Our 2017 International Children’s Peace Prize winner Mohamad Al Jounde is named as one of the winners of the MTV EMA Generation Change Award.
The MTV EMA Generation Change Award is a brand new global initiative that celebrates young people around the world who are changing the world. MTV presented the Generation Change Award to not just one nominee but to all five of them, including Mohamad. Having multiple winners made the celebration of this award not about a single person or issue, but about a whole generation driving change.
Impact on Mohamad’s fight for access to education
For Mohamad himself, winning the award is critical to bring about the change he envisions. By bringing his voice to MTV’s massive mainstream audience and platform he is able to push his local initiative towards a global issue. Winning the award sheds light on the lives of refugee children and strengthens his movement for their access to education.
Mohamad, a refugee himself, started out using photography and storytelling to capture the realities of refugees. ‘Photography helped me to see that there are no different worlds, no first – second or third world. We are all living in one world and we need to wake up and see that the problem here is choosing profit over lives. I don’t want to make the world perfect, I want to help make the world normal, a place where we can all live!’
Mohamad winning the Generation Change Award instills hope in the current generation of refugee children around the world. Mohamad is filled with optimism and realizes that this is still just the beginning.
You can watch the MTV EMA Generation Change Award Ceremony here!