Intercultural Achievement Awards 2022 Awarded by Austria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
For the 9th time, the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs presents the Intercultural Achievement Awards (IAA) to international and national projects. The award ceremony was opened by Secretary General for Foreign Affairs, Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, at the Vienna Jazz Club Porgy & Bess.
Austria's Foreign Ministry presents the Intercultural Achievement Award to international and national projects for the 9th time. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / Gugerell / CC0
The prize, which has been awarded by the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs since 2014, honors outstanding projects for civil society engagement and for promoting intercultural and interreligious dialogue.
"My heartfelt congratulations to all award winners. We are extremely pleased to see the innovative power and strong sense of community that is inherent worldwide, despite all adversities, especially among young people. These intercultural and interreligious dialogue initiatives are invaluable in times of enormous challenges at the global and regional level," emphasized Secretary General Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal at the award ceremony.
The five winning projects in 2022 - selected from over 180 submissions worldwide - come from France, India, Jordan, Morocco and South Africa. In the Austrian special categories, the organizations "gemma! - Gemeinsam machen, Verein zur Förderung des interkulturellen Austauschs junger Menschen" and "Sindbad - Mentoring für Jugendliche Österreich" were honored.
The gemma! initiative strives to provide space for development and to promote exchange, integration and peaceful coexistence, regardless of personal circumstances or criteria. This is done through intercultural meeting spaces as well as counseling and learning support.
Sindbad is a mentoring program that links teenagers with volunteer mentors before they move on to vocational or further education. In this way, they are accompanied in this transformative phase of life and benefit from mutual exchange.
The Viennese „Ukrainian Saturday school“ by Ukrainisches Iwan-Franko-Zentrum für Kultur und Bildung is awarded a Special Prize for its bridge building and integrational efforts in recently welcoming a high number of children in very challenging circumstances. pic.twitter.com/UbzbBwW3LQ
— MFA Austria (@MFA_Austria) October 18, 2022
This year, to recognize the special challenges related to the arrival of more than 80,000 displaced persons from Ukraine in Austria, a special prize was also awarded to the Ukrainian Saturday School of the Ukrainian Ivan Franko Center for Education and Culture.
Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression, the school in Vienna has been able to help nearly 1,000 students from Ukraine learn German. At the same time, teaching subjects such as Ukrainian or Ukrainian literature ensures that Ukraine's cultural heritage is preserved.
At the award ceremony, the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs thanked the Future Fund of the Republic of Austria, the Austrian Development Agency and the Austrian Integration Fund for the "valuable long-standing partnership within the framework of the Intercultural Achievement Award."
BMEIA Federal Ministry for Europe Integration and Foreign Affairs