Скачать или смотреть Gabriel Mejía Montoya, Child Rights Hero, Colombia

Father Gabriel has dedicated his life to helping the poor. He has faced several attempts on his life as a result of his work.

During a war in Colombia that has lasted more than 60 years, almost six million people have been forced to flee their homes and over 200,000 have been killed. Children have been severely affected. When, at the age of 37, Gabriel Antonio Mejía Montoya saw the children living on the street outside his home he founded the Hogares Claret foundation and its first centre for homeless children. Today, the foundation runs 52 children’s centres. They care for 4,000 children and young people who have lived as street children or child soldiers, as well as children serving their sentences in the foundation’s detention centres for young people. The efforts of Gabriel and Hogares Claret have improved the lives of tens of thousands of children. Father Gabriel, was honoured by World’s Children’s Prize in 2018 for his more than 30-year struggle for Colombia’s vulnerable children – homeless children, child soldiers and children sentenced to prison.

The World’s Children’s Prize (WCP) Program is the world’s largest annual program educating and empowering children to become humane changemakers who stand up for the equal value of all people, the rights of the child, human rights, democracy, and sustainable development. Patrons of the World’s Children’s Prize include H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden, Malala Yousafzai, the late Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel, Xanana Gusmão, Desmond Tutu and Sweden’s Prime Minister. Since the year 2000, close to 50 million children have participated in the annual WCP Program.