NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Seven changemakers who have dramatically transformed the lives of children around the world will be honored in New York City on November 2 by the World of Children Award (www.worldofchildren.org), the only global recognition and funding non-profit that recognizes individuals who are improving the lives of vulnerable children worldwide.
These extraordinary individuals, who have each pioneered life-changing programs to benefit the world’s most vulnerable children, will be honored with the award that’s been hailed by the media as the “Nobel Prize for children” – an annual honor that includes a cash grant of up to $50,000 for honorees’ programs.
“We are humbled by the efforts undertaken by these amazing people and it is our great pleasure to recognize and reward their work on behalf of the world’s vulnerable children,” said Harry Leibowitz, World of Children Award co-founder and co-chairman.
For 14 years, the World of Children Award has used a rigorous vetting process to identify the world’s most effective child advocates and provide funding for their efforts to improve children’s lives. The organization’s exhaustive research and vetting of individuals spearheading health and humanitarian initiatives across the global spectrum has been hailed by leading philanthropic organizations.
“World of Children honorees are compelling reminders that one person has tremendous power to positively impact society,” said actress Stephanie March, World of Children Award’s Celebrity Ambassador. “These fine honorees have committed their entire lives to helping the world's most vulnerable children through ingenious and effective solutions that cannot and should not be ignored."
The World of Children Award is led by co-founders Harry Leibowitz and Kay Isaacson-Leibowitz, retired senior executives from Procter & Gamble and Victoria’s Secret, whose dream is to bestow a Nobel Prize-like award to honor individuals who dramatically improve vulnerable children’s lives. Since 1998, the World of Children Award has granted more than $4.3 million in cash grants and program support to 90 honorees who are the driving force behind programs serving children in more than 100 countries.
The 2011 World of Children Award Winners are:
Health Award: Dr. Ashok Banskota, Age 63, Kathmandu, Nepal
Founder,
Hospital
and Rehabilitation Center for Disabled Children (www.hrdcnepal.org)
Dr.
Ashok Banskota has dedicated a lifetime of service to Nepal’s most
disadvantaged children, spending the past several decades volunteering
his time and talents to provide more than 43,000 poor, disabled children
with life-changing medical care. After training and earning his board
certification in New York, Dr. Banskota returned to Nepal and was
shocked by his country’s lack of medical resources for the poor. In
1984, Dr. Banskota started a small program to help poor children with
disabilities and has since grown it into what is now the Hospital
and Rehabilitation Center for Disabled Children, a
world-class center that provides surgery and rehabilitation for disabled
Nepalese children who would otherwise be ostracized by society or even
sold to circuses to live a short life of humiliation. HRDC treats
children under seventeen for issues ranging from club feet, to burns to
tuberculosis of the spine.
Humanitarian Award: Denisse
Pichardo, Age 65, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Founder,
Caminante Proyecto Educativo (www.worldofchildren.org/index.php/honorees/293)
When
Denisse
Pichardo was asked in 1994 to study the issue of sexual tourism and
children working in the streets in the municipality of Boca Chica,
Dominican Republic she was moved to action by what she saw: foreign
tourists coming and going with local children, especially young girls,
and extremely poor families forced to give or sell their children to
preying tourists. To help, she established Caminante
Proyecto Educativo (Caminante Educational Project), a nonprofit
dedicated to empowering the most vulnerable youth in the sex tourism
center of Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, as well as in neighboring
Haiti and beyond. To date, Denisse’s nonprofit has changed the lives of
nearly 13,000 youth affected by sex tourism – preventing the sexual
exploitation of children, reducing violence in their communities and
rescuing and healing youth affected by prostitution and other traumas.
Youth Award: Tatiana Grossman, Age 16, Palto Alto, California
Founder,
Spread the Words (www.spreadthewords.us)
When
Tatiana
Grossman learned at age 12 that 75 percent of children in some
African countries could not read and lacked access to books, she
immediately took action – leading a solo book drive on the lawn of her
community’s children’s library and collecting thousands of books that
now serve 62 schools and villages in Botswana and Lesotho. Fueled by her
initial success, she founded a nonprofit organization, Spread
the Words, to increase early literacy around the world by
helping children create school libraries in impoverished communities,
support the libraries they've started, and bring digital curriculum,
textbooks and resources to schools that need them. Today, Tatiana and
Spread the Words have already established libraries serving 80 African
villages and primary schools where before there were none. Now she’s
consulting with Microsoft engineers to provide African classrooms with
the latest in digital teaching materials and free digital textbooks.
