Global Fund is excited to announce that two of our grantee partners have won this year’s prestigious Gruber Women’s prize . The two recipients are Leymah Gbowee , from grantee partner Women in Peace and Security Network – Africa ; and Women’s Legal Centre (WLC) – a nonprofit law center based in South Africa and a Global Fund grantee since 1999.

The prize will be awarded in a ceremony this fall celebrating the achievements of the recipients, who will share the $500,000 prize. Additionally, a special event celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Gruber Prize Program will be held on July 1, 2009, at Rockefeller University in New York City.

The official citation reads:

The 2009 Gruber Women’s Rights Prize is proudly presented to Leymah Roberta Gbowee, and the Women’s Legal Centre for two different but complementary kinds of activism:

Leymah Roberta Gbowee of Liberia, for helping to build peace in her homeland by mobilizing women in a resistance movement that was instrumental in finally bringing an end to the Liberian civil war, and for continuing to promote women-power in peace building; and the Women’s Legal Centre of South Africa, for successfully challenging legal and cultural obstacles to women’s rights through the courts especially in the areas of inheritance and gender-based violence, and empowering women with free legal advice on the impact of court judgments in their favor.