Winefreda Amit Geonzon was a Filipina lawyer and social justice activist. She was the founder and executive director of the Free Legal Assistance Volunteers Association, a service organization that provides free legal assistance for poor prisoners. For her efforts, she received the Right Livelihood Award in 1984 for "giving assistance to prisoners and aiding their rehabilitation."
Winefreda Geonzon
The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to "honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." The prize was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, and is presented annually in early December. An international jury, invited by the five regular Right Livelihood Award board members, decides the awards in such fields as environmental protection, human rights, sustainable development, health, education, and peace. The prize money is shared among the winners, usually numbering four, and is €200,000. Very often one of the four laureates receives an honorary award, which means that the other three share the prize money.
Right Livelihood Award
Image: Hassan Fathy in Cairo (cropped)
Image: Stephen Gaskin at the Nambassa 3 day Music & Alternatives festival, New Zealand 1981. Photographer Michael Bennetts
Image: Bill Mollison, 2008 (cropped)