Cameroonian Marthe Wandou receives Right Livelihood award

Lawyer Marthe Wandou, a Cameroonian advocate for children threatened by jihadism and Boko Haram, was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize on Wednesday, which is intended as an “alternative Nobel”.

Ms. Wandou is being honored for her work on child protection and community empowerment “in the face of terrorist insurgency and gender-based violence in the Lake Chad region of Cameroon.”

Awarded annually by a private Swedish foundation for more than 40 years, the Right Livelihood Prize is endowed with one million kronor (nearly 100,000 euros) for each winner.

In addition to the Cameroonian, this year the prize was also awarded to three environmental activists in Russia, India and Canada.

“From Cameroon to Russia, through Canada and India, this year’s activists show us that sustainable change is built through supportive communities,” the organization said in a statement.

The Right Livelihood Prize was created in 1980 by the German-Swedish environmentalist Jakob von Uexkull, after the Nobel Foundation refused to create prizes for the environment and development. For this reason, the foundation that awards it claims the label of “alternative Nobel Prize”.

In 2019, it had rewarded the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, muse of the fight against global warming, then 16 years old.