2017 Sunhak Peace Prize Laureates

Laureate Achievements – Gino Strada

Providing Medical Care to Millions of Refugees and Displaced Persons throughout the Middle East and Africa

Gino Strada is an Italian surgeon who has devoted himself to providing medical and surgical care in war-torn countries around the world over the past 28 years.  He has helped save lives by providing free-of-charge medical treatment to 8 million people with great love for humanity transcending national borders, and has taken the lead in an anti-war campaign to protect and dignify human rights, thus contributing to the building of global peace.

 

Gino Strada

Born 21 April 1948 in Milan, Italy

  • 1978 Postgraduate school, specialist in Emergency Surgery, University of Milan
  • 2004 Honorary degree, Engineering, Basilicata University
  • 2006 Doctor of Humane Letters, Colorado College of Colorado Springs

 

■ Professional Background

  • 1978-1984 Surgeon, Institute of Emergency Surgery, University of Milan (Italy)
  • 1981 Visiting Surgeon, Groote Schuur Hospital, Capetown, South Africa.
  • 1981 Visiting Surgeon, Harefield Hospital, Harefield, U.K.
  • 1981-1982 Visiting Surgeon, University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA
  • 1983-1984 Visiting Surgeon, Stanford University, CA, USA
  • 1985-1986 Surgeon, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Hospital of Bergamo (Italy)
  • 1987-1988 Surgeon, Emergency Department, Rho Hospital, Italy
  • 1989 Surgeon, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Hospital, Quetta, Pakistan
  • 1990 Surgeon, ICRC Dessie’ Hospital, Dessie’, Ethiopia
  • 1990 Surgeon, ICRC Hospital, Khao-I-Dang, Thailand
  • 1991 Surgeon, ICRC Hospital, Kabul, Afghanistan
  • 1991 Chief Surgeon, Hospital of Ayacucho, Ayacucho, Peru
  • 1992 Surgeon, ICRC Hospital, Kabul, Afghanistan
  • 1993 Chief Surgeon, Balbala Hospital, Djibuti
  • 1993 Chief Surgeon, Berbera Hospital, Somalia
  • 1994 Surgeon, Koshevo Hospital, Bosnia-Hezegovina
  • 1994 – 2007 Chief Surgeon, EMERGENCY Hospitals : Kigali, Rwanda / Sulaimaniya and Erbil, North Iraq / Battambang, Cambodia / Anabah and Kabul, Afghanistan / Asmara, Eritrea
  • 2007- Present Cardiac Surgeon, Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery (Khartoum, Sudan)
  • 1994 – Present Founder and Executive Director of Emergency NGO

 

■ Major Awards

  • 2003 : Antonio Feltrinelli Prize (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei Foundation)
  • 2015 : Right Livelihood Award (Right Livelihood Award Foundation)
  • 2016 : ESTES Plaquette (European Society for Trauma and Emergency Surgery)

 

■ Miscellaneous

  • 1999 : Published biography “Green Parrots : A War Surgeon’s Diary” and was awarded the Viareggio Versilia Prize

Featured in documentary “Jung, In the Land of the Mujaheedin”

  • 2002 : Published the book “Buskashi, A Journey Inside War”

Featured in PBS documentary “Afghanistan 1380”

  • 2013 : A short documentary film called “Open Heart” was filmed about Dr. Strada’s work with the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Sudan, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Documentary.

 

■ Key Achievements

1. Disseminating emergency aid at the forefront of conflict in Africa and the Middle East

Gino Strada is an Italian surgeon who, for 28 years, has been providing humanitarian relief to the victims of war and poverty, and refugees around the world.

He began his career as a war surgeon with the International Committee of the Red Cross (IRCR) in 1989, and in 1994 founded the international humanitarian organization called EMERGENCY.  EMERGENCY’s mandate is to provide high quality, free medical and surgical care to the victims of war, landmines and poverty.  Over the years, EMERGENCY has been working in 17 countries, building and managing hospitals, medical and surgical centres, rehabilitation centres, paediatric clinics, primary health clinics, maternity centres and a centre for cardiac surgery.  EMERGENCY is currently working in Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Iraq, Italy, Sierra Leone and Sudan.

