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The three finalists in the 2014 $75,000 Ockenden International Prize for refugee projects have been decided.
Projects from NRC Zimbabwe, ADRA India and ActionAid India have been chosen by the preliminary judges for their innovation, enterprise and focus on developing increased self-reliance for refugees and displaced people.
A record 97 entries from 47 countries were entered in the 2014 Ockenden International $75,000 Prize to be presented by a notable British VIP at a prestigious ceremony and dinner at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, on Tuesday evening, February 18, next year.
Each finalist brings a three-person team to Oxford University, to present their projects to a panel of five expert judges, chaired by Broadcaster, Michael Buerk.
The three projects in the running for the $75,000 prize are:
- Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Zimbabwe, for its project in Manicaland and Masvingo Provinces, where durable solutions for IDPs (Internally Displaced Peoples) are being successfully implemented.
- The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), India, for its ‘Protection and Livelihood Assistance to Sri Lankan refugees’ project, working across 54 camps in 18 districts of Tamil Nadu, India.
- ActionAid India for the project: Humanitarian support for internally displaced tribal communities in Khammam District, Andhra Pradesh, India.
The two runners-up will each receive $15,000.
The judges will be looking in particular for evidence of increased self-reliance in the communities supported – the central ethos of the Prize, which recognises and rewards work to improve the lives of refugees and displaced people all over the world.
The inaugural 2013 Prize was awarded last February to India’s Centre for Development (CfD) partnered by UK charity Childreach International for their Piplaj Advocacy Project to empower a deeply impoverished community in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, to campaign for better living conditions, education and healthcare.
CfD is using its prize money on a replica project for children made homeless by commercial developments forcing them into other slums in Ahmedabad.
More information can be found at www.ockendenprizes.org
Note for editors
Ockenden International’s roots lie in the work of three British schoolteachers, led by Joyce Pearce, who created the Ockenden Venture in 1951. Their aim was to receive in Britain young East Europeans from homeless persons’ camps in Germany and to provide for their maintenance, education and welfare. This work later extended to projects in India, North Africa and Southeast Asia. The Venture’s expertise and skills in helping people help themselves was so well recognised by 1979 that the British government asked Ockenden to be one of the three charities tasked with helping Vietnamese ‘boat people’ resettle in the United Kingdom.
After the death in 1985 of Joyce Pearce, the driving visionary of the organisation, the charity took stock of its work and by 1999, as Ockenden International, had concentrated nearly all its work overseas. In 2007 the trustees decided that continuing to be an operational charity was no longer viable and that it could work more effectively by becoming a prize-giver and promoting awareness of the challenges facing refugees and displaced people.
Contact for media queries:
Corrie Parsonson, Administrator, Ockenden Prizes
enquiries@ockendenprizes.org | + 44 (0) 20 8416 0116
