Sarah is an English-Greek interpreter and has been a member of METAdrasi’s team for quite some years. A dear colleague, she shared everybody’s joy for METAdrasi receiving the Conrad N. Hilton Prize 2019. Her excitement grew even more when she heard that one of her favorite authors, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, would be participating in the award ceremony in Los Angeles! Knowing Sara’s wish, METAdrasi’s president Lora Pappa got two of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s most well known books, “Americanah” and “Purple Hibiscus” and asked her to sign them, with personal dedications to Sarah.

On the day of the event, the award-winning author began her speach by saying that she was glad for the distinction of an Organization that covers the need for interpretation, which enables people to tell their story in their own language, something extremely important. She concluded saying that “especially today that is politically fraught, we must seek the higher ground of multiple stories as a rebuke to despair. We cannot afford despair; we cannot afford hopelessness; we cannot afford cynicism; we cannot afford the defeat of the human spirit; we cannot lose sight of the enduring importance of compassion and kindness.”

Photo courtesy of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.