COLUMBUS, Ohio (November 16, 2002) – The $100,000 Kellogg’s Child
Development Award and the $100,000 Cardinal Health Children’s Care Award
were presented tonight to CINDE founded by Glendon P. Nimnicht, Ed. D.,
of Antioquia, Colombia, and pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton, M.D, of
Boston, Massachusetts, respectively.
The winners were announced at the fifth annual World of Children dinner
in Columbus, Ohio.
The World of Children Awards program
was established in 1998 to recognize those who dedicate their lives to
serving the world’s youngest citizens. Brazelton and CINDE were among
six honorees who were selected from an original pool of 161 nominees
from 27 countries.
The other honorees each received a
$5,000 World of Children cash grant. Three-time heavy weight champion
Muhammad is the Honorary Chairman of the World of Children.
Mr. Ali is honorary chair of the 25-member World of Children
International Advisory Council, which made the final selection of
Brazelton and CINDE. He praised the honorees in written remarks read at
the event by Leon Harris, the emcee for the evening, during the live
televised awards broadcast.
Harris went on to note that this
year’s prizes come at a time when the world’s children are facing a
continuous state of crisis. United Nations’ studies indicate that two
million children die annually as a result of vaccine-preventable
diseases and 34,000 die daily of causes related to poor nutrition.
Meanwhile, more than 128 million children can’t attend school and fully
250 million youngsters between the ages of 5 and 14 are forced to work.
“While some see the problem as insurmountable, tonight’s honorees have
committed their professional skills and personal lives to doing
something about it. For that and so much more we are in their debt,”
Harris said.
CINDE, winner of the $100,000 Kellogg’s Child Development Award, was
cited for “improving the quality of life of those living in poverty in
the U.S., Latin America and Third World countries.”
In 1963, Nimnicht opened the New Nursery School in Greeley Colorado,
with programs serving socially excluded children of Spanish-Indian
descent. The school became a training center for Head Start teachers
and the model for programs that have been adopted by school districts
throughout the United States.
Late in the ‘60s, Nimnicht and his wife, Dr. Marta Arango de Nimnicht,
moved to Colombia where they used their own money to train thousands of
specialists who worked with children throughout Central and South
America. The Nimnichts also founded PROMESA, a community development
project that now serves 7,000 families and is credited with sharply
decreasing infant mortality and helping children stay in school.
“We are extremely pleased to present the first Kellogg’s Child
Development Award to CINDE, whose efforts in education have improved the
lives of thousands of children in the United States and in the nation of
Colombia,” Carlos Gutierrez, Chairman and CEO of Kellogg’s said. “CINDE
has accomplished incredible feats, investing its own resources and
asking nothing in return.”
T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., winner of the $100,000 Cardinal Health
Children’s Care Award, is the author of 30 books and 200 scholarly
papers. He has treated many thousands of pediatric patients, trained
and inspired hundreds of pediatric fellow and delivered thousands of
lectures around the world. His Emmy award-winning television show, What
Every Baby Knows, has reached millions of parents in the U.S. and
abroad.
Among his many important contributions is his Neonatal Behavioral
Assessment Scale, which measures a newborn infant’s capacity to respond
to sights and sounds. His revelation of the newborn’s sensitivity to
light, noises and pain prompted improvements in neonatal intensive care
units, well-baby nurseries and maternity wards worldwide.
Brazelton’s network of 38 Touchpoint Centers provide training to
physicians, nurses, health care professionals and childcare teachers.
The Brazelton Foundation has been established to assure the continuation
and expansion of his work and philosophy.
Few individuals have had such a significant impact on the lives of so
many,” Robert Walter, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cardinal
Health said. “He is more than a doctor whose medical genius has
contributed to the well-being of our children, he is a wise counselor
who has enabled us all to become better parents.”
Other honorees were Luke Hingson from Pennsylvania, whose Brother's
Brother Foundation provides medicine, medical supplies and textbooks to
needy children throughout the world; Henri Landwirth, a Holocaust
survivor who has founded five separate foundations to fund children’s
needs from scholarships to camps for the terminally ill; Dr. Abel Albino
from Argentina who has dedicated his life to preventing childhood
malnutrition; and Sharon Kirkpatrick, Ph.D., a nurse from Missouri, who
has spent more than 25 years establishing health care programs in 12
Third World countries.
World of Children, Inc. (www.worldofchildren.org) is a non-profit
organization whose mission is to recognize the world’s largest voiceless
minority -- its children – and to make children’s issues central to the
future of all societies around the world.
For
more information, contact:
David W. Lippy
President and CEO
World of Children, Inc.
614-939-1533
dlippy@worldofchildren.org
