SERGIO VIEIRA DE MELLO PRIZE Laureates 2008

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The ceremony of awarding the Sergio Vieira de Mello Prize took place within the framework of an international conference "Millennium Goals of Culture?"  on 16 October 2008 at Villa Decius, Krakow. Among the laureates there are: Krystyna Pryjomko-Serafin (In the "individual" category), Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (In the "NGO" category), Shevah Weiss (Special Prize) and Michał Żejmis (Distinction by the Award Committee).

Krystyna Pryjomko-Serafin - Laureate in the category "person"

Krystyna Pryjomko-Serafin is the founder of St. Gabriel Home located in Arusha, Tanzania. St. Gabriel Home delivers humanitarian assistance, refuge and hope to the "prison children" of Tanzania. Through care, compassion, nurturing and education the aim is to restore stolen childhoods and transform young lives, helping to build a peaceful, happy and promising future, which is the fundamental right of all children. The idea for the home was initiated in 2002 when together with her son Roman, Krystyna returned to Arusha, Tanzania after an absence of over 50 years. Between 1942-1948, Krystyna found sanctuary in the nearby settlement of Tengeru, together with thousands of Polish refugees who had escaped the misery of war and imprisonment in Siberia.

With modest funding from numerous small, private donations; together with the inspirational leadership of Missionary Father Jacek Rejman in Arusha and the essential support of the St. Gemma Galgani Sisters; St. Gabriel Home welcomed its first children in 2005. Releasing the children from imprisonment represents only the first step towards a more dignified, hopeful and happy future. Currently, the home has ten resident children and a school provides education for over thirty children from the local community.

There are plans to expand the number of resident children in the coming year and the Sergio Vieira de Mello Award will make a significant contribution towards this urgent goal. Today, a small group of dedicated trustees and volunteers in Tanzania and Europe with growing numbers of supporters worldwide are committed to making a positive and lasting difference to the lives of these otherwise forgotten children. More information about St. Gabriel Home can be found at www.saintgabrielhome.net.

Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights - Laureate in the category "NGO"

The Polish branch of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights was founded in 1989, after seven years of the Polish Helsinki Committee's activities as an underground movement (since 1982). In terms of Europe, the Foundation belongs to the most experienced and professionally active non-governmental organizations dealing with human rights. The organization provides advisory help in situations when personal or political rights are harmed. The Foundation also carries out educational programmes for numerous non-governmental as well as governmental institutions.

The roving film festival "WATCH DOCS. Human Rights in Film" belongs to the annually organized programmes of the Foundation. The festival has been organized since 2001 in cooperation with partners from all around Poland as a form of public education about the basic rights and freedoms of individual, using an attractive medium - film. This way the Foundation seeks to be active and effective in the tolerance issues, trying to reach all group of society within its mission.

http://www.hfhrpol.waw.pl/

Shevah Weiss - Special Prize

Shevah Weiss is known not only as a professor in political science, but also as a publicist, a politician, diplomat and the former ambassador of Israel in Poland. He lectures for instance at the Institute of Political Science of the Warsaw University, where he has established the Research Centre for Israeli-Polish Relations. He also initiated the idea to found the Institute of Israeli-Polish Relations at the University of Tel Aviv and nowadays he is a member of the Institute's Board. Besides that he chairs the Scientific Council Yad Vashem and in 1992 - 1996 he was the chairman of Knest.

Shevah Weiss is one of the few people in Israel possessing a wide knowledge of the Polish-Jewish issues and he is truly determined to work on the improvement of the mutual relationships. His articles in Polish newspapers always reflect the sensitivity and the common history of Poles and Jews. Thanks to his extraordinary engagement he is famous as one of the best-known and most active diplomats accredited in Poland. Thus, his voice still has an authentic feeling outside the Polish borders. Professor Weiss has once said that being a Jewish ambassador in Poland means "being the ambassador of the living and the dead" - that was how he defined his role here.

Michał Żejmis - Distinction of the Jury

Michał Żejmis is a Ph.D. student at the Institute of Social Policy of the Warsaw University and the co-founder of the Institute of Belarussian Culture and the Foundation Development Without Borders. He wrote numerous scientific publications.

With his public and scientific activities he breaks the cultural barriers and the prejudices against "strangers" - refugees from the East, including Caucasus. Since his secondary school he has been actively promoting culture of our Eastern neighbours - Russians, Belarussians and Ukrainians - by co-organizing concerts, exhibitions and meetings. With his scientific work he contributes to the faster social adaptation of the refugees, for instance within the scientific projects such as "Stranger in the contemporary Poland with the example of Armenians" or "Xenophobe". As a member of the Polish Blind Union he has organized numerous cultural events which give a chance to the Blind to hear, feel and thus understand the East.