Juliette Gimon Courage Awards

Announcing the 2026 winners

Center for Girls Foundation in Thailand, Coletivo de Juventudes Guardiões do Bem Viver in Brazil, Espacio Migrante in Mexico, and Similar Ground in Uganda are GFC’s winners of the 2026 Juliette Gimon Courage Awards!

This year’s remarkable winners are  recognized and honored for their dedication to protecting the rights of children and young people. Each of them shows us what courage looks like in action, whether it is standing up to violence and inequality, defending land and identity, protecting migrant rights, or creating safe spaces for children and young people to heal and lead.

About the awards

Juliette possessed a brave and passionate spirit that helped to change hundreds of thousands of young lives. The Courage Awards honor her legacy.

Juliette Gimon, former Board Chair of Global Fund for Children, passed away on February 24, 2018. Global Fund for Children established the Juliette Gimon Fund for Courageous Leadership, a more than $1 million endowment made possible by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and other generous donors.

Annual awards from the fund – the Juliette Gimon Courage Awards – recognize innovative grassroots organizations around the world that are positively impacting children in especially challenging circumstances. Some recipients will have overcome considerable obstacles to pioneer an innovation that transforms circumstances for children and youth. Others will demonstrate the courage of resilience, thriving amid unusual contextual challenges; still others will have leaders who have navigated personal hardship and channeled adversity into their organization’s cause.

Meet our 2026 winners

Read the blog

Center for Girls Foundation – Thailand 

Center for Girls Foundation (CFGF) was founded in 1997 by Nunnaree  Luangmoi. Drawing on her lived experience as a teenage domestic worker, Nunnaree transformed personal adversity into a lifelong commitment to advancing safety,  dignity, and rights for women and children. She trained in social work and began creating spaces where survivors could access counseling, legal support, services, and livelihood opportunities to support their recovery, empowerment,  and self-reliance. What started as a grassroots initiative in a small village in Chiang Rai Province has grown into a multi-district initiative, working in partnership with ethnic minority communities across 102 villages to strengthen protection systems and expand access to services and opportunities.

For CFGF, courage is not an abstract concept; rather, it is a daily reality. Nunnaree and her team have experienced threats and acts of violence and continue to face ongoing risks as a consequence of supporting survivors and intervening in cases of abuse and exploitation. Staff operate in increasingly complex and challenging environments, including rising cases of human trafficking and exploitation linked to criminal networks. In this context, courage means standing alongside women and children despite personal risk, refusing to be silenced in the face of intimidation, and remaining committed to those whose voices are often unheard.

Coletivo de Juventudes Guardiões do Bem Viver – Brazil

Coletivo de Juventudes Guardiões do Bem Viver was formed in response to the social, cultural, and environmental challenges faced by young people in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil. Its origins can be traced to the 2019 Romaria do Bem Viver, a powerful gathering in defense of life, territory, and the forest, which inspired local youth to take a more active role in protecting their traditional ways of life. Living in a territory of around 40,000 people across 155 communities, young people came together in response to growing threats from logging and mining, which continue to endanger their land and livelihoods.

For Guardiões do Bem Viver, courage is lived daily and collectively. It means taking a stand in defense of the forest, the waters, and their ways of life, even in the face of economic pressure and attempts to silence Indigenous and riverine communities. Courage also means choosing to remain in the territory, to value ancestry and identity in contexts where young people are often pushed to leave or abandon their traditions. It is expressed through collective action such as organizing, mobilizing, speaking out against injustice, and building alternatives grounded in local knowledge and care for the land.

Espacio Migrante – Mexico

Espacio Migrante was founded by a group of young women committed to supporting migrants in Tijuana, a Mexican city on the border with the United States that receives hundreds of people who have been deported every day. Growing up in a context shaped by the presence of the border wall and the separation of families, the founders witnessed firsthand the human impact of migration policies. Many had personal or family experiences of migration, and all were deeply connected to the stories of those arriving at the border. Without resources to establish a shelter, they began their work through volunteering, using education, art, and culture as tools for resistance, storytelling, and community building.

For Espacio Migrante, courage is embodied by the migrants themselves. It is seen in the journeys of people who leave everything behind in search of a better life, facing violence, detention, exploitation, and uncertainty along the way. Courage also lives within the organization’s team, many of whom are migrants or refugees themselves and continue to navigate precarity while supporting others.

Similar Ground – Uganda

Similar Ground was founded in 2020 by refugee youth leaders in northern Uganda who wanted children growing up in displacement to have opportunities they themselves had often missed. Having experienced conflict, loss, interrupted education, and years of uncertainty, the founders understood how difficult it could be for children to feel seen, heard, and supported. They created Similar Ground to ensure that children and young people could access safe spaces where they could play, express themselves, build confidence, and shape their own futures.

For Similar Ground, courage is found in showing up every day for children and young people, even in the face of uncertainty and limited resources. As this is a refugee-led organization, many team members share similar experiences with the children they serve. They understand both the challenges of displacement and the importance of being heard. That understanding drives their commitment to creating safe spaces where children can recover from difficult experiences, discover their strengths, and become leaders in their communities. Similar Ground also challenges the idea that refugees are only recipients of aid, demonstrating instead that young refugees can be powerful agents of change.

Global Fund for Children is honored to celebrate and support this year’s Juliette Gimon Courage Award winners. Their stories remind us that courage comes in many forms and that real, lasting change always begins in communities. Congratulations to our winners!

Check out the stories below to learn more about the Courage Awards!