As I celebrate this coveted prize, I am deeply humbled by the road thus far. Seven years of forced labor, and 15 years of raw hunger and deprivation did not stop me from becoming a university graduate, nor did it stop me from becoming a banker. In fact, it still has not stopped me from continuing to aspire. It has only succeeded in bringing me to a point of thinking, day-by-day, of the essence of life – the lives of others.
So this prize, $100,000 in total, means to me that more boys and girls will be saved from slavery, and more of them will have the opportunity to go to school.
