LAHORE (Staff Report) – Pakistan’s bonded labour liberation activist, Syeda Ghulam Fatima, has been shortlisted for Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity along with with three other nominees.
According to the announcement, the nominees include Burundi’s Marguerite Barankitse -who founded orphanage centre, Sudan’s Dr Tom Catena -the only doctor for half a million people in Nuba Mountains, Pakistan’s Syeda Ghulam Fatima -who founded Bonded Labour Liberation Front (BLLF)-and Central African Republic’s Bernard Kinvi -a priest who runs a missionary organisation and saved more than 1,000 Muslims.
One of the nominees will be awarded with the prize in a week-end ceremony to be held on April 22-24, 2016 in Yerevan, Armenia. The winner will receive $100,000 as prize money and will be able to designates as much as $1 million to the organisation which inspired the winner to do such a great service to humanity.
Pakistani activist Syeda Ghulam Fatima, whose organisation BLLF is based in Lahore, works for release of the families caught in bonded labour in different parts of Pakistan. Her services first came to light, when the social media activist and founder of the Human of New York (HONY) Brandon Stanton published her story at facebook page during his Pakistan tour in August 2015.
He called Bricks of bondage Syeda Ghulam Fatima a “modern-day Harriet Tubman” in the story published on Humans of New York facebook page. He also raised $2 million for Fatima’s organisation to end bonded labor in Pakistan.
“Bricks are the primary unit of construction across Pakistan. They are cheaper than concrete so almost everything is…
Posted by Humans of New York on Sunday, August 16, 2015
Afterwards, Syeda Ghulam Fatima was conferred with a Global Citizen award for Leadership in Civil Society during the Clinton Global Citizen award ceremony in New York in September 2015.
