UNICEF Representative wins prestigious Chinese award
At a high media profile ceremony in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on 25 June, UNICEF Representative to China, Dr Christian Voumard, received one of five “Soong Ching Ling Camphor Tree Awards” for 2005-2006. The biennial awards are named after the favorite tree of Mme Soong Ching Ling, the wife of Sun Yatsen, for outstanding contributions to the welfare of women and children. Others receiving this year's awards included Mme Peng Peiyun, Honorary Chairman of the All-China Women's Federation, who is credited with leading the Central Government’s amendment of laws regulations and policies to protect the rights of women and children. A second distinguished recipient was UNICEF's anti-trafficking programme counterpart, Mme Zhu Yantao, Division Director of Criminal Investigation of the Ministry of Public Security. Mme Zhu has led and participated in four national crackdowns on the trafficking of women and children and is regarded as a national heroine.
Dr Voumard, on his sixth assignment for UNICEF, received his award for innovative programming on behalf of Chinese children. In his acceptance speech, Dr Voumard noted that he was accepting the award “on behalf of UNICEF and its national partners, which have worked together for China’s children over the last 26 years”. “In this work”, he continued, “We have tried to aspire to the words of Mme Soong Ching Ling herself; ‘Some things can wait but one thing which cannot is nurturing children…’”. Dr Voumard is one of only two foreigners to receive this award which was inaugurated in 1985 and has since been received by 90 distinguished awardees.
Beijing – His Sixth Assignment City for UNICEF
Dr. Christian Voumard, born in Jan. 1946, a national of Switzerland, he is now on his duties as Representative for the People's Republic of China. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has worked with the Chinese Government for the past 25 years, supporting innovative programmes in the health, education and other social sectors which have often been adopted and taken to scale by the line ministries. These efforts have in the past helped China achieve and maintain such spectacular and globally recognized successes such as Universal Child Immunization and Universal Salt Iodization. UNICEF's latest in a line of distinguished representatives to China is Dr. Christian Voumard, a Swiss paediatrician who has worked for UNICEF for more than twenty years. Working mainly in Africa, Dr. Voumard has devoted his efforts to fighting vaccine preventable diseases and endemic diseases such as malaria as well as supporting improved education for girls and developing innovative programming in the areas of water supply and emergencies. Beijing is Dr. Voumard's sixth assignment for UNICEF where he currently directs a multi-sector five-year programme with a budget of around 100 million USD and a total staffing of over seventy. Over the past two years, under the leadership of Dr. Christian Voumard, UNICEF has become more actively involved in areas which are newer for the organization in China. These include HIV/AIDS with special emphasis on young people and orphans, children of migrant workers, child trafficking, child injury and arsenicosis. The expansion of UNICEF's work in health and education has meanwhile focused increasingly on addressing disparities affecting particularly those places of the western provinces. The successes achieved for IDD have also been carried into incorporating food fortification with micronutrients, the provision of Vitamin A and into helping formulate a national nutrition policy. Innovative studies have been conducted by UNICEF and its partners in these areas which have led to the emergence of new programming concerns for the nation as a whole. Recently, UNICEF has extended his cooperation with the private enterprises. The Fund-raising Department was established under the leadership of Dr. Voumard, so that there will be more help to the children in China.
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