The ceremony awarded three prizes to :
- Fela RAZAFINJATO, winner of the first prize and activist for the rights of disabled people
- Wilhelmine NTAKEBUKA, winner of the second prize and activist for the rights of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- Third prize winner, Essivi ACAKPO ADRA, climate justice activist.
Watch the award ceremony here and learn more about the winners and their work below.
Watch other sessions from the Francophone Forum
We would like to thank and recognize the talented artist, Nathalie Seguin, who created the beautiful trophies for the winners. Her trophies represent the inspirational nature of women and the women’s rights movement.
Due to the circumstances of the pandemic, the award ceremony could not be held in person. The trophies were sent to the winners and a virtual ceremony was held on the last day of the International Francophone Forum.
The winners
Fela RAZAFINJATO, first prize winner
Fela RAZAFINJATO is an activist for the rights of disabled people. She is the pioneer of the law n° 97-044 for disabled people in Madagascar, a law that recognizes the rights of disabled people to health, education, employment and vocational training, leisure. This new law has allowed to amplify the movement for the rights of disabled people, which led to the birth of the Collectif of Organizations Working for Disabled People (COPH), a national structure that federates associations.
She created the Sembana Mijoro Center which works for the school and professional integration of physically disabled children and young people. She is also the head of the Association des Femmes Handicapées de Madagascar (AFHAM) which has enabled hundreds of disabled women to become aware of their rights, to gain financial autonomy and five disabled women to head an association working in the field other than disability.
Wilhelmine NTAKEBUKA, winner of the second prize
Wilhelmine NTAKEBUKA is an activist for women’s rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Through the numerous activities of her organization (Vision Communautaire – VICO), she has succeeded in eradicating kwashiorkor among pregnant women, nursing mothers, the elderly and children in the territory of Walungu. She courageously continued to carry out activities in favor of women’s rights in a context of political instability, war, in rural and isolated areas, with violence, while all organizations were absent on the ground. For example, she helped set up a reception and transit center for women and girls who are victims of sexual violence and a mobile clinic program that today saves thousands of women who are victims of rape and sexual violence, fistulas and prolapse.
Essivi S. ACAKPO-ADDRA Epse TSONYA, winner of the third prize
Essivi S. ACAKPO-ADDRA Epse TSONYA is a climate justice activist. Through the numerous activities of her organization Women Environmental Programme Togo (WEP-TOGO), she has succeeded in impacting more than 20,000 women through the implementation of resilience actions for women farmers and rural women in the face of climate change, and in the sustainable management of natural resources (land and forests). She has also influenced policies at the national level for the involvement of women and the consideration of their concerns in the national strategy of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) project in Togo, as the women’s representative in the National REDD+ Committee.
Learn more about these winners of the first edition of the Prize by watching Women First TV’s (WF1TV) interview with journalist and feminist activist Dr. Fatimata Ly-Fall.
