WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2014 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Fuad El-Hibri, Chair of the El-Hibri Foundation’s Board of Trustees, announced the selection of Pietro Ameglio as the 2014 El-Hibri Peace Education Prize Laureate.  On October 15, Ameglio will receive the award and the $20,000 cash prize in Washington, DC, and three graduate students will also receive $5,000 scholarships to further their peace education studies.  Ameglio will join a distinguished cohort of El-Hibri Foundation Peace Education Prize Laureates, whose accomplishments are described here: 

http://www.elhibrifoundation.org/peace_education/prize

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Born in Uruguay but educated in Mexico, Ameglio is an activist and peace educator who is one of the most important teachers and practitioners of active nonviolence in Latin America.  He has co-founded many vehicles promoting peace in Mexico, including the Mexican Peace and Justice Service (SERPAJ, 1987), a chapter of the SERPAJ nonviolence network spanning Latin America; Thinking Out Loud (Pensar en Voz Alta, 1995), a Gandhian-inspired nonviolent action collective to analyze and publicize statistical information on the nature of social conflict in Mexico and promote nonviolent direct actions; and the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD, 2011), along with poet Javier Sicilia and the families of dead and missing persons.  He has authored the book, Gandhi and Civil Disobedience: Mexico Today (2002).

Ameglio has decades of experience exploring the power of nonviolence to promote justice and peace.  He strategized with the MPJD to organize numerous mass actions against violent conflict in Mexico, including the “Silent Walk,” a march from Cuernavaca to Mexico City that concluded with more than 200,000 people hearing the testimony of survivors and victims whose suffering has largely been ignored.  Ameglio also worked with others from the MPJD to create the “Caravan of Consolation” and the “Caravan to the South.” All of these activities have tapped into what Ameglio refers to as “the moral reserve” of the Mexican people, the positive values and moral sensibilities that characterize Mexican culture.

About the El-Hibri Foundation

Founded in 2001, the El-Hibri Foundation is an American 501(c)(3) charitable foundation based in Washington, D.C. It seeks to build a better world by embracing two universally shared values of Islam—peace and respect for diversity—and it fulfills its mission through grants, programs and other activities.

Contact: Rev. Bud Heckman, +1-202-387-9500
Director of Outreach, El-Hibri Foundation
bheckman@elhibrifoundation.org