The Global Youth Award ceremony, sponsored by Taiwan’s Changhua Senior High School, will be held next Tuesday.
This is the first time that the school has set up the award for distinguished youths.
This year’s five winners were barely 18 when they began campaigning for various causes such as gender equality and women’s rights.
The five winners include four foreign nationals and a Taiwanese student who launched a campaign against the government’s history curriculum guidelines earlier this year.
Three other recipients, an Icelandic pioneer of the Free the Nipple movement, a children's rights activist from Tanzania, and a women’s rights activist from Malawi, have already arrived in Taiwan. Another women’s rights activist from Syria is unable to receive the prize in person because of visa problems.
During their stay in Taiwan, award recipients will raise funds for the construction of a dam in Africa.