The Sammy Michael Association announced three women as the winners of the Sammy Michael Award for Equality and Social Justice last week.
The award is given annually by the Sammy Michael Association, the Ksharim Institute, Herzog Institute and Ben Gurion University's Authors House. It was inspired by the work of Sammy Michael which encouraged pluralism, tolerance and solidarity in Israeli society.
The first winner of this year's award is Hannah Kim, a journalist who fights against social injustices. Kim has been fighting for social justice for more than four decades, and she uses her journalistic voice to hold rule of law, economy and society accountable. In her articles, Kim has revealed corruption and abuses of power in leaderships.
Aside from her work as a journalist, Kim leads various campaigns online and offline to fight for equality and solidarity as well as founding many social initiatives.
The second winner of the award is Prof. Nihaya Daoud, a researcher at Ben Gurion University who specializes in social epidemiology. Daoud fights against the inequality in the health system and works to reduce the social gaps in the Negev as well as Israeli as a whole.
The last woman who won the award is Ricki Cohen Benlulu, a leading activist in the battle for public housing in Israel. In her work, Cohen Benlulu fights to give a voice to the homeless, disabled people and women who are victims of violence who need help finding somewhere to live.