Unfairtobacco has been shortlisted for the EU Health Award 2018. A reason for us to publish a personal message to our supporters:

Dear supporters,

we feel very honoured to have been nominated for the EU Health Award 2018 by the EU Commission. Today, we participated in the award ceremony in Brussels, together with ten other organisations.

We congratulate the three awarded candidates Youth Network No Excuse Slovenia, Education Against Tobacco and the Irish Cancer Society. Really well deserved!

Even though we didn’t win a prize, being shortlisted for this high-level award is a great achievement for us.

This is a reason for us to take a moment to reflect on our history. During her volunteer year in 2003, Laura came across the issue of tobacco companies destroying forests in Tanzania to profit from cheap tobacco production. Together with a group of volunteers, she organised a protest at Reemtsma (part of Imperial Brands). She didn‘t plan to keep working on this, but this first day of action caught quite a bit of national media attention. This, together with the urgent need that someone should attend to this neglected issue, made us go on.

Since then, we‘ve gathered knowledge and experience. Today, we work on the local, national and international level towards a holistic approach to tobacco control by raising awareness of the impact of tobacco on health, sustainable development, environment and human rights. We share expertise, do advocacy and provide an education programme for children and youth.

We would like to thank everyone who has supported us on our way so far: Our families and friends, the colleagues in Berlin, our donors, the students and teachers in our education programme, and our colleagues all over the world who work in the areas of environment, development, human rights and tobacco control.

We really appreciate to be part of this strong international tobacco control movement whose collaborative character amazes us each and every day.

We will continue to contribute to this movement and further our vision of a tobacco-free world as it is enshrined in the human rights to health and life.

Sincerely,
Sonja von Eichborn and Laura Graen

PS: If you want to know more on our human rights work, read the Cape Town Declaration on Human Rights and a Tobacco-free World.

"We really appreciate to be part of this strong international tobacco control movement whose collaborative character amazes us each and every day."
Sonja von Eichborn and Laura Graen at the EU Health Award ceremony in Brussels, 12 November 2018. © Sonja von Eichborn and Laura Graen at the EU Health Award ceremony in Brussels, 12 November 2018. by Unfairtobacco / All Rights Reserved