Zimbabwe

Paradies Stiftung honours lifetime achievement of Prof. Ruedi Lüthy

The Zurich-based foundation Paradies Stiftung presented its prize for social innovation for the fourth time on 30 November, the award going to Ruedi Lüthy in recognition of his life’s work. The CHF 120,000 prize money will go to the Swiss Aids Care International foundation.

President Urs Lauffer with Prof. Ruedi Lüthy. (Photo: Markus Senn)

Swiss parliamentarian Felix Gutzwiller, a specialist in preventative medicine and a member of the Patronage Committee of Swiss Aids Care International, paid the following tribute to Prof. Ruedi Lüthy: “Ruedi Lüthy can look back on an unparalleled career in the service of medicine. This has taken him from acute medicine (as the founder of the Division of Infectious Diseases at University Hospital Zurich) to palliative care (developing the Zurich Lighthouse hospice) to his selfless and effective commitment to tackling AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.” A further aspect highlighted in particular at the award ceremony was the planning of the handover to the next generation in the running of Newlands Clinic, with Matthias Widmaier being appointed as Country Director in December 2014.

Innovative solutions in the social sector

The Paradies Stiftung was set up in autumn 2008 by the Zurich-based corporate consultant and FDP politician Urs Lauffer. The foundation, which has an organisation capital of over CHF 2 million, seeks to promote innovative solutions in the social sector. Every two years, it presents one or more awards in recognition of efforts in this field, with prize money totalling CHF 150,000. At this year’s ceremony, the Paradies Stiftung also presented a recognition award of CHF 30,000 to the Swiss AIDS Federation for their current preventative projects.

The  Board of Trustees and the teams at Swiss Aids Care International and Newlands Clinic would like to congratulate Ruedi Lüthy on this latest award, and thank him from all their hearts for his outstanding commitment!

For further information, please visit www.paradies-stiftung.ch