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Chimamanda gets recognition for fight against hunger

By Ifeoma Mordi
04 November 2018   |   3:06 am
Foremost Nigerian novelist and international acclaimed fiction writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has been honoured by Action Against Hunger, an international Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) for her contributions towards eliminating hunger and malnutrition. Adichie was presented with the award at the organization’s 19th annual gala, which took place in New York City on Tuesday, October 30, 2018.…

Chimamanda receiving the award

Foremost Nigerian novelist and international acclaimed fiction writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has been honoured by Action Against Hunger, an international Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) for her contributions towards eliminating hunger and malnutrition.

Adichie was presented with the award at the organization’s 19th annual gala, which took place in New York City on Tuesday, October 30, 2018.

Explaining why Chimamanda was selected as the 2018 recipient, the international NGO said she is part of a large community of people who leverage their visibility and voices on behalf of others in the fight against hunger.

“Chimamanda Adichie was selected to accept the 2018 Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award because we are inspired by her unwavering support of women and refugees. As a transformational storyteller who brings diversity, complexity, and humanity to all her professional projects, ranging from best-selling books to TED talks, her work aligns perfectly with Action Against Hunger’s mission and vision,” the NGO said.

“We are honored that Ms. Adichie has accepted our annual Humanitarian Award.

Commenting on the award and on the work of Action Against Hunger, Ms. Adichie said: “There is so much about the world today that makes me feel close to despair. But we cannot afford despair. It is important to remember that there is also much generosity and kindness in the world. And the work of Action Against Hunger is proof of that. We as individuals may not be able to change the whole world but we can change a small slice of it for the better.”

Past recipients of the Action Against Hunger Award include the late President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Oprah Winfrey.

The humanitarian award caps off a growing list of accolades the renowned author has received in the last three months.

Her work has been translated into over 30 languages and has appeared in various publications, including, The New Yorker, Granta, The O. Henry Prize Stories, the Financial Times, and Zoetrope.

She is the author of the novels Purple Hibiscus, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the Orange Prize and was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and a New York Times Notable Book; and Americanah, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named one of The New York Times Top Ten Best Books of 2013.

Ms. Adichie is also the author of the story collection The Thing Around Your Neck.

Ms. Adichie has been invited to speak around the world. Her 2009 TED Talk, The Danger of A Single Story, is now one of the most-viewed TED Talks of all time. Her 2012 talk We Should All Be Feminists has a started a worldwide conversation about feminism, and was published as a book in 2014.

Her most recent book, Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, was published in March 2017.

A recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, Ms. Adichie divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.

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