Wadi is honored to announce that we are one of the three recipients of the Roland Berger Award for Human Dignity, 2017. This year, the prestigious prize is awarded to projects and individuals who are particularly committed to disadvantaged boys and girls worldwide. 
The other winners are human rights activist Ann-Marie Caulker from Sierra Leone, and the Tanzanian NGO Talent Search and Empowerment.
“With this year’s prize draw, we highlight the inhumane living conditions that women and children are exposed to in various parts of the world” Founder of Roland Berger.
The German-Iraqi association WADI e.V. is awarded the Roland Berger Award for Human Dignity 2017 for its long-standing and successful commitment to the human rights and self-determination of Iraqi citizens.
Currently, WADI is concerned mainly with Ezidi women, who have fled from the cruel captivity of the terror-militia know as ‘IS’ or ‘Daesh’ in northern Iraq. The organization is committed to improving the living conditions for women in the very patriarchal social structures of the Middle East and to promote their participation in public life. The organization campaigns against forced marriage and “honor murder”, develops literacy programs and operates women’s centers offering educational programs and legal advice. With the campaign “Stop FGM in Kurdistan”, WADI was able to obtain a legal ban on female genital mutilation in Kurdistan in 2011. “
Distribution of clothes for Yazidi refugeess
Malu Dreyer, President of the Bundesrat and state premier of Rhineland-Palatinate, will give the laudatory speech and present the awards together with Germany’s ambassador to the UN, Harald Braun, and the founder, Roland Berger ·
The award ceremony is taking place at the Jewish Museum Berlin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 4, 2017.
The German Newspaper Bild.de spoke with Wadi Managing Director Thomas v. der Osten-Sacken:
“We are particularly delighted to be awarded the Roland Berger Prize in the year in which we celebrate our 25th anniversary,” said Thomas von der Osten-Sacken, to Bild
“The many years in which Iraqis, Kurds and Germans have jointly developed and developed the projects are “Wadi”. All of us were glad that the Roland Berger Foundation has chosen us too, because we have always continued, even in very difficult times and this endurance has always paid off” explains Thomas von der Osten-Sacken.
Wadi is also respected on the spot: “The other organizations come and go, but Wadi remains,” it says, “said von der Osten-Sacken. The prize was therefore particularly welcome and motivating for local colleagues.
Some of the long-term projects, especially the help for Ezidi girls who were enslaved and abused by ISIS, are not particularly well funded this year, he clarifies. “The prize money helps us to guarantee the survival of the Jinda Center this year.”
Two members of Wadis’s Kurdish staff, Cheman Raschid and Abdullah Sabeer, will also attend the event. Both will be available for interviews from 10 am to 2 pm at Hotel Hilton, Mohrenstraße 30, 10117 Berlin.
Interview appointments can also be arranged directly via Wadi.
Wadi 
