By Joseph Tulloch – Abu Dhabi
The 2025 Zayed Prize for Human Fraternity has been awarded to the NGO World Central Kitchen, the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, and 15 year-old Ethiopian-American inventor Heman Bekele.
The prize was conferred on Tuesday evening at the Founder’s Memorial in downtown Abu Dhabi, nestled amongst the rows of ghaf trees and the clusters of skyscrapers so characteristic of the Emirate.
Now in its sixth year, the Zayed Prize is awarded annually on Feb 4. That, in 2019, was the date of the publication of the joint declaration on Human Fraternity signed by Pope Francis and Ahmad al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar – a groundbreaking document which inspired the founding of the Zayed Prize.
A ‘shared humanity’
At the awards ceremony, the first winner to take to the stage was Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados. As PM, she has become known for the decisive action she has taken against climate change.
Mottley told the assembled guests that “we cannot separate people and the planet”; human development is not possible if there is nowhere for us to live. The Zayed award’s focus on “our shared humanity”, she stressed, is an opportunity to focus on “what really matters”.
Next to speak was Erin Gore, CEO of World Central Kitchen. The organisation provides food aid to communities suffering from humanitarian crises. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, it has provided 100 million meals to Palestinians in Gaza.
At the podium, voice pregnant with emotion, Ms Gore read aloud the names of the seven World Central Kitchen staff killed by an Israeli drone strike in Gaza on Apr 1 2024. “Their dedication fuels us”, she said.
Finally, 15 year-old inventor Heman Bekele took to the stage. He has designed a cost-effective soap to prevent and treat early-stage skin cancer, which is being trialed at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US.
With the prize money, Bekele said, he hopes to further develop other projects of his, including the building of a hospital in his birth country of Ethiopia.
The Holy See and the UAE: a joint commitment to fraternity
On the sidelines of the awards ceremony, Vatican News spoke to Archbishop Christophe El-Kassis, the Holy See’s Apostolic Nuncio to the United Arab Emirates.
It was in the UAE that the declaration on Human Fraternity was first signed, and the country has been a strong proponent of the document ever since.
Archbishop El-Kassis – the Holy See’s first ever resident nuncio to the UAE – traced the deepening diplomatic ties between the two countries, explaining that they began in 2007, and took a large step forward with the Pope’s visit in 2019.
Relations between the two countries are today “very good”, he said, noting the main focus of their co-operation is precisely the promotion of human fraternity worldwide.
Finally, the Nuncio stressed the importance of the Zayed award, saying that the collaboration between Pope Francis and the Grand Imam is “a model for others” and a reminder that “we are all one family”. – Vatican News
