WMO wins Lui Prize for precluding disasters
The World Meteorological Organization, a specialized agency under the United Nations whose mission since the 1950s has been to reduce weather-related casualties, was honored with the Lui Che Woo Prize — Prize for World Civilization, it was announced on Friday.
The Welfare Betterment Prize recognizes the WMO’s long-standing efforts in precluding disaster events. Over the past five decades, the WMO contributed to the reduction of loss of life worldwide arising from weather-related incidents.
Set up in 1950, the WMO has stitched together 191 members to form an international cooperation platform, which is used to facilitate accurate exchanges of global climate data and standardize weather forecasts. It has been lauded for its endeavor to help developing countries issue weather warnings to affected villages, and thus, minimize the havoc.
Lui Che-woo, the founder of the prize, said at today’s press conference that climate change and rising sea levels have been plaguing the global population. They are the biggest challenges confronting the world today.
“The WMO has made extraordinary achievements in monitoring, forecasting and reducing disaster risk through international collaboration, effectively improving the welfare of mankind,” Lui said.
Two other recipients were also announced on Friday. The Positive Energy Prize was given to the Pratham Education Foundation, an Indian nongovernmental organization devoted to improving education quality and eliminating illiteracy in India.
The foundation had built low-budget, easily replicable teaching resources and approaches to imbue reading and mathematical skills to children in India — where onethird of the world’s illiterate population lives.
The organization beats the orthodoxy for which they educated children according to their learning abilities instead of age — an approach distinct from traditional Indian classrooms. Since its establishment in 1995, it’s helped 50 million children in India walk out of illiteracy, and branched out to a total of 16 countries.
German environmentalist Hans-Josef Fell secured the Sustainability Prize. Fell has been acclaimed for founding the world’s first solar power generation firm, which had helped revolutionized the global renewable energy sector.
Hong Kong property developer and philanthropist Lui Che-woo founded the prize in 2015 to pay tribute to individuals and organizations which have made remarkable achievements championing the welfare of humanity.