Over seven million children from 101 countries voted Nelson Mandela and his wife Graca Machel as "Decade Child Rights Heroes", Press TV reported.
The World's Children's Prize foundation, based in Sweden, announced on Friday that 7,136,222 children from 53,000 schools throughout the world elected the former South African president and his wife among 13 candidates as their heroes.
All of the nominees had previously won the annual World's Children's Prize which is organized by The World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child (WCPRC) -- the world's largest educational program promoting young people's rights.
Mandela and Machel, who married in 1998, had jointly won the same prize in 2005.
Mandela, 91, was praised for his life long struggle for equal rights for the children of South Africa while Machel, 64, was honored for her 25-year fight for the rights of vulnerable children in Mozambique, a foundation statement said.
Of the total prize amount of 1.1 million Swedish kronor (107,000 euros, 158,000 dollars), 500,000 will be awarded to Mandela and Machel. The rest will be split among the other candidates.
The prize will be handed out by children on April 26, 2010, in a ceremony at Stockholm.
Mandela, wife voted 'heroes' by world children
