Pilosio recently named, Samia Nkrumah, chairperson and leader of the Convention People's Party and founder of Kwame Nkrumah Pan African Center, the winner of its fourth Pilosio Building Peace Award. Nkrumah received the award for her “commitment to follow her father’s vision towards realizing a self-reliant, peaceful and united Africa,” as well as for promoting the ambitious project to construct a presidential library dedicated to the legacy of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
The Pilosio Building Peace Award was created in 2011 with the intention of annually annually acknowledging, at the global level, the value of a project, person, or organization in creating infrastructure, urban renewal, or the recovery and restoration of buildings that has contributed to the improvement of living conditions and encouraged tolerance and peace between peoples.
The official prize-giving of the Pilosio Building Peace Award takes place during a major annual event that attracts around 300 people from around 20 countries from all over the world. Ideas for further reflection emerge on the issue of developing modern civil society in order to improve the lives of people on the entire planet. An event that draws the major world players in the construction sector, representatives from the political and institutional worlds but, above all, a panel of guests of international standing.
“Building is a verb with extremely positive connotations: something is built to produce added value, to create jobs, to get economies on the move, to give a house to the homeless, to encourage access to education by building new schools, constructing more modern and efficient infrastructure, new hospitals… I could go on forever,” said Dario Roustayan, Pilosio’s CEO and president of the Pilosio Building Peace Award. “That’s why it was the very word “building” that inspired us to create an event that every year tackles the issues around building peace in the world, in all its forms.”
The announcement of Nkrumah took place April 7 in the Ghanaian capital, with Nkrumah, Dario Roustayan, CEO of Pilosio and president of the Pilosio Building Peace Award, and library architect Mario Cucinella present, among others.
The Kwame Nkrumah Presidential Library will be a legacy reference point, but an interactive place of encounter and exchange of experience in training, innovation, economy, politics, and culture throughout the African continent.
“In my opinion, the charisma and dedication with which Samia Nkrumah goes about her activities in championing the rights of Africans endears her to many people," said Dario Roustayan. “She has been behind many projects with enormous social impact in the district which in her own words she had the privilege of representing for four years. But it is her determination to pursue the course set by her father and the passion that drives her commitment to the unification of Africa that has earned her the admiration of many. Additionally, Samia’s emphasis on the need for socio-economic and cultural emancipation of Africans including empowerment of women and delivery of basic needs of Africans also make her worthy of the Building Peace Award. It would be an honour for me to present this award to her," concluded Roustayan.
The official awards ceremony will take place on September 12 as part of a major event to be staged at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice, which is expected to draw hundreds of guests from all over the world. Samia Nkrumah’s political journey started when she returned to Ghana in 2008, founded KNAC and began contributing to strengthening the Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP) nearly 40 years after the coup that forced her family to flee the country. “Kwame Nkrumah isn’t only my father; he’s our father, the father of our beloved Nation Ghana.
Being the daughter of Kwame Nkrumah means being the daughter of Ghana and Africa, and that comes with a sense of responsibility towards all Africans, wherever they live" explained Samia, heralded by some international media organisations with phrases like “the new Mandela is a woman”.
Her political commitment rests on the unshakeable belief in the awareness that education and culture as a force can play in uplifting the productive and creative capacity of a people. Samia’s first step after her return to her country was to connect with her people starting from the Jomoro district where her family come from in the Western region of Ghana. In four years Samia created a microfinance organisation which provided loans to women, supported the provision of portable water and sanitation facilities in various communities in the district as well as the rehabilitation of health posts, nurses quarters and school blocks. She was Member of the Ghanaian Parliament from 2009 to 2012.
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