In Afghanistan, EMERGENCY runs two surgical centres for war victims in Kabul and Lashkar-gah and one hospital in Anabah (Panjshir Valley), which includes a maternity centre.  In 2007, EMERGENCY established the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery, a Centre of Excellence in Sudan (Africa) providing free high-quality heart surgery to patients with acquired or congenital heart diseases.  The Centre is the hub of a regional program for cardiac surgery and has received patients coming from 27 countries.  At the Centre, EMERGENCY has performed more than 6,500 surgeries, and more than 56,000 cardiac examinations.  The centre received world-class ratings for its work.  Since 2009, EMERGENCY has operated the only free-of-charge paediatric hospital in the Central African Republic.  In 2014, when the Ebola virus (EVD) spread in West Africa, EMERGENCY established a 100-bed Ebola Treatment Centre in Goderich, Freetown, in cooperation with the British Cooperation.  The Centre, equipped with a 24-bed Intensive Care Unit, set up a revolutionary approach for the treatment of Ebola in West Africa.  Since July 2014, EMERGENCY has also been very active in response to the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, where it operates 6 primary healthcare centres in refugee and IDP camps.  Since 2006, EMERGENCY has been running a widespread program in Italy to respond to the increasing needs of the migrant population from the landings at the Sicilian ports to urban ghettos and countryside shantytowns.

EMERGENCY cooperates with the United Nations to effectively respond to the needs of the population in danger.  In 2008, EMERGENCY became an official partner of the United Nations Office of Public Information, and, since 2015, has obtained a special status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

 

2. Taking the lead in protecting the dignity of human rights by guaranteeing the “right to be cured”

Gino Strada has actively promoted the value of peace, solidarity, and human rights, providing high quality, free of charge treatment without discrimination, in the firm belief that “the right to be cured” is a basic and inalienable right of all people.

In Africa, where there is little awareness of the availability of health care, his focus is on spreading the perception that health care supports the basic human right to live like human beings and that the state should take the lead.  Through his active efforts, the governments of 11 African nations (Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda) have signed EMERGENCY’s “Manifesto for a Human Rights-based Medicine” (a medical declaration of human rights) that recognizes “the right of people to receive medical treatment” and will make efforts to provide health care services free of charge.

In 2007, Dr. Strada established the first of the 11 Centres of Medical Excellence in Khartoum (Sudan), the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery.  Building on the experience of the Salam Centre, in 2010, 11 countries adhered to the African Network of Medical Excellence (ANME), a project aiming at building Centres of Medical Excellence to strengthen National Health Systems with a regional perspective.  This network hopes to promote and build peaceful relations in the region thanks an enduring cooperation in the medical sector.  The construction works of the second centre, a Regional Hospital for Paediatric Surgery in Uganda, are about to start and are planned to end in December 2018.

EMERGENCY medical staff provides free medical and surgical care to all those in need without discrimination respecting three key principles : “equality,” “high quality health care,” and “social responsibility”.  EMERGENCY also provides thoroughly medical education and training to the national staff with the goal of handing over its facilities to local health authorities, whenever operational and clinical autonomy are fully achieved.

 

3. Leading the peace culture with “anti-war” and “prohibition of production of anti-personnel landmines” campaigns

Gino Strada is engaged in anti-war movements with a solid moral and political position that war must be abolished on the grounds that war tramples human dignity and life.  As such, it cannot be justified for any reason.

In 1997, Gino Strada, who over decades has seen civilian casualties and human misery caused by land mines in conflict zones, enthusiastically campaigned to ban the production of mines in Italy, successfully achieved in 1998.  In addition, he strongly opposed and campaigned against Italy’s intervention in the war in Afghanistan in 2001, and in Iraq in 2003.  In 2002, EMERGENCY organized a massive campaign with the support of half a million people protesting against the war.

