Chinese Christian Actress Yao Chen received one of the World Economic Forum’s 2016 Crystal Award for raising awareness for refuge crisis.
“She is best recognized for her role as the UNHCR’s honorary patron for China, travelling extensively to meet refugees in the Philippines, Thailand, Ethiopia, Lebanon and recently in Pakistan, contributing to an exponential growth in donations from China” Hilde Schwab, hostess of the Crystal Awards ceremony said during the awarding ceremony.
Tagged as the “Queen of Weibo” with almost 78 million followers, Chen maximizes her social media account to spread globally relevant issues such as environmental pollution and food safety.
“Every refugee told me their experiences and every family had a very perfect and good life but all of these had been destroyed by war. So I could always hear horror, desperation and pain in their stories. But again and again, I could see courage, perseverance and hope from the eyes of the storytellers,” revealed by Chen during her interview after the award.
She added that the power of refugees given to her is much more than what she brought for them.
“What we are doing right now is informing people that refugees needs our attention because no attention, no action, no action then no change,” she expressed.
Among the awarded personality was Leonardo DiCaprio who was also recognized for discussing climate crisis.
"We simply cannot afford to let the corporate greed of the coal, oil, and gas industries to determine the future of humanity. Our planet cannot be saved unless we leave fossil fuels in the ground where they belong," the actor said during an interview.
All of the award recipients were honored during the opening session of the 46th World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland last January 19, 2016.
