MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, The PeaceJam Foundation’s "One Billion Acts of Peace" campaign officially released this year’s Hero Award Semifinalists and opened online voting to the public. This year’s awards will recognize outstanding service in five categories including Best Youth Act, Best Non-Profit Act, Best Business Act, Best University Act and Best Up and Coming Peacemaker.
The public will have an opportunity to vote for their favorites on the One Billion Acts of Peace website from April 20 - May 20.
Winners will be announced on May 21 and officially recognized at the Hero Award ceremony on June 14, 2015 in Monte Carlo. This year’s award ceremony will be led by Nobel Laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel of Argentina, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980 for his leadership for human rights and true democracy for the people of Latin America.
The campaign, which boasts supporters like His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, is designed to inspire average citizens around the world to work together to create one billion high quality projects that address the most important issues facing humanity, such as rights for women and children, access to clean water for all, global climate change and alleviating extreme poverty. All of the high quality projects nominated for this award address one of these core issue areas.
In conjunction with today’s Hero Awards online vote launch, and in celebration of Earth Day, PeaceJam and Google are proud to be hosting Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Indigenous Maya leader, Rigoberta Menchú of Guatemala. Menchú will be joined by PeaceJam Foundation co-founder and executive director Dawn Engle, Google executives, and dozens of Google volunteers to participate in an Earth Day service project, followed by a celebration and tech talk at the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, CA. Menchú, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 for her work as a peaceful advocate of native people’s rights in Central America and for leading indigenous peoples worldwide, is one of thirteen Nobel Peace Prize Laureates spearheading PeaceJam Foundation’s "One Billion Acts of Peace" campaign.
“One Billion Acts of Peace shows everyone, young or old, that they have the power to make a difference,” said Menchú. “In difficult times, it is easy to forget that we all can enact change, no matter how powerless we may feel. Addressing injustice, inequality, the environment – it all starts with everyone believing in their power to change the world.”
This year, One Billion Acts of Peace campaign has received seven nominations for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize. The campaign is a six year project that will run until the end of 2019. To date, more than one million people have participated in PeaceJam programs worldwide, performing more than two million acts of peace. Founding partners of the One Billion Acts of Peace Campaign include Google, Wells Fargo, Hill+Knowlton Strategies and Chadbourne & Parke.
To cast your vote and for more information, visit: http://www.1billionacts.org/hero-awards/
The PeaceJam Foundation is an international organization whose mission is to create young leaders committed to positive change in themselves, their communities and the world through the inspiration of Nobel Peace Laureates who pass on their spirit, skills and wisdom. The PeaceJam Foundation was launched in February 1996 by co-founders Dawn Engle and Ivan Suvanjieff to provide the Nobel Peace Laureates with a programmatic vehicle to use in working together to teach youth the art of peace. To date, 13 Nobel Peace Laureates, including the 14th Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, President Oscar Arias, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Betty Williams, José Ramos-Horta, Aung San Suu Kyi, Sir Joseph Rotblat (Emeritus), Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi and Leymah Gbowee serve as Members of the PeaceJam Foundation.
