A scholarship fund at a Philadelphia university. A cultural network stretching from Buenos Aires to southern Italy. Entrepreneurial mentoring for young people who might otherwise leave and never look back. These are not promises from a government program. They are pledges from the 2026 winners of the Premio Mondi Lucani, an award that asks its recipients not just what they have achieved, but what they intend to do next.
The prize, now in its eighth edition and organized by the association Mondi Lucani APS, honors descendants of Basilicata’s emigrants who built careers abroad. Winners were named at Matera’s town hall on July 22 and formally presented their commitments on Aug. 7. The organizers call the principle of giving back – or restituzione in Italian – and it is the point of the whole exercise.
