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Award at UNESCO benefit Gala for Children in need, Dusseldorf

Heather was delighted to attend the Unesco benefit gala for children in need on the 6th November 2004. Heather is very aware of some of the fantastic projects implemented in the developing world by this organization. The fundraising gala was organised by special ambassador Ms. Ute-Henriette Ohoven. A wonderful lady who works tirelessly to mobilise attention, support and resources for UNESCO’s education programmes for children in need worldwide.

Heather was honored at this gala evening with the inaugural UNESCO for Children in Need Award for her huge commitment and unceasing dedication for the victims of landmines. About a third of those who suffer landmine explosions are children. Heather is the founding patron of No More Landmines, which has raised over £6.5m to date, funding clearance of 21 million square metres of mined land and benefiting more than 400,000 people. Through her work, No More Landmines is now the largest funder of landmine clearance in the world. The award was presented by Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, then federal minister for economic cooperation and development in Germany.

Heather commented:

“I am thrilled to have been given this award; I am a great admirer of UNESCO and the wonderful work the Education for Children in Need programme does to help vulnerable children.

“The annual UNESCO Children in Need gala, in Germany has become a major international charity event - a celebration in which leading circles of the business and artistic community rally around the ideals of UNESCO and its education programmes. The funds raised enable UNESCO to implement education projects in numerous developing countries to give children the opportunity to get an education and job training.”

The Education for Children in Need programme is entirely funded from private donations. Since 1992 Ute-Henriette Ohoven amazingly has helped raise some 25 million Euros for this programme, which directly supports some 207 projects in 75 countries, helping hundreds of thousands of children and adolescents. Vocational training, schools, food, shelters and diverse projects help to rescue the most vulnerable street children, victims of wars and disasters, sick and disabled youngsters from a miserable life and early death and giving them the chance to help themselves.

Many of the children in the areas where Unesco works are often surrounded by the frighteningly real possibilities of exploitation with many poor children being forced into prostitution, or groomed to become child soldiers from a terrifyingly young age. A clear message concerning what the evening was about was given by Koichiro Matsuura, director general of UNESCO “

“This gala 2004 is for these millions of children, an open window on life, hope and the future. By supporting projects that bring direct concrete and visible help to the excluded children. We are building tomorrows generation and giving a new meaning to the word future, they need us, they need you! Let us not disappoint them.“

Songwriting legend Phil Collins also received the award in recognition of his work for his “Little Dreams” Foundation which helps to realise the dreams of children between the ages of 4 and 16 who have a special gift or talent in athletics or the arts.”

1,400 VIP guests from around the world attended this high profile event including Vivienne Westwood, Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, top model Bibi Russell from Bangladesh and Costa Rica’s president Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Ainas Sanchez. Lisa Stansfield, Kool & the Gang, and the young Israeli singer Liel all performed at the Gala, together with children from both Israel and Palestine, as a symbol for peace and tolerance in the Middle East and the rest of the world.