CAFMI wins Templeton Freedom Award for Student Outreach
BISHKEK (November 11, 2010) - The Central Asian Free Market Institute (CAFMI) emerged winner in the in the Student Outreach category in the 2010 Templeton Freedom Awards for Excellence in Promoting Liberty competition. The award, managed by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, recognized CAFMI for its Unleashing Silk Road initiative.
The initiative “introduced youth to the fundamental ideas of a free society, focusing on individual freedom, market economy and the rule of law.” This included a number of week-long camps, movie nights, as well as two unique discussion forums - ReCamp and IdeaNight. The program spanned April 2009 to June 2010, across the four largest cities of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and had an outreach of 1,500 youth.
What makes the Templeton Freedom Award even more momentous is that this is the first international prize bestowed upon CAFMI. “We are extremely happy to have won this prestigious award and are keen to win many more,” said Mirsulzhan Namazaliev, CAFMI’s executive director.
CAFMI shared the 2010 Ethics & Values award with the Free to Choose Network in the United States for izzit.org project. This initiative “reaches 19 million [American] students a year… by producing original videos, as well as re-purposing other videos, and offering them to teachers across the country. Their unique distribution method reaches educators in a database of more than 1 million teachers; currently, 117,000 active teachers have signed up to receive the DVD’s.”
Exceptional think tanks from 10 countries have been recognized by the 2010 Templeton Freedom Awards for Excellence in Promoting Liberty for their accomplishments in advancing freedom. This years 16 recipients were chosen from over 132 applications from 48 countries by an independent panel of expert judges.
Named after the late investor and philanthropist Sir John Templeton, the Templeton Freedom Award was established in 2003 and is the largest international prize program that celebrates think tank contributions to the understanding of freedom. The Templeton Freedom Awards program has awarded more than $1.5 million in prizes and grants in the past 7 years. This year’s awards program grants a $10,000 prize to each winner.
The Awards include eight different categories including Free Market Solutions to Poverty, Social Entrepreneurship, Ethics and Values, Student Outreach, Initiative in Public Relations, Innovative Media, and Awards for Special Achievement by a University-based Center and by a Young Institute.
The Atlas Economic Research Foundation has supported a worldwide network of independent think tanks that promote a society of free and responsible individuals for nearly three decades. Atlas, based in Washington, currently works with more than 400 partners in 84 countries. More than half of these organizations were assisted in their formative years by Atlas through financial support or advisory services.
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The Central Asian Free Market Institute is the leading independent, nonprofit think-tank in the region that promotes ideas of freedom, rule of law, market economy and minimal government in the region through research, education and advocacy.