The European Union (EU) has decided to put all of the money it won for the Nobel Peace Prize towards projects that help children in war zones.
The EU includes 27 countries* in Europe that are closely tied in business and politics.
The EU was awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts in keeping the peace in Europe for more than 65 years.
The Peace Prize is a very prestigious honour; the winner receives a medal and eight million Swedish kronor—about $1.18 million.
That money will be put towards projects that help children who live in areas of the world that are experiencing conflict or war.
“Children are the future of any society and at the same time the most vulnerable,” the European Commission said in a statement about the prize money.
What those projects will be, and how the money will be divided, will be decided in the next few weeks.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded on Dec. 10 in a ceremony in Oslo, the capital of Norway.
The Nobel Peace Prize is usually awarded to a person. The last time it was given to an organization was in 1999, when it was awarded to Medecins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders), an organization that gives medical assistance in remote and war-torn regions of the world.
Related link
TKN article about the EU winning the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.
*More about the EU
The European Union comprises 27 countries**: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
**or, more specifically “sovereign member states” since not every member is a “country”—for instance, the United Kingdom comprises England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Seventeen of the countries in the EU use the same currency, the “euro.” The unofficial capital of the European Union is Brussels, in Belgium.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
What do you think it means to be in a “war zone”? What do you think children living in such circumstances would need?
Where do you think the EU will give the prize money?
Reading Prompt: Extending Understanding
The Nobel Peace Prize money is given in Swedish kronor. The “krona” is the currency of Sweden. (“Kronor” is plural for “krona.” One krona, many kronor.)
Use reference materials to find out what currencies are used in these countries:
Japan
China
Canada
India
The Seychelles
Antarctica
The European Union
England
Brazil
South Africa
Calculate how much of each currency would be awarded if the Nobel Prize is worth approximately 1.18 million Canadian or U.S. dollars.
Note: The symbol $ means “dollar”–for instance, Canadian or U.S. dollars. Note that some currencies, including the Swedish krona, do not use pictoral symbols (although the shortform kr is used).
Junior
Extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Intermediate
Extend understanding of texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Grammar Feature: Plural nouns
When a noun is plural, the letter ‘s’ is often added to the end of the word. This, however, is not always the case.
Read through the article and circle all of the nouns that are plural. How many of these circled nouns were made plural by the journalist added an ‘s’ on the end of the word?
How many don’ t follow this rule? Which rule do they follow?
Update: Several references to the “Swedish krona” have been corrected.
