News

The Children of the Earth Prize for 2011 has been awarded to

Ane Lillian Tveit

for her work for disabled children in Moldova

When Ane Lillian Tveit visited the children’s home in Hincesti for the first time in 1999, she met seven year old Liliana (inserted photo). She was scared and malnourished, one of 260 girls hidden away from Moldovan society. Liliana received help, as we can see from the bigger picture of her, with Ane, from 2005.

Ane Lillian Tveit has been awarded The Children of the Earth Prize for 2011 for her extensive work for disabled children in the European republic of Moldova. Along with Norwegian and Moldovan doctors and other specialists, she has made a long standing and successful effort to improve living conditions for these children and contribute to their integration in society.
Tveit, an occupational therapist living in Oslo, will receive this year’s prize of 150 000 Norwegian kroner (about 27 000 US dollars) during a ceremony at North Cape June 15th. About 500 school children from nearby towns and villages will also be present and part of the program.

Along with a few fellow students, Tveit started her aid work in Moldova in 2000. Their first objective was to improve the conditions at a children’s home in the city of Hincesti, one of many institutions in the country where small children with physical or mental problems were practically hidden away under inhuman conditions. After a troubled start, the efforts gave good results. Children who had previously been left unattended, received treatment, attention and individual care – in short they got a totally new and better platform in life.

At the same time Tveit and the others in the project, called Ahead Moldova, realized the need to change the traditional view in this former Soviet republic that disabled children were problem cases that society had best forget. For collected funds and economic support from the Foreign ministry in Oslo, Ahead Moldova was able to open a professional support and treatment center in the capital of Chisinau in the summer of 2003. With 13 professional local staffers, the competence center has since provided information, practical support and treatment to more than 600 families with disabled children. These children grow up in their own families, to become a naturally integrated part of the Moldovan society. According to Ane Lillian Tveit, the plan is to expand the capacity of the competence center and, in due course, enable it to carry on by itself.

Ane Lillian Tveit received this year’s prize and a bronze sculpture during a ceremony at North Cape on June 15th. The photo shows the prize winner by the Children of the Earth monuments after the ceremony. (Photo: Christian N.B. Christensen).

23 prizes from North Cape

As of 2011, The Children of the Earth Prize has been awarded to a total of 18 individuals (15 women and 3 men) and six organizations. The prize amount (2,4 million NOK in all), has been granted to six projects in Africa, six in Europe, three in Asia, four in Central America/The Caribbean, three in South America and one in the Middle East.