Yusra Mardini swam with the 10-person refugee team at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On Tuesday, a United Nations program honored her for her work in raising awareness about refugees worldwide. (Michael Dalder/Reuters)
A Syrian teenager who saved fellow refugees from drowning and then swam for the refugee team at the Olympics was among those honored at the first Global Goals Awards in New York City.
Yusra Mardini, 18, who fled Syria with her sister in 2015 and now lives in Germany, received the Girl Award at the ceremony on Tuesday night.
The awards honor champions for women’s and girls’ rights and were organized by UNICEF, a children’s humanitarian program run by the United Nations.
[Syrian refugee kids show the effects of war in their artwork]
Mardini, who had to swim for her life when her overloaded boat broke down in the Mediterranean Sea on the way to Europe, captured headlines when she competed at the Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Mardini speaks onstage during the Global Goals Awards ceremony in New York City. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Global Goals) At a U.N. summit on migrants and refugees this week, she told world leaders that she wanted to change perceptions of those displaced from their homes.
“It is not a choice to flee your home,” she said, “and refugees can achieve anything.”
Rebeca Gyumi, a lawyer who fights against child marriage in Tanzania as head of the Msichana Initiative, was also honored at the awards. She won the award for achieving social change for girls.
The social enterprise DoctHERs, which brings health care to vulnerable girls and women in Pakistan, won an award for its campaigning work. It uses an online video system to match trained junior female doctors in Pakistan with rural women and girls.
— Thomson Reuters Foundation