Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg announced that she will donate $100,000 of a prize, received today from a Danish NGO to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to support her efforts to protect children from the coronavirus pandemic.
Thunberg and the NGO Human Act, which will contribute an identical amount, launched a fundraising campaign that seeks to support UNICEF’s work to protect children from the impact of the pandemic.
“Like the climate crisis, the pandemic is a crisis of children’s rights,” the Swedish activist said in a statement released by the Human Act in Copenhagen after receiving the award.
The coronavirus crisis “will affect all children, now and in the long term, but more so on vulnerable groups. It has called on all who come together to support Unicef’s vital work,” added the 17-year-old Swedish girl in the statement, quoted by the EFE news agency.
The NGO said Thunberg was awarded “for his courageous and determined effort to mobilize millions of people around the world to combat climate change.”
Thunberg became famous after starting, in September 2018, a school strike in front of the Swedish Parliament to demand measures against the climate crisis.
Her action inspired a global movement, which has led her to be received by world leaders and to participate in high-level appointments, in addition to being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
