Winners of the 2009 World of Children Award to be honored

Six changemakers who have dramatically improved children’s lives will be showcased on November 5 by World of Children (www.worldofchildren.org), the only global recognition and funding non-profit that recognizes individuals who are changing the lives of children around the world.

The extraordinary individuals who have pioneered life-changing programs to benefit children, each will be honored with the award that’s been recently hailed in the press as the “Nobel Prize® for Children,” an annual honor that includes a cash grant of up to $50,000 for the honoree’s program. The 2009 World of Children Award winners will be honored at the 12^th annual World of Children Awards ceremony on Thursday, November 5, at UNICEF House in New York City.

“The world needs changemakers for children now more than ever, and World of Children is deeply honored to support these extraordinary individuals in their important efforts to improve children’s lives,” said Harry Leibowitz, World of Children’s founder and chairman.

For more than a decade, World of Children has identified and vetted some of the most promising changemakers for children worldwide and provided funding for their efforts to improve children’s lives. Since 1998, World of Children has awarded more than $2 million in cash grants to 84 changemakers working in more than 50 countries and 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.

The 2009 World of Children honorees are:

2009 Humanitarian Award: Douglas Maclagan, Child Welfare Scheme (Nepal)

At age 28, a distraught mother desperate for help handed Douglas Maclagan her dying baby girl. Overcome and inspired, Douglas committed himself to helping the children of Nepal. Together with villagers he recruited to help, Douglas set up his first two Day Care Health Centers in 1995 and saw an immediate drop in the region’s infant mortality rate. He established Child Welfare Scheme/Nepal in 1997 and now runs highly sustainable programs with 190 physicians, nurses, social workers, educators and support staff that serve more than 40,000 children each year, providing education, healthcare and social opportunities for disadvantaged children despite the local corruption and political instability. Douglas has actively sheltered children from police beatings, insurgent raids, and recruitment from Nepalese brothels and will soon provide even more vital services to thousands of disadvantaged children through fourteen new local partners, including the Nepalese government.

2009 Humanitarian Award: Sam Kateu, Kavule Parents School for the Deaf (Uganda)

Sam Kateu believes that deaf children in Uganda will certainly face a life without hope if they do not receive an education. With unending determination, Sam established a school to ensure that deaf children have the full role in society they deserve. The program that started in his home with 8 deaf children in Uganda in 1998 has now developed into the Kavule Parents School for the Deaf, a boarding school that houses and educates 60 deaf children annually. The school reduces illiteracy among deaf children and empowers them economically, even as they struggle with harsh circumstances. Despite the profound difficulties inherent in organizing a sustainable boarding school in rural Uganda, Sam provides a quality education, safe living conditions, adequate nourishment and medical care to children from desperately poor circumstances. Rather than retiring from life after a serious accident in which he lost his leg 20 years ago, Sam has dedicated his life to having a profound and positive effect on children in need.

2009 Founder’s Youth Award: Jessica Rose Markowitz, Richard’s Rwanda (Seattle, WA)

Only 14 years old, Jessica Markowitz has already traveled to Rwanda three times and has been deeply affected by the tales of genocide she has heard from children in the community. To help, she created Richard’s Rwanda to ensure Rwandan girls receive the education they need and deserve. To empower other students to grow Richard’s Rwanda and develop their leadership skills, Jessica recently designed a tool kit for girls who are interested in starting their own chapter of Richard’s Rwanda in their own communities, and chapters are now launching throughout Rwanda, as well as in Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Jessica’s hometown of Seattle, Washington. World of Children funds will be designated to establish a World of Children Library, so the Rwandan girls can be served for generations to come.

2009 Founder’s Youth Award: Ashlee Smith, Ashlee’s Toy Closet (Reno, NV)

Ashlee learned firsthand how hard it is to be a child who loses everything when she lost her family home to a fire at age six. After her firefighter father battled a Lake Tahoe fire that destroyed more than two hundred homes, Ashlee decided to take action and create Ashlee’s Toy Closet. At just eight years old she established the nonprofit organization, which now collects, distributes and donates toys all over the country to children affected by natural disasters, fires, floods or harsh economic conditions. Ashlee partners with local fire departments, police, and ambulances to supply them with stuffed animals for scared or injured children, donates stuffed animals to the local Special Kids Rodeo for physically and mentally challenged children, provides local foster families with toys in her Reno, Nevada community, and “adopts” hundreds of children and families during Christmas time. Now ten years old, Ashlee is becoming a well-known young leader for actively engaging in what she calls “turning kids’ frowns upside down!”

2009 Lifetime Achievement Award – Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

World of Children’s Board of Governors will also bestow a non-monetary Lifetime Achievement Award to the Pulitzer Prize-winning team of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, who have dedicated their lives to elevating the issue of violence against children and families to national and international prominence. They have recently co-authored a book about social changemaking entitled, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

http://www.worldofchildren.org/