2009 Essl Social Prize – Prize Winner from Hungary
The Essl Social Prize, the first international prize for social initiatives, is being awarded for the second time. The EUR 1 million in prize money goes to Ms. Szekeres Tiborné of Hungary and her project “Ageing with Dignity for People with Disabilities“. The award ceremony is to be held at 6pm on April 3, 2009, at Schömer Haus (bauMax Headquarters) in Klosterneuburg. Martin and Gerda Essl endowed the prize to fund special initiatives taken by individuals around the world.
The Essl Social Prize is awarded annually and is the first worldwide prize for ground-breaking projects on social initiatives taken by social entrepreneurs. What makes this prize so special is that the associated projects are developed and supervised together with the prize winners, thus ensuring professional handling of the project and allowing for an exchange of social and economic skills.
The outstanding social projects are subject to a stringent nomination and selection procedure. They must live up to high quality standards and, above all, offer lasting help to people in need and ensure that the bulk of the prize money is spent on the social project.
2009 Prize Winner: “Ageing with Dignity for People with Disabilities“
Twenty-two years ago Ms. Tiborné Szekeres began the foundation “For Equal Opportunity!“ She has a severely disabled son and initially wanted to use her initiative to provide him with better living conditions. Since then, the foundation has created many lodgings and workplaces for the disabled where people with disabilities are cared for in many different ways.
The prize money will go toward building a residential home which includes a hospice for elderly people with mental and/or physical disabilities. The goal is to create a home where these people can live out their lives with dignity in a caring environment that takes into account their special needs.
