NEW HAVEN, Conn., Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Yale University senior Sarah Stillman donated the $5,000 literary prize she won from the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity to Hurricane Katrina victims.
Stillman had planned to use the money to back the feminist journal she founded and support anti-sweatshop causes, but said hurricane relief is a far more "urgent cause."
"I think that's why Elie Wiesel is such an incredible example to all of us," Stillman told USA Today.
"We're all trapped in this paradox. We alone can't save the entire traumatic situation, but we each have the obligation to do what we can with the resources we have at our disposal," Stillman said.
Wiesel, who survived Nazi death camps in World War II, went on to become a widely published author and philanthropist. He is known for his statement that "to remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all."
Stillman won the Wiesel Foundation award for her essay, "Made by Us: Young Women, Sweatshops, and the Ethics of Globalization."
