İngilizce Hazırlık 9-Unit 6/ 108
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THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

 

   The Nobel Prize is an international prize awarded annually to people who have done outstanding achievements in chemistry, physics, literature, medicine, economic sciences and peace. Peace, which includes empathy, love, caring and sharing, tolerance, respect and kindness, is known as the core value of living together in the world. There are many people around the world who make a great deal of efforts and contributions to people to live in harmony. We will get to know the three of them and the reasons why they received the Nobel Peace Prize. 

 

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. King received the Nobel Peace  Prize in 1964 and several other honours. He was a civil - rights activist who played a significant role in ending the legal segregation of African-American citizens in the USA, through non-violent demonstrations and his inspirational speeches. Martin Luther King and his supporters set up a massive peaceful demonstration in order to ask for peaceful change and justice in African-American people’s rights. On August 28, 1963, the historic March in Washington drew more than 200,000 people and King made his famous “I Have A Dream” speech that caught attention of the entire world, expressing that someday all men could be brothers. He has been remembered as not the only one of the most influential and inspirational African-American leaders in history but also a world figure.

 

Wangari Maathai was born on April 1, 1940 in Nyeri, Kenya. She was the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her contribution to sustainable democracy and peace. She was also the first female professor in her own country. She embarked upon a campaign in 1977, especially encouraged women to plant trees in their local environment, to think ecologically and to stop deforestation in African countries. Through her campaign, over thirty million trees had been planted across African countries. Although it looked like just a tree-planting, that movement included democracy, human rights, and international solidarity. The Nobel committee stated that “She thinks globally and acts locally.” 

 

Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997 in the Swat Valley, Pakistan. In 2014, Malala, and Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi shared the Nobel Peace Prize. At the age of seventeen, she became the youngest person to receive this prize. When she was 11, she wrote a diary to an international television so as to describe the reasons why she didn't attend to school. With the help of the media, she became the voice of many children and women around the world who were forced out of school. She is of the opinion that all girls have the right of education as a human being and education is the best way to fight against violence around the world. She carries on leading a campaign for girls’ education and equality that has been supported by many people around the world. She pointed out in her Prize speech “This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change.”