LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
June Connolly (2010-11)
June Connolly was born in Dublin, Ireland and completed education in the U.K. She is a writer and a poet. She began volunteering for various causes since early childhood and grew up in post war Ireland and England facing many hardships. She has worked with social health helping run both a home for orphans as well as for alcoholics. She is an animal lover. After retirement she trained with the Woodgreen animal Shelter, U.K. and returned to India where she was supervising and monitoring care for countless animals that were sick, injured and abused from the streets. She can be seen feeding stray dogs on the streets, counseling people on how to care for their pets or solving animal related problems in the community. There are even times where she can be seen fighting for the rights of animals with overloaded bullock carts drivers at busy traffic lights. She is an inspiration for an individual who is 74 years and has dedicated her life to the welfare of the society.
Kumi Naidoo (2010-11)
Kumi Naidoo is the Greenpeace International Executive Director. He was born in South Africa and became involved in his country's liberation struggle at the age of 15. He was very active in neighbourhood organization, youth work and mass mobilizations against the apartheid regime. In 1990, Kumi returned to South Africa from England to work on the legalization of the African National Congress and directed the training of all electoral staff in the country. Kumi became the founding executive director of the South African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO), an umbrella agency for the South African NGO community and organized the National Men's March Against Violence on Women and Children in 1997. Kumi was involved with the World Alliance for Citizen Participation, which is dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world. He was the founding Chair of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), served as Chair of the civil society alliance 'Global Campaign for Climate Action' (GCCA) and also served as a board member of the Association for Women's Rights in Development.
Loralee Martha-Mae Lee (2010-11)
Loralee Martha-Mae Lee and David John Lee are residents of France. Loralee has written a book on their family story named 'Three Indian Orphans Touched by Destiny' which is a very inspirational story. This book highlights how international adoption brings human beings together across national boundaries. Through this, they wanted to show that the barriers to adoption are psychological and institutional, and that "being an international adoptive family" is really just being a family. This very global Canadian/British couple adopted three Indian orphans who have today become international Indians and true citizens of the world. Adopting a child is very clearly a citizen action, impacting only a few lives but doing so profoundly. On the global scale there are so many children needing adoption and so many childless parents yearning to adopt. They feel that if they could adopt a hundred children, they would. They believe that more than leaving things to governments and high profile charities, individual citizen actions can have far more powerful impact, not just on individual lives but on the relationship between nations and cultures.
David John Lee (2010-11)
David John Lee and Loralee Martha-Mae Lee are residents of France. This very global Canadian/British couple adopted three Indian orphans who have today become international Indians and true citizens of the world. Adopting a child is very clearly a citizen action, impacting only a few lives but doing so profoundly. On the global scale there are so many children needing adoption and so many childless parents yearning to adopt. They feel that if they could adopt a hundred children, they would. They believe that more than leaving things to governments and high profile charities, individual citizen actions can have far more powerful impact, not just on individual lives but on the relationship between nations and cultures. Loralee has written a book on their family story named 'Three Indian Orphans Touched by Destiny' which is a very inspirational story. This book highlights how international adoption brings human beings together across national boundaries. Through this, they wanted to show that the barriers to adoption are psychological and institutional, and that "being an international adoptive family" is really just being a family.
Jitman Basnet (2009-10)
Jit Man Basnet is a prominent Human Rights activist in Nepal. He is presently working for Lawyers Forum for Human Rights as their General Secretary. Mr.Jit Man Basnet has never hesitated in even putting his life at risk for his work. He was abducted by Maoists in 2002 and arrested by Royal Nepal Army in 2004 but that was never a hindrance to what he believes in and works for. He has continuously worked towards creating awareness about human rights and civil rights and has always stood and raised his voice against social injustice. In his campaign against impunity and for justice, he even went on Hunger Strike for victims. He believes that social justice is for human beings and that it is our responsibility to preserve justice in the society.
Claudia Ciesla (2009-10)
Claudia Ciesla is a German supermodel who has featured as a face for big names like Mercedes, CULT Magazine (Italy), Oktoberfest Munich, Times of India, The Telegraph (India) and many others. She certainly believes in multi tasking as she possesses various talents like singing, dancing, sports, athletics, music and martial arts. She was awarded the Brand Ambassadorship of Lovely Professional University. Apart from being a successful model, she is a person with a humane heart, who feels very strongly about social causes. Claudia is majorly supports Khushii (Kinship for Humanitarian, Social and Holistic Intervention in India), which is a national organization working for the enlistment of poor and destitute communities in both rural and urban areas in India.
Princess Francoise (2009-10)
Her highness, Princess Francoise is currently the CEO for the Heart for India Foundation – a foundation that feeds 1300 children everyday at a school for the poor at Namangalam, close to Chennai. The work at Namangalam School has progressed, with many projects and its success has seen it officially listed by the Government of Tamil Nadu as a “Model School” for India. Not just this, Namangalam School has now become an inspiration for the other schools of similar nature. From providing the basic amenities to children to improve their education standards, her organization has constantly worked towards supporting them. She has devised numerous charity projects under her Association of the friends of Romania that provides housing facilities for the orphaned and elderly. Along with her husband, she is now working towards supporting her charity and creative projects involving films, music and television.Lindsay Levin (2009-10)
Lindsay is founder and Managing Partner of Leaders' Quest and founder and Trustee of the Leaders’ Quest Foundation. Lindsay's long-standing interest in the impact of inspirational leadership, combined with her passion for development issues and for bringing together leaders from different disciplines and perspectives, led her to found Leaders' Quest in 2001. This foundation has a core mission to act as a catalyst for positive change in the world by inspiring, developing and connecting leaders who want to make a difference in their organisations, communities and the wider world. By working at grassroots level with global leaders, she endeavors to enable positive change in disadvantaged communities through innovative, transformative and action-oriented leadership development programmes. It exists to improve the quality of leadership and the way in which leaders have impact. Lindsay has a keen interest in international development; she is an active supporter of several NGOs including Oxfam, Action aid and a number of Community Based Organizations in Asia and Africa. Lindsay is also a Trustee of NEF (the New Economics Foundation) a “think-and-do tank” working on issues of social justice, environmental sustainability and collective well-being.