In 2003, as the war in Afghanistan worsened and Iraq began, EMERGENCY started a mobilisation of the civil society and collected signatures for the anti-war movement, asking government groups to stop the fire “before hatred and violence become the only language of mankind.”  The appeal was signed by world-renowned figures including MIT Professor Noam Chomsky, Le Monde newspaper Diplomatic editor Ignacio Ramonet, Former President of Italy (1992-1999) Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchù, 1986 Nobel Prize winner in Medicine Rita Levi Montalcini, 1997 Nobel Prize winner in Literature Dario Fo, and 1988 Nobel Prize winner in Physics Jack Steinberger, among others.  When, after intervening in the war, the Italian Foreign Ministry offered support to EMERGENCY’s hospitals in Afghanistan, Dr. Strada declined the proposal stating that EMERGENCY could not receive funding from the Italian Government, which was actively contributing to the war.  

Dr. Gino Strada is appealing to the world that, “In order to guarantee a peaceful future for mankind, war, which denies the human rights necessary for survival, should disappear, and the best thing the present generation can do for future generations is to work together to make a world without war.”

 

Laureate Achievements – Sakena Yacoobi

Proposed a fundamental solution to the refugee settlement crisis

Sakena Yacoobi, who has witnessed the suffering life of Afghan refugees who have been scarred by decades of war, is convinced that education is the key to hope for future generations.  In 1995, the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) was established to provide a systematic educational environment, providing education and vocational training to 13 million refugees, and in particular contributing to the improvement of the human rights and social status of Muslim women.  Even under life-threatening circumstances under the Taliban regime, Dr. Yacoobi has educated more than 3,000 girls in over 80 underground “secret” schools.  Unlike the first-generation Afghan refugees, whose pioneering efforts have been devastated by despair and poverty, second and third-generation refugees have become leaders for their community’s reconstruction.

 

Sakena Yacoobi

Born 17 March 1950 in Herat, Afghanistan

  • 1977 Bachelor of Biology, University of the Pacific (California, USA)
  • 1981 Master’s Degree in Public Health, Loma Linda University (California, USA)
  • 2007 Honorary Doctorate of Laws, University of the Pacific
  • 2008 Honorary Doctorate of Humanitarian Service, Loma Linda University
  • 2010 Honorary Doctorate of Education from Santa Clara University
  • 2013 Honorary Doctor of Laws, Princeton University
  • 2014 Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, University of St. Joseph
  • 2016 Honorary doctorate of Humane Letters, Middlebury Institute of International Studies

 

■ Professional Background

  • 1982-Present : Established Creating Hope International (CHI) in Michigan, USA
  • 1982-1991 : Health Consultant
  • 1989-1992 : D Etre University (Michigan, USA)
  • 1992-1995 : International Rescue Committee (IRC) women’s education and teacher training program
  • 1992-2001 : Operated more than 80 underground “secret” schools for girls (3,000 students)
  • 1995-Present : Founder and President of Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL)
  • 2007-Present : Founded four “Professor Sakena Yacoobi Private School” facilities in Kabul and Herat, Afghanistan (K-12), the “Professor Sakena Yacoobi Private Hospital and Clinic”, and Radio Meraj 94.1FM

 

■ Major Awards

  • 2004 : Women’s Rights Prize (Peter Gruber Foundation)
  • 2005 : Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
  • 2005 : Democracy Award (National Endowment for Democracy)
  • 2013 : Opus Prize (Opus Prize Foundation)
  • 2015 : World Innovation Summit for Education Prize (Qatar Foundation)

 

■ AIL Key Features

  • Developed grassroots models to strengthen the capacity of Afghan women, foster women leaders, promote women’s health, and provide education
  • Provides quality educational opportunities in kindergartens, elementary schools, universities, women’s education centers, and educational learning centers
  • Literacy class operation, operation of income-generating vocational training projects for women who are in need of financial support
  • Operated 80 secret schools under the Taliban regime in 4 regions of Afghanistan and successfully educated over 3,000 girls without incident
  • Provides leadership and human rights education for Afghan women
  • Provides health education and basic medical services : family planning, antenatal / postpartum care, midwifery
  • Computer management training
  • Operates advisory clinic for poor Afghan women

 

■ Key Achievements

1. Devoted her life to Afghan “refugee education”

Sakena Yacoobi, the mother of Afghan education, has been a pioneering and devoted refugee educator for 21 years with the belief that education is the key to social reconstruction even under severe conditions of war and occupation.

