BONO Deserves The Award

May 26, 2007 by Steve Purcell

Bono The US National Constitution Center is to honour Bono for his charity work in Africa by awarding him the Liberty Medal in September.

Award winners are those who have “demonstrated leadership and vision in the pursuit of liberty”, and six past Liberty Medal winners have also received the Nobel Peace Prize.

The award carries a 100,000 dollar prize, which will go to Debt AIDS Trade Africa (DATA), the charity founded by Bono in 2002.

National Constitution Centre President Joseph M Torsella announced the award, saying, “Working hand-in-hand with DATA, Bono has become the ultimate civic entrepreneur – but on a global scale that the Founders could have only imagined.

“Bono and DATA don’t just raise awareness, important though that is. They challenge the world’s richest nations to do better by Africa, and challenge African nations to do better by their own people.”

Bono said: “This is a real honour for myself and my bosses at DATA – I am very proud of their work.”

He later commented that each of the 2.4 million American participants in the ONE Campaign should receive a medal too.

“I don’t suppose there are enough Liberty Medals to go around, but in truth, those people should all be wearing one, too,” he told the BBC.