Oscar van Leer Award presented at ceremony in The Hague

The Oscar van Leer Award for 2005 was presented to Kathleen Okatcha, executive director of Kenya Orphans Rural Development Programme (KORDP), by the chair of the Bernard van Leer Foundation's board of trustees, Trude Maas de Brouwer, in a ceremony in The Hague on November 3rd.

The presentation, held in the Nieuwe Kirk, was preceded by speeches by Peter Laugharn, executive director of the Bernard van Leer Foundation, and the Mayor of The Hague, Wim Deetman, who also chaired the selection committee which decided on KORDP as the recipient of the Oscar van Leer Award for its Community Support to AIDS Orphans project.

Following a performance by Kenya Arts, the keynote speech was given by Ruud Treffers, Director-General for International Cooperation of the Netherlands and former ambassador to Kenya. He affirmed the Netherlands government's commitment to tackle HIV/AIDS as part of a broader commitment to the UN Millennium goals.

The Bernard van Leer Foundation hopes that the presentation of the Oscar van Leer Award to KORDP will both raise awareness of the issue of orphans and vulnerable children affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and draw attention to a successful strategy for combating its effects. Read the booklet produced to mark the award.

In her acceptance speech, Kathleen Okatcha outlined the challenges facing KORDP, notably to replicate their community-based approach on a larger scale and address issues such as promoting birth registration, protecting the inheritances of young orphans, and finding funds to allow more orphaned children to continue their education beyond primary school.

The Oscar van Leer Award is given every two years and commemorates Oscar van Leer, the son of the founder of the Bernard van Leer Foundation.

The award consists of a commemorative statue and the sum of €12,500.