FOI Treasurer Ted Talbot holds the award as Pam Walsh speaks

Geneva, 27 May 2010: Against a backdrop of song and dance, Friends of India President Pam Walsh OBE received a human rights award for the work accomplished by her association during the past decade.

Friends of India and another group, Ecoles de la Terre, were the first awardees of the new prize “A Hymn to Life”, granted by the Swiss section of the International Association for Human Rights (IGFM). Both groups were praised for serving humanity “with unusual energy and in a great spirit of cooperation”. The award citation said it was to recognize people active in the defence of human rights whose work had a positive socio-economic impact.

Pam Walsh, Vu Quoc Dung and Martial Salamolard (Ecoles de la Terre) – copyright 2010 www.mysimeon.ch

The IGFM Secretary-General, Vu Quoc Dung, said the work of both awardees had been assessed and found to meet the criteria laid down. These are that their educational projects are in phase with local needs, they integrate respect for health and the environment and they seek cooperation with others.

Receiving the award, Pam Walsh thanked all those, in Switzerland and in India, who had helped transform a dream into concrete action over ten years. She said that despite India’s economic boom, millions of people faced a struggle for survival and dignity. They needed help now, she stressed, so that one day “they might participate in the boom instead of watching it from the gutter”.

Mrs Walsh said the only weapon that could overcome poverty was education.

With the award certificate, the laureates each received an original ceramic sculpture designed by the internationally acclaimed artist Serge Moro.

The award event, at Geneva’s Theatre du Leman, was livened up by music from the groups James con Hielo and Catcha and the Bollywood-style dance group Anamorphose. A group of children from Geneva’s Indian community provided two traditional songs.

http://www.igfm.ch/accueil.html

http://www.ecolesdelaterre.ch/en/accueil.html

http://www.sergemoro.com/index.html