Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, shown at Battery Park at the Global Climate Strike March in New York City on Friday on Sept. 20, 2019, announced Monday she is giving away a prize of more than $1 million to other organizations in the climate change fight. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
July 21 (UPI) -- Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg said Monday she plans to give away the $1.14 million Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity she won, starting with a donation to help fight COVID-19 in the Brazilian Amazon.
Thunberg, 17, was awarded the prize, given annually to recognize people, groups and organizations who contribute in efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Thunberg said on Twitter she will give the money away through her Fridays for Future Foundation, citing SOS Amazonia as one of the first groups that will receive a donation of 100,000 euros ($114,571).
"The prize money, which is 1 million euros, that is more money than I can even begin to imagine," Thunberg said in a video posted on her Twitter page. "But all the prize money will be donated through my foundation to different organizations and projects who are working to help people on the front lines, affected by the climate crisis and ecological crisis, especially in the Global South."
Thunberg said the Stop Ecocide Foundation will also receive $114,571 to "support their work to make ecocide an international crime."
Brazil is one of the world's coronavirus hot spot countries with more than 2 million cases and more than 80,000 deaths. Included in that total, at least 15,000 indigenous Brazilians have been infected with two-thirds coming in protected areas.
The Stop Ecocide campaign is a Netherlands-based group founded in 2017 by British attorney Polly Higgins and environmental activist Jojo Mehta trying to establish the destruction of the natural environment as an international crime.
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