May 17, 2022

For her 14 year journey in lived expertise and advocacy work, along with her role as the community empowerment manager at Hunger Free America, Barbie has won the 2022 Global Citizen Prize: Citizen Award USA, which will provide her with support over the next year.

The Global Citizen Prize 2022 recognizes people who are defending the Planet, defeating poverty, and demanding Equity, with a focus on climate change, empowering adolescent girls, and breaking down systemic barriers that keep people in poverty.

In 2008, Chilton invited Barbie to be part of a new group at Drexel called Witnesses to Hunger, which would seek to influence policy discussions in Washington with first-hand testimonials of people living in poverty.

“All too often, policies and programs are created without the participation of the people who are most affected,” Witnesses to Hunger says in a statement on its website. “The true experts on maternal and child health and poverty are the mothers of young children. These moms focus their lenses on their children, on their neighborhoods, on their daily grinds at work and on welfare. They are teachers with valuable lessons to impart. Each of us is invited to look and listen for their guidance.”

Barbie received a camera to document her life and participated in monthly meetings with other mothers who faced similar challenges: domestic violence, homelessness, not being able to pay bills, emergency utility assistance, and more.

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