On the 20th of July, when she expressed her gratitude for winning the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, Greta Thunberg revealed immediately that she would use the money of the prize, 1 M Euros, to support projects fighting against the ecological and environmental crisis. The Greta Thunberg Foundation immediately received half of the prize value and it was determined that the other half would be delivered during a ceremony in Lisbon, which was not possible to hold due to the present circumstances. At this moment, The Greta Thunberg Foundation has already donated nearly 500k Euros to ten non-governmental organizations dedicated to humanitarian causes and to the fight against climate change.

The SOS Amazonia campaign (by Fridays for Future Brazil) and Stop Ecocide Foundation, who have had an important role in the fight against Covid-19 in Amazonia and in the efforts to turn ecocide into an international crime, were the first two organizations supported by the Greta Thunberg Foundation. Each one was awarded an amount of 100k Euros.

Then followed several other donations in a total of 100k Euros. The goal was to help the victims of floods in India and Bangladesh. The donations supported organizations working in the field to help the victims and homeless people from these regions with shelter, clothing and medical care: BRAC Bangladesh, Goonj, Action Aid India and Action Aid Bangladesh.

The ecological disaster following the oil spill on the Mauritius’ coast this summer also caught the attention of the Greta Thunberg Foundation. In response to the help request by Fridays For Future, the Foundation announced a donation for the crowdfunding campaign that had been launched by this organization to help acquiring the necessary equipment to remove oil from the coast.

After supporting these causes, the Thunberg Foundation announced the donation of 150k Euros divided into equal amounts and given to three non-governmental organizations that are helping the victims of climate change in Africa.

The organizations are the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which helps those who were victims of catastrophes all over the African continent (such as floods, draughts and food insecurity); Oil Change International, which supports green energy projects all over the African continent; and also Solar Sister, a structure that provides business training to more than 5000 entrepreneurial women from Tanzania and Nigeria for the creation of green enterprises powered by solar energy.

Greta Thunberg was chosen by the Grand Jury of the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, chaired by Jorge Sampaio, among 136 nominees from 46 different countries.

This prize is part of one of the fundamental missions of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation: to support sustainable development by actively promoting the well-being and the quality of life of the most vulnerable groups of the population while protecting the environment and assuring economic prosperity.

The nominations for the 2nd edition of the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity will take place during the month of November.