WHAT’S BEING CLAIMED:
- In 2020, a man won a $217 million lottery prize in France.
- According to a French newspaper, the man donated his winnings to charity.
- He also established a foundation to protect the environment.
In France, a man who won a $217 million lottery prize donated a large portion of his winnings to charity.
According to the French newspaper Le Parisien, the individual, who has remained unknown but has been given the pseudonym “Guy,” has donated the majority of his winnings to establish a philanthropic foundation supporting global environmental conservation.
He won the lottery in December 2020. Following that, the jackpot winner has 120 days to claim his or her prize.
In 2020, the man, identified as a retiree living in the south of France by the French daily The Connexion, announced plans to donate a portion of his prize to hospitals.
“Seeing the happy people around me is the greatest reward. When the money falls from the sky, something must be done with it to help those who are not so lucky. Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense,” the lottery winner was reported saying, per The Connexion.
After two years, the man has donated the majority of his winnings to the Anyama foundation, which he established to protect the environment. It is named after a city in the Ivory Coast, where the lottery winner is thought to have resided.
In an open letter on the foundation’s website, the man wrote:
“The Anyama endowment fund is the result of an imperious desire to act for nature and human beings that I have had for years. Above all, it is the expression of a conviction that I want to share with as many people as possible: giving makes people happy, and constitutes a tremendous lever for transforming indignation into concrete and useful actions. “
According to the man, he only played during big jackpots with the intention of donating the majority of the money to a charity.
The majority of the funds will be utilized to prevent logging, maintain and restore forests, and restore biodiversity in the region, according to the man.
He claimed that he had seen trucks loaded with trees chopped from Burkina Faso’s woods pass by incessantly in Ivory Coast throughout his life. This truck ballet had a big impact on him, and it enraged him.
La Française des Jeux (FDJ), the public company that handles lotteries in France, has verified the man’s donation to the foundation.
Some of the money from the prize was used to make the people dearest to him happy. In December 2020, the lottery winner stated that he will use some of the money to buy a new car for his daughter and help relatives in need.
But his way of life hasn’t changed much as a result of his winning. The man stated he hoped to “continue to live peacefully, in the most total discretion”, in the same open letter in which he announced the foundation of the Anyama Foundation.
He won the lotto with the numbers 6, 9, 13, 24, and 41. Three and 12 were his lucky numbers.
The jackpot was the highest-ever won in France at the time of his win in 2020. The previous record for the largest EuroMillions lottery win was $206 million, which was most recently won in 2019.
One lucky winner took home $239 million in October 2021, making it France’s largest lottery win ever.
Source: Newsweek
george
April 23, 2022 at 11:44 am
hello, here i am, how about some cash for me too.
Rattlerjake
November 18, 2022 at 12:31 pm
Giving to a charity, including churches, is an absolute waste because most charities squander the money on administrative costs, and bonuses for the CEO, and very little actually is spent on people in need. Hopefully this man does some research before handing it to ANY charity. Same goes for the foundation he “created” which will likely squander most of the money – how will he know that any of it is going to what he wants it to go to?
The best thing he could do is, each month, buy a thousand pre=paid credit cards worth $500 each and hire people he KNOWS, even relatives, who are responsible, to distribute to those in need. Visit nursing homes, hospitals, etc. Find a couple of good dentists who will devote one day a month to fixing teeth for poor people for a reasonable fee. Do things for people that help them in the long run not that will support a habit for the short term.