Visayan Forum’s Cecilia Oebanda with the rest of her fellow Board Members of the World Children’s Prize, and 2014 World Children’s Prize Awardee (Child’s Rights Hero), Malala Yousafzai, at the Awarding Ceremony at Gripsholms Castle, Mariefred, Sweden on 29 October 2014.
Stockholm, SWEDEN – Historic double honors for Human Rights Activist, Malala Yousafzai. Already the youngest Nobel Prize Laureate, over 1.6 Million children around the world named Malala their 2014 Child’s Rights Hero. The award is considered to be the ‘Children’s Nobel Prize’. So far, only the iconic Nelson Mandela has won both awards.
Undeterred even when Taliban forces tried to stop her with a bullet shot through her head in 2012, Malala continues to champion children’s rights, especially girl rights to education, in Pakistan. Speaking at a United Nations Summit in 2013, she said “one child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world.”
World Children’s Prize Laureates will also be awarded to nominees John Wood of the United Sates and Indira Ramanagar of Nepal. John Wood founded Room to Read, an organization that brings education to underprivileged children by building schools and libraries around the world. Indira Ramanagar and her organization, Prisoners Assistance Nepal, rescues children born in prison and gives them the chance to live a better and empowered childhood.
HRM Queen Sylvia of Sweden and Prime Minister Stefan Löfven graced the awarding ceremony at Gripsholms Castle in Mariefred, Sweden on October 29, 2014.
The World’s Children’s Prize is the world’s largest annual education program on children’s rights and democracy. Almost 60,000 schools worldwide participate as Global Friend Schools, educating over 36 million children thus far. Apart from child’s rights education, participating children are given the chance to learn and experience democracy by voting for their Child’s Rights Hero. This empowers and inspires children to claim and exercise their rights.
The program is concluded with the awarding of the Child’s Rights Hero. Annually, three (3) Nominees are selected by a Jury of fifteen (15) children from different countries, who are then voted for by children across the globe participating in the program. The Philippines is represented in the Jury by iFIGHT Ambassador Mae, an Anti-Trafficking Advocate of Visayan Forum.
In the Philippines, since 2011, Visayan Forum Foundation, Inc.(VF) leads the World Children’s Prize Program. This year alone, VF was able to partner with 58 schools and communities across the country to educate over 32,000 children.
Visayan Forum’s Founder and President, Ma. Cecilia Flores – Oebanda was a World Children’s Prize Honorary Awardee in 2011. She now serves as a Member of the Board for the World Children’s Prize Foundation. WCP Patrons include Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Xanana Gusmão, HRM Queen Silvia of Sweden, Graça Machel and Desmond Tutu.
For inquiries, please contact Visayan Forum at (02) 709 0711 or [email protected].