World Summit 2010: Awards of Appreciation

Participants at the Images & Voices of Hope Summit broke away from their schedule of conversation and listening to program presenters for the Annual Awards of Appreciation ceremony on Saturday, September 25, 2010. This event is dedicated to recognizing outstanding work in media that promotes positive personal and social change. The Awards organizers believe that such work is able to uplift the vision of the world, bringing hope, benefit, and a sense of possibilities about the future of humanity.

This year's five honorees were:

Len Morris (filmmaker)
Len Morris has long considered himself a journalist and activist. He has used any media available to loudly draw attention to subjects that he deeply cares about which are mainly connect to children's rights - hunger, health care, education, child labor. He believes that we have a special responsibility as parents and teachers to children who are wholly dependent on adults for their basic needs. 


Len first trained as a journalist and worked at the news divisions of ABC and NBC. He has also done public affairs producing for NPR affiliates in Philadelphia and Boston. In 1990, Len directed the one hour special Africa on the Move for the Global Hunger Project. But it was his child labor documentary Stolen Childhoods that transformed his own life and career. It made him angry to see children so cruelly and widely exploited and it began his education in children's human rights.
In 2009 he established Media Voices for Children, an internet news agency for children's rights. Since the site went live, over 60 organizations have contributed content along with two dozen journalists, photographers and filmmakers. His hope has been to reach an ever-expanding base of educators, students, the general public, the media and activist community to make children's issues a global priority.

Michele Mason (Co-Producer, Witness to Hiroshima)
Michele Mason was honored for the film Witness to Hiroshima which centers on a Japanese citizen who uses watercolors to tell the story of his experiences in Hiroshima as a 17 year old soldier immediately following the dropping of the atomic bomb. Michele Mason is the co producer of the film along with Kathy Sloane. Michele is assistant professor of Modern Japanese Literature and Culture at the University of Maryland, College Park. She also continues her engaged study of the history of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear studies, and peace and nuclear abolition movements.

Pablo Vega-Corral (Photographer)
Pablo Vega-Corral is a widely published Ecuadoran photographer whose work has been published in National Geographic, Geo and other premier venues internationally. Pablo has recently been named a Neiman Fellow at Harvard University. During his tenure at the Knight Center for International Media at the University of Miami, Pablo worked with faculty and students to create a social network for Latin American photographers. The project was conceived to see if such a network could create meaningful work. The nuestramirada.org network quickly grew to over 1,400 photographers and the site consistently had traffic of over 20,000 visitors per month. Photographers were uploading their portfolios to the site and engaging cross-border online conversations that had not been possible before. In January 2010 Nuestramirada went on to publish its first bilingual (Spanish and English) online magazine in coordination with the Knight Center for International Media's anchor project on cities.

 
Vu Thanh Thuy (Radio) (represented by An Vu Duong, her daughter)
This Award of Appreciation goes to Vu Thanh Thuy who was an active voice in the Vietnamese American Community even before she arrived in the United States when she advocated for human rights for Vietnamese boat people. She has committed her life and work to empowering her fellow Vietnamese.

Thuy is a founding member of Asian Voice Radio which was launched in Houston, Texas as the first Asian American radio programming featuring a pan-Asian collaboration entirely in English. With hosts and guests from different generations, ethnicities, industries and perspectives, Asian Voice Radio is committed to linking the older Asian generation with the young, preserving heritage and culture.

Thuy's daughter An Duong accepted the award for her mother Vu Thanh Thuy who was out of the country working on a story.

Zuleikha (Dance/Performer)
Zuleika is an international dancer/performer, as well as teacher in the art of movement and story, who inspires awareness of body and health. Her innovative work draws from the themes of nature, world lore, and life itself. Zuleikha's training comes from years of study from master teachers of healing and movement in eastern and western traditions.

Zuleikha grew up in a musical family, studying classical piano and flute. She worked for many years with American dancer and avant-garde choreographer, Anna Halprin. Zuleikha attended the Ali Akbar College of Music and Dance in San Francisco, which was established by the great musician from India, Ali Akbar Khan.

Zuleikha uplifts audiences in schools, theaters, and conferences with her solo performances and her collaborations with world musicians and artists throughout the United States and abroad. She has been televised in on the PBS special Dances from Wild Gardens, a production dedicated to her art and performance.

Founder and Executive Director of The Storydancer Project, Zuleikha is the recipient of the prestigious Humanitarian Award from Pediatric Nursing Journal for her global work in helping to promote greater health in women and children.

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