PHOTO: Dr Pietro Bartolo (second from left) helping an injured immigrant on the island of Lampedusa
I have been in Poland since Wednesday at the Villa Decius Association in Krakow, participating in a conference on “The Return of the Fallen Empires” and attending a ceremony honoring activists pursuing human rights and helping those in need.
Established in 1995, the Association pursued cultural, literary, and political programs which promote heritage, tolerance, dialogue, and humanitarian initiatives.
On Thursday night, Villa Decius awarded its 11th Polish Prizes of Sérgio Vieira de Mello — named in honor of the UN diplomat killed in a bombing in Iraq in 1993 — to Dr Pietro Bartolo and to the La Strada Foundation
Bartolo has managed a specialized medical care center since 1993 on the Italian island of Lampedusa to help refugees and immigrants arriving via the Mediterranean from Africa and the Middle East. In that time, he has treated more than 250,000 people, alleviating some of the suffering in a crisis worsened in recent years by conflict.
La Strada has worked since 1995 to help women caught up in trafficking from Central and Eastern Europe, providing support and care, raising public awareness, and trying to stem the illegal activity.
An Honorary Prize was also given to Sergei Kovalyov, a Russian human rights activist and former Soviet dissident and gulag prisoner. Kovalyov, the co-founder of the human rights society Memorial and the Moscow branch of Amnesty International, became a member of Parliament in 1990 but soon challenged the post-Soviet leadership with criticism of repression in Russia and the war in Chechnya. In April 2014, he appealed to the international community in an open letter to stop the Russian expansion in Ukraine.
