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Catalina cares for teenage mothers and their children, providing medical care, emotional support and vocational skills training.

Gregory rescues children from the dangerous streets of São Paulo, providing shelter and educational opportunities.

Mead’s program provides prosthetic limbs and treatment for children with missing or deformed arms and legs.

JOHN DREXEL 1998 HUMANITARIAN AWARD Maria Helen Drexel Association Brazil John Drexel has spent decades working on behalf of the 600,000 children living in the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 1973, he founded the Maria Helen Drexel Association, a non-profit organization that addresses the problems of abandoned children. The association places abandoned children in…

Wasson dedicated more than 45 years of his life to serving orphaned and abandoned children in Mexico and Central America.

ABEL PASCUAL ALBINO 2002 HEALTH AWARD Cooperative for the Infantile Nutrition Argentina As a father of five daughters and a medical doctor for more than 30 years, Abel Albino, M.D., knows the importance of keeping children healthy. Before he began his personal crusade to free the world of malnourished children, Albino could not sleep at…

GLENDON P. NIMNICHT 2002 HUMANITARIAN AWARD CINDE United States, Columbia Glendon P. Nimnicht, Ed.D., dedicated more than 39 years of his life to improving the quality of life of children and families living in poverty in the United States, Latin America and other Third World countries. During his career as an educational administrator, Nimnicht became…

DAYRO JAVIER REYES ACOSTA 2003 YOUTH AWARD Colombia En El Corazón Columbia Dayro Javier Reyes Acosta has committed his young life to helping protect mentally challenged and disabled children in areas affected by war and extreme poverty. He developed a project to investigate the cruel conditions of these children in Colombia, who are suffering from…

FANI LERNER 2003 HUMANITARIAN AWARD Municipal Provopar Brazil Fani Lerner’s first major initiative on behalf of children began in 1980 when she organized a network of 400 volunteers called the Municipal Provopar to perform social work in the state of Parana, Brazil. The program drastically changed the face of social work in Parana and became…

CLAUDIA GONZALES MORENO 2003 HUMANITARIAN AWARD Alalay Bolivia Claudia Gonzales Moreno first devoted her life to needy children when she was 19. As a young civil engineering student, she roamed the streets of La Paz, meeting the children who lived in the parks, graveyards and sewers. Although it took years of time and patience, the…

DR. SHANKAR MAN RAI 2005 HEALTH AWARD Interplast Surgical Outreach Program Kathmandu, Nepal Shankar Man Rai, M.D., a reconstructive plastic surgeon and native of Nepal, has devoted much of his life to providing free plastic surgeries to children with birth defects, cleft lips and palates, and burn injuries in areas of the world where these…

CRISTIANO FEDRIGO 2005 YOUTH AWARD Share a Bike Brazil Seventeen-year-old Cristiano Fedrigo lives among the impoverished quarry workers and their families in the hamlet of Morro da Pedra (Mountain of Stone) near Taquara, Brazil. Cristiano has chosen to rise above the limitations of poverty by creating helpful solutions for himself and other young people in…

DR. JORGE ROJAS-ZEGERS 2017 HERO AWARD 2006 HEALTH AWARD Founder, COANIQUEM Santiago, Chile Dr. Jorge Rojas-Zegers was working as a plastic surgeon in Santiago, Chile, when he discovered his true purpose in life: to help children who have suffered burn injuries. At the time, long-term treatment was scarce. Many burn victims never went on to…

Dr. Bennun provides free surgery to correct cleft lips and palates to the poor children in his native Argentina.

Carmen Masias is a Peruvian psychologist who serves the needs of street children in Lima.

Leonor dedicated her life to serving the orphaned, abandoned, and malnourished children of Guatemala.