Johannesburg: A South Africa-based outfit involved in conflict resolution has been awarded the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Reconciliation and Peace for its efforts in promoting peace and addressing disputes globally.
Graca Machel, chairperson of The African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes's (Accord) Board of Trustees and former First Lady when her late husband Nelson Mandela was President, accepted the award on behalf of the institution at the Annual Gandhi Awards Celebration, hosted by the Gandhi Development Trust in Durban.
Machel was also given a personal award for her renowned global advocacy for women and children's rights. The Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Reconciliation and Peace, now in its twelfth year, recognises extraordinary individuals who dedicate their lives to the causes of peace and reconciliation both within South Africa and beyond.
Six South African citizens also received the annual Mahatma Gandhi Satyagraha Awards for their contribution to the democratic order in South Africa, and their humanitarian service towards establishing peace and harmony in the country.
Accepting the award from Ela Gandhi, granddaughter of the Mahatma who founded the Gandhi Development Trust, Machel said she was doing so "with a heavy heart" because much still remained to be done to alleviate the plight of women and young girls in Africa.
Machel singled out the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria as an example.
"These girls are being used as shields of religious intolerance and much more than that. It's not only in Nigeria. In our own sub-region; here, we have thousands of girls who are being trafficked; thousands of girls with no face, not even statistics because we don't know how many they are," Machel said.
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