COLUMBUS, Ohio (November 16, 2002) – The $100,000 Kellogg’s Child Development Award was presented tonight to CINDE founded by Glendon P. Nimnicht, Ed. D. and Dr. Marta Arango de Nimnicht, of Antioquia, Colombia. 

The announcement was made at the fifth annual World of Children dinner in Columbus, Ohio. 

The Kellogg’s Child Development Award, part of the World of Children Award program, is presented to an organization that has made a significant lifetime contribution to children’s futures by greatly improving their opportunities to learn and grow.

The World of Children Awards program was established in 1998 to recognize those who dedicate their lives to serving the world’s youngest citizens. 

Nimnicht was among six honorees at the dinner who were selected from an original pool of 161 nominees from 27 countries.  This year marks the first time two awards were presented.  Founding sponsor Kellogg sponsored the Kellogg’s Child Development Award while Cardinal Health presented the Cardinal Health Children’s Care Award.

Pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton, M.D. received the $100,000 Cardinal Health Children’s Care Award at the event.  The other honorees each received a $5,000 World of Children grant.

Nimnicht received the prize from Kellogg’s Chairman and CEO Carlos Gutierrez, who praised the educator for his 39-year record of achievement in improving the quality of life of children and families living in poverty in the U.S., Latin America and other Third World countries.

“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 Colombia,” Gutierrez said.  “CINDE has accomplished incredible feats, investing its own resources and asking nothing in return.”

Leon Harris, the emcee for the live televised Award’s Show at the World of Children dinner, said 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 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.

Nimnicht, a noted researcher and international consultant, opened a nursery school in Greeley Colorado in 1963, 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 moved to Colombia where they used their own money to train thousands of specialists who today are working with children throughout Central and South America.  The Nimnichts also founded PROMESA in the Colombian state of Choco, a growing community development project that currently serves 7,000 families and is credited with sharply decreasing infant mortality and helping children stay in school.

The Nimnichts’ International Center for Education and Human Development (CINDE) pursues three objectives:  To develop successful educational and health programs for children; to teach people of all social classes how to implement similar programs; and to develop and promote ideas that can improve the condition of young children in Latin America and the world. 
http://gc-al.org.co/
http://www.cinde.org/
http://www.unesco.org/

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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 fellows 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.  He is the creator of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale, which prompted improvements in neonatal intensive care units, well-baby nurseries and maternity wards worldwide.  His network of 38 Touchpoint Centers provide training to physicians, nurses, health care professionals and childcare teachers

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.

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