Adi Roche
Tipperary human rights campaigner and Chernobyl Children International founder, Adi Roche, will receive the World of Children‘s 2010 Health Award, at a ceremony tomorrow at UNICEF House in New York City.
The award which is hailed Internationally as the “Nobel Prize for Children” is an annual honor, that includes a cash grant of up to $50,000 (€36,000) for the honorees own charitable program. Adi plans to use this award to fund life saving cardiac operations on children in the Ukraine and Belarus and to further the training and development of local surgeons, ensuring that ‘Chernobyl Children International’ can continue to save lives into the future..
Adi Roche, chief executive of Chernobyl Children Project International (CCPI), has scooped the prize for her continued efforts to improve the lives of children living in the shadow of the world’s worst nuclear disaster area.
Adi started working in Chernobyl in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster in 1991, and has delivered over €85 million worth of aid and has brought more than 20,000 children into Ireland for life enhancing rest and recuperation.
World of Children Awards co-chairman Harry Leibowitz said they are proud to support exemplary individuals such as Adi Roche, who had improved the lives of so many children. Since 1998, the ‘World of Children Awards’ has shared more than $4 million (€2.8m) in grants with 84 individuals working in more than 50 countries.
Born in Clonmel, County Tipperary, Adi now lives in Co. Cork with her husband Seán Dunne.
For her work with CCPI, Adi has been honoured by numerous awards: the Medal of Francysk Skaryna , the European Woman Laureate Award, Irish Person of the Year and the European Person of the Year awards. She was the keynote speaker at the United Nations General Session, latter commemorating the 18th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, and was appointed to represent NGOs on the Steering Committee of the UN’s International Chernobyl Research and Information Network (ICRIN).
Adi and the work of CCPI were featured in the 2003 Academy Award winning film “Chernobyl Heart”. She has also written the book “Chernobyl Heart, 20 Years on.”
Ms Roche has, in the past, stood for the office of President of Ireland as a coalition candidate for the Labour Party, Democratic Left and the Green Party in the 1997 Irish presidential election.
Thanks a lot, to Adi Roche who received World of Children Award. She is great women for me and the worlds children. Thanks one more time.