World Tour - Malaysian school wins Hope Award grand prize

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour with Africa reporter Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Chile votes for new constitution—We start today in South America.

AUDIO: [Singing, whistling, sounds of celebration]

Voters in Chile celebrated Sunday after approving a referendum to rewrite the country’s constitution. The current document dates back to the nearly two-decade long dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

PINERA: [Speaking Spanish]

After the vote, President Sebastian Pinera said a new constitution would help unite the country.

Calls for change began last year with a mass protest that drew more than 1 million people into the streets of downtown Santiago. Proposals for the new constitution include expanding the role of government in social services like welfare. It would also create entitlements to healthcare, education, water distribution, and pensions.

Conservatives oppose the changes. They say expanding the government’s role will put the brakes on decades of economic growth and stability.

Turkey leads Muslim countries against France—Next we go to Turkey.

ERDOGAN: [Speaking Turkish]

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined calls Monday for a Muslim boycott of French goods. That after French President Emmanuel Macron defended the right to mock religion, including Islam.

Macron spoke out after a Muslim extremist from Chechnya beheaded a French history teacher who showed cartoons of Mohammed to his students. Macron’s remarks in support of free speech sparked protests throughout the Middle East.

Stores in Qatar, Kuwait, and other Gulf states have already pulled French goods from their shelves. Protesters in Syria burned pictures of Macron, while angry Libyans burned French flags in the streets of Tripoli.

U.S. officials visit India—Next, to India.

AUDIO: [Sound of plane, cameras clicking]

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper arrived in India on Monday. The visit is part of a four-country tour of Asia.

During two days in New Delhi, U.S. officials hope to sign an agreement on intelligence sharing. It will pave the way for India to buy U.S. missile technology.

The tour is designed to counter China’s influence in the region. Pompeo will make stops in Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Indonesia before returning to Washington.

Hope Awards winner announced—And finally, we end today in Malaysia.

WORLD listeners and readers have selected ElShaddai Refugee Learning Center as the 2020 Hope Awards grand prize winner.

The Christian school educates immigrant children from mostly Muslim countries who cannot attend Malaysian schools.

Ng Oi Leng is the school’s education director.

NG OI LENG: We really want to see transformation. So it’s a long term investment how to transform nations through education, love, and the things we sow into their lives.

The school started in 2008 with 22 students. It now has 14-hundred students in 11 different locations. As the Hope Awards grand prize winner, ElShaddai will receive $10,000 dollars to help continue its work.

That’s this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

(AP Photo/Esteban Felix) An electoral official holds ballots at a polling station in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020. 

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.