Crown Princess Victoria awards ALMA Award

After spending several days in Greenland last week with Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, Crown Princess Victoria jumped straight into official duties on June 2nd.

She presented the 2009 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award at Stockholm’s Concert Hall. The literary award, presented annually, this year went to the Tamer Institute for Community Education in Palestine. The Crown Princess presented the award to Arham A Damen Maraqa and Renad Qubbaj on behalf of the Tamer Institute for Community Education, who will take home a cheque for $5 million SEK to go towards the Institute.

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) was started in 2002 by the Swedish government in honor of Astrid Lindgren, a Swedish childrens book author who had died that year at age 94, and is administered by the Swedish Arts Council. The award may be presented to writers, illustrators, narrators and/or promoters of reading. The aim of ALMA is “increase interest in children’s and young people’s literature, and to promote children’s rights to culture on a global level.” Past winners include Australian author Sonya Hartnett and American author Katherine Paterson.

It was also announced yesterday that Crown Princess Victoria has completed her studies at the Uppsala University. She now holds a Bachelor of Science, with a Major in Peace and Conflict Studies. The degree comes after Victoria studied at the Uppsala University, the University of Stockholm and Yale University in the US.

Click here to read about the ALMA event, and here about Victoria’s degree.

Filed under Sweden
Tagged Awards, Children, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Education, Literacy.