Youth Award: Neha Gupta, Age 15, Yardley, Pennsylvania
Founder,
Empower Orphans (www.empowerorphans.org)
Neha
Gupta began volunteering in orphanages while visiting her
grandparents in India when she was only nine years old. Realizing these
orphans were neither receiving a proper education nor the love and
guidance of a parent, she was moved to do more and founded Empower
Orphans, which strives to help orphaned and
underprivileged children gain a basic education and become productive
members of society. Since then, all volunteer-run Empower Orphans has
served more than 10,000 orphans in India and the United States by
establishing health clinics, libraries, computer labs and sewing centers
and providing them with food, schooling, books, bicycles, clothing and
other basic life necessities. Neha has also motivated her peers to
follow suit by developing teams of youth volunteers in the USA, UK,
Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and India and will soon expand Empower
Orphans to Africa and other Asian countries in the coming year.
Youth Award: Luke Lancaster, Age 16, East Sussex, UK
Founder,
The Young Pioneers (www.youngpioneers.org)
Crowhurst,
East Sussex teen Luke
Lancaster founded his organization, Young
Pioneers, at age 12 after being continuously bullied at school. This
experience led him to notice that many other students were like him –
struggling to succeed in school and life, and yet still wanting to make
a positive difference in the world. Inspired to find a solution, Luke
created a youth-led organization whose goal is to “make it cool to
care.” Young Pioneers’ research found that 83 percent of young people
today would rather ask a friend for advice than an adult, parent or
teacher. In response, Young Pioneers has created a training program to
equip young people with the tools and abilities necessary to overcome
adversity and lead change. Luke’s international education training
program, “Tomorrows Leaders,” is identifying and developing young people
around the world to be a catalyst for change in their own lives, as well
as in their schools and communities. The Young Pioneers is now building
on its success by expanding from the UK into France, Germany, the
Netherlands and the U.S.
Advocacy Award: Laura & Harry Slatkin, New York, NY
Co-founders,
New York Center for Autism (www.nyc4a.org)
The
World of Children Award’s Board of Governors will also bestow a
non-monetary World of Children Advocacy Award to Laura and Harry Slatkin
for their extraordinary efforts to improve children’s health through the
New York Center for Autism (NYCA), which they co-founded. Their own
family story inspired them to open the center in 1999 as a tripartite
organization dedicated to autism education, community outreach and
biomedical research. Laura and Harry have also launched consortiums of
national, regional and local autism organizations to advance a new
national agenda for autism advocacy and research. In addition to their
tremendous dedication to children and autism, the Slatkins are
successful entrepreneurs – with Laura serving as CEO of NEST Fragrances
and Harry leading Belstaff as CEO.
ABOUT THE WORLD OF CHILDREN AWARD
The World of Children Award (www.worldofchildren.org) is the only global recognition and funding program for people specifically and exclusively serving the needs of children. Now a 14-year-old philanthropy dedicated to identifying and leveraging the efforts of those working on the ground to improve children’s lives, the World of Children Award has recognized some of the most effective child advocates worldwide and provided funding and visibility for their efforts.
Hailed as the Nobel Prize for Child Advocates, the World of Children Award program sets the Gold Standard for child advocates, recognizing only the finest life-changing programs serving vulnerable children. The World of Children Award employs a world-class research, review, vetting and selection process led by a committee of independent experts and professionals to find those individuals who are pioneering life-changing programs to benefit children. Then World of Children Award invests, through cash grants, in those individuals with a demonstrated track record of success, honors them at an annual Awards ceremony in New York City and helps them leverage their World of Children Award recognition to raise additional funds and generate visibility and strategic partnerships for their programs. Leading philanthropies praise this organization’s extensive worldwide research and vetting of extraordinary individuals who are spearheading health and humanitarian programs. The World of Children Award has awarded more than $4.3 million in cash grants and program support to assist 90 changemakers for children working in over 100 countries.