systems is today replicated in more than 54 countries, empowering
more than 600 Women Barefoot Solar Engineers and providing clean energy access
to 450,000 people in nearly 1,650 communities throughout India, Africa, Latin
America, the Pacific, and Asia.
Sixteen-year-old Yousafzai, who, after being shot by
the Taliban less than a year ago for her outspoken support for girls'
education, has co-founded the Malala Fund to continue advocating for universal
access to education.
The awards will be presented in a special ceremony tomorrow during the Clinton
Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York City, where more than 1,000 top
business, government, and civil society leaders will convene to address some of
the world's most pressing challenges.
The Clinton Global Citizen Awards were launched in
2007 to honour outstanding individuals for their visionary leadership,
demonstrated impact, and sustainable and scalable work in solving global
issues.
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