Each year, InterAction acknowledges the extraordinary efforts of individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the humanitarian and development community. This year’s awardees were honored at Forum 2009, InterAction’s 25th Anniversary Celebration.
Lionel Rosenblatt, this year’s recipient of the Julia Vadala Taft Outstanding Leadership Award — named in honor of InterAction’s former president and CEO — has been President Emeritus of Refugees International (RI) since 2001. In this capacity, he focuses on generating assistance and protection for refugees in Southeast Asia and makes strategic recommendations on issues such as peacekeeping. As President of RI from 1990 to 2001, Rosenblatt grew the organization into a leading voice for refugees around the world. His efforts helped to expand RI’s early-warning and early-action advocacy on humanitarian emergencies beyond Southeast Asia, and were instrumental in drawing attention to the plight of Kurds fleeing Saddam Hussein and of refugees from Rwanda during and after the 1994 genocide. Before working for RI, Rosenblatt served as a Foreign Service Officer in the U.S. State Department for more than 20 years, where he focused on refugee and humanitarian emergencies, including the exodus of Indochinese refugees and the crisis in Cambodia.
The Humanitarian Award is given annually to individuals who have made significant contributions in the developing world and whose work reflects such qualities as courage, initiative, grace under pressure, integrity and personal sacrifice. Women’s rights advocate Sameena Nazir, the 2009 awardee, is founder and director of Potohar Organization for Development Advocacy (PODA), an NGO that works for the promotion and protection of human rights in rural Pakistan. Before returning to Pakistan to establish PODA in her native village, Nazir worked in Washington, D.C., as a Women’s Rights Coordinator at Global Rights: Partners for Justice (formerly International Human Rights Law Group), where she designed and implemented women’s rights programs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Morocco and Yemen. Later Nazir worked at Freedom House in New York, where she directed a survey on women’s rights in 18 Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa. She is currently organizing rural communities in Pakistan and advocating the use of a human rights framework in the development and relief programs for internally displaced persons in Pakistan.
InterAction’s Award for Excellence in International Reporting recognizes exemplary achievements by media professionals to inform and educate audiences about international crises and humanitarian situations. This year’s award goes to Hanna Ingber Win, the World Editor of the Huffington Post, who has worked in Burma, Thailand, South Africa, New York and Los Angeles, with her work appearing in publications such as Washingtonpost.com, LA Weekly and the Hartford Courant and on NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “Day to Day” programs. Ingber Win received her master’s degree in journalism from the USC Annenberg School for Communication, where she was a dean’s scholar, and her undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University.
Each year, InterAction’s photography contest focuses on the incredible work done by our members in the field. The amazing images we receive help us to raise awareness of our members’ efforts and to introduce the American public to the lives we help to transform throughout the world. As InterAction celebrates its 25th anniversary, this year’s Effective Assistance Photography Award highlights the best photo that captures the impact our community has made during the past quarter century. The awardee, photojournalist Jon Warren, Director of Photography, World Vision, has spent most of his career circling the globe for organizations that involve themselves in faith, social justice and cultural issues. His assignments have ranged from conflicts and tsunamis, famines and the AIDS crisis, to traditional art and microcredit lending. Warren’s images have ended up everywhere, from postage stamps to European museums, and in books and magazines worldwide. One enduring journalistic challenge is showing people’s needs while preserving their dignity. Warren’s goal is to make images that will stir others to action without desensitizing them, to communicate the commonalities we have with our neighbors around the world. He has won awards from Pictures of the Year and Communications Arts.
The mission of Trickle Up, the recipient of the first annual Disability Inclusion Award, is to empower people living on less than $1 a day to take the first steps out of poverty through livelihood development. Trickle Up (www.trickleup.org) has practiced inclusive development and promoted leadership opportunities for people with disabilities since 2002. Through a three-year partnership with Mobility International USA, Trickle Up began implementing inclusive practices at all levels of its organization — from staff disability-awareness training at the headquarters and field level, to actively building partnerships with disabled peoples’ organizations in all countries where it works. It has also achieved its target that 10% of all participants be persons with disabilities and considers inclusion an integral part of its programming. By including people with disabilities, Trickle Up is better able to pursue its goal of providing the extremely poor with opportunities to build a sustainable livelihood.
The InterAction Security Advisory Group Distinguished Service Award recognizes exceptional performance by NGO security professionals, particularly those who make a significant contribution to enhancing the ability of NGOs to better protect their personnel, assets or operations overseas. This year’s recipient, Michael O’Neill, has held the position of Senior Director for Global Safety and Security at Save the Children since 2002. Prior to taking up this position, he served as the Coordinator of Volunteer Safety and Overseas Security at the Peace Corps. O’Neill is currently Co-Chair of the Security Advisory Group of InterAction, developing security resources and standards for humanitarian workers and providing security management support to InterAction members. From 1978 to 1982, O’Neill served as a community health volunteer with the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, where he later worked for GTZ and the Sierra Leone Red Cross. In a later assignment with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, O’Neill was posted on the Ethiopia/Somalia border, where he negotiated with Somali clan leaders to secure access for and cooperation with Red Cross personnel and programs. He has a Bachelor of Science in Social Work from St. Louis University and a Master of Science in International Rural Development Planning from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.
Rose Tabu John of the Gender-Based Violence Program, American Refugee Committee (ARC), Sudan, is this year’s recipient of Interaction’s Mildred Robbins Leet Award for the Advancement of Women, which recognizes the progress made by member organizations in attaining gender equity in their programs and management. Tabu John has been with ARC for the past five years, beginning as a Behavior Change Communication Officer working on a comprehensive HIV/AIDS program in her native region of southern Sudan. She dedicated herself to preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS and worked closely with women and youth to encourage prevention methods. She also focused much of her attention on increasing awareness on the linkages between HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence and working with women, men and community leaders to slowly shift social norms and break down harmful traditional practices. For the past two years, Tabu John has led ARC’s Gender-Based Violence program in Greater Yei County, and has become a powerful speaker who articulates compelling arguments for women’s rights and helps others to understand the negative consequences and repercussions that their behavior and culture has on advancing gender equity, ending violence against women and furthering the empowerment of women.