Dr. Yacoobi began educating teachers in Afghan refugee camps where they had struggled to survive after decades of war and the complete collapse of the education and health system, and began to establish schools for boys and girls.  In 1995, the Afghan Institute for Learning (AIL) was established to provide systematic refugee education, providing education and vocational training to 13 million women and children.  Despite the Taliban regime’s ban on women’s schools, it successfully operated and educated more than 3,000 girls without incident.

Currently, AIL provides curricula from kindergarten to university education, and 44 education centers provide basic literacy education and various vocational courses, opening opportunities to refugees for income generation.  Ultimately, it has been providing education in leadership, democracy, self-confidence, and capacity-building, aimed at fostering refugees to become independent citizens capable of critical thinking.

As a result, refugees who have been educated at AIL have improved their self-confidence, economic power, and problem-solving abilities, and have been leading a successful community rebuilding process.  The Afghan refugee community, which has experienced displacement for more than 30 years, now feels that education is a pathway to a better future and a key element for the country’s reconstruction, and that educated young people will play a leading role in Afghanistan’s future.

2. Presenting a holistic solution to the problem of the resettlement of refugees

Dr. Yacoobi introduced a holistic approach to rebuilding communities destroyed by war, providing an innovative solution to the problem of resettlement.  This approach is a comprehensive and long-term solution to the problem of society as a whole, in order to overcome the inadequate educational, economic, socio-cultural and institutional constraints of refugee camps.  It contributes to improving the overall quality of life and community development for Afghan refugees.

The Afghan Institute of Learning, an organization founded by Dr. Yacoobi, is providing technical assistance to four private schools, hospitals and radio stations at the private level. Since 1996, it has provided health education to more than 2 million women and children, which has significantly reduced infant mortality and maternal mortality during pregnancy and childbirth.  It also continues to provide ‘love and forgiveness’ workshops to transform the refugees, who have been surrounded by social deprivation and anger, into positive leaders who can innovate in their local communities.  Through radio broadcasting, it reaches more than a million people a day, dealing with social trends, health, family success models, human rights, literature, music, etc., and supports the desire of the refugees for a peaceful and fruitful life.

The entire community rebuilding process has been carried out in cooperation with the community itself, allowing the community to build a sense of ownership in the project.  As a result of consultation, and organizing the projects needed by the community, rather than one-sided aid, it has revolutionized the refugee resettlement dynamic, providing a win-win situation for both the local community and government agencies.

3. Contributing to the improvement of human rights and the status of Muslim women

Sakena Yacoobi is committed to educating Muslim women with the belief that “to educate girls is to educate future generations.”  Due to some elements of Islamic culture opposing women’s education, and as a result of protracted conflicts, Afghanistan has recorded the world’s lowest literacy rate, with only 12.6% of women over 15 years of age being able to read and write.  In order to address this serious situation, Dr. Yacoobi has been aggressively persuasive and has changed prejudices about women’s education.  As a result, many women and children in Afghanistan and Pakistan are now educated, and in recent years Dr. Yacoobi even established a women’s university.  She has provided family planning services and contraception advice in order to liberate women from unwanted childbirth.  She also runs a women’s legal counseling center in Afghanistan and provides legal advice services for women on issues such as domestic abuse, child custody, the right to inheritance, and marriage without consent.

Women who were isolated in their homes are now able to gather together and receive education through Women’s Networking Centers.  Women are given the opportunity to take part in classes, read and learn, engage in income-generating activities, participate in society, all of which has greatly improved their access to human rights and a higher quality of life.