The Opus Prize Foundation, a philanthropic organization affiliated with the Opus Group in Minnetonka, Minnesota, has awarded the fourth annual Opus Prize for faith-based social entrepreneurship to AHADI International Institute for Distance Learning in Tanzania in honor of its founder and director, Brother Constant Goetschalckx.

The $1 million prize honors an unsung humanitarian — either an individual or an organization — whose driving entrepreneurial spirit and abiding faith are aimed at solving persistent, large-scale social problems. The foundation partners with universities, including Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., to enable students to meet and interact with the recipients and learn firsthand about social entrepreneurship.

Goetschalckx, who was born in Belgium, is a member of the Brothers of Charity, which educates refugees from the war-torn countries of Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi who are now living in Tanzania. AHADI provides instruction for twenty-five thousand students per year studying for their high school diplomas as well as postsecondary training for a thousand people via a distance-learning program. Goetschalckx was one of three finalists selected for the award. The others — Rev. John Adams, president of Washington, D.C.-based SOME (So Others Might Eat) and the Homeless People's Federation Philippines, represented by executive director Rev. Norberto Carcellar — will each receive $100,000.

"These social entrepreneurs are transforming the lives of some of the world's most vulnerable and destitute by providing them with education, opportunities, and hope," said Amy Sunderland, principal adviser with the foundation. "They are demonstrating that change is possible."