Yvonne Chaka Chaka wins WEF Crystal Award

The World Economic Forum (WEF) “is an independent international organisation committed to improving the state of the world” and at the annual meeting on 26th January, in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, South African singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka was awarded the WEF Crystal Award. The award credits those who have used their artistry to philanthropic achievements that honour this pledge of improvement. Chaka Chaka is the first African woman to receive this award.

Chaka Chaka has produced music for twenty years, heading her own music label, production company, and acting as UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador and as an Ambassador for Roll-Back Malaria in campaigns to prevent the curable disease. Furthermore, Chaka Chaka founded her own charity, the Princess of Africa Foundation, to continue the awareness, education and action against malaria as previously instigated by her ambassadorial roles.

Hilde Schwab, Chairperson and Co-founder of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, chaired the ceremony and stated that “Yvonne has used her voice to draw attention to the causes that will change the lives of millions, from ending apartheid to improving maternal and child health.”

South African President Jacob Zuma has also congratulated Chaka Chaka for her WEF Crystal Award: “We applaud the wonderful work she does promoting quality health care and other social development issues in the continent. We are immensely proud that the World Economic Forum has today recognized her in this way”.

Winners of the WEF Crystal Award in 2011, A. R. Rahman and José Carreras were panelists of the annual meeting this year. Rahman is best known for his brilliant musicianship and philanthropic support of ‘Save the Children, India’ and was appointed as the Global Ambassador of the Stop TB Partnership in 2004. Carreras is revered as an opera sensation and founder of José Carreras International Leukaemia Foundation. Other winners in the seventeen year history of the award include cellist Yo-Yo Ma and musician Quincy Jones.