Catholic peacemaker receives Mother Teresa award

Catholic peacemaker receives Mother Teresa award

This year’s Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice has been conferred on a US-based Catholic global peacemaker working to replace the scourge of landmines with sustainable agricultural farmland for more than 25 years.

“Heidi Kuhn’s work through [her non-profit] Roots of Peace perfectly embodies the spirit of the Mother Teresa Memorial Awards,” said Abraham Mathai, founder-chairman of Harmony Foundation.

Kuhn, also the recipient of this year’s World Food Prize, received the award instituted by the voluntary group based in Mumbai, western India, on Nov. 26.

“Her [Kuhn’s] commitment to replacing the scars of war with the seeds of hope is a remarkable example of ‘humanity in action,’” Mathai told UCA News

Accepting the award, Kuhn said Roots of Peace was “cultivating peace through agriculture – leading with the ‘shovel’ not the ‘sword.’”

Quoting Saint Mother Teresa, who founded the Missionaries of Charities congregation in India, Kuhn said, “Not all of us can do great things, but we may do small things with great love.”

Kuhn said removing a landmine and planting a fruit tree “is an act of peace.”

The activist said that “to plant a seed we fall to our knees, touch the ground, and nurture both the soil and the soul.”

“As bombs fall from the sky in so many nations, we as humans must fall to our knees, kiss the ground, and plant a flower, a tree or even an orchard, in an act of solidarity to heal the wounds of war.”

Founded in 1997, Roots of Peace has turned “mines into vines” in over 10 countries and reached out to over 1 million farmers in Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, Guatemala, Iraq, Israel, Palestine and Vietnam.

Jailed Iranian activist and Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi received this year’s Mother Teresa Memorial Award for her “relentless and fearless efforts to be the voice of the voiceless in Iran.”

The award was received by Ghazala, a liberal Iranian woman activist, on behalf of Mohammadi.

“Mohammadi was awarded for her “intrepid fight against religious despotism in Iran, where women are subjected and oppressed. She epitomized humanity in action through her battle against the oppression of women in Iran,” said Mathai.

Mohammadi has been imprisoned 13 times and convicted five times with a cumulative prison sentence of 31 years.

Currently, she is in jail for supporting Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman who was allegedly killed in custody by Iran’s religious police for not wearing a hijab, an Islamic veil, in September 2022.

Other winners include Judge Frank Caprio (World’s Nicest Judge), the International Committee of the Red Cross, Seal Ashram, Magic Bus and Snehalaya.