India – Indian environmental research and action group Chintan has won America’s first-ever Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls in light of its efforts to train waste pickers and eliminate child labour from recycling. The award was presented by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who announced that each of the non-governmental organisations present at the ceremony would receive Euro 380 000 worth of funds from the Rockefeller Foundation to help stimulate their valuable work.
She said: ‘Chintan’s efforts have reached more than 20 000 waste pickers in India in the past five years. More than 2000 children have been pulled out of the trash heaps and put on a path toward education and opportunity.’
Chintan’s founder and Director Bharati Chaturvedi accepted the award ‘on behalf of all those women and young girls who scavenge through the Indian middle class’ trash’, adding she would continue to ‘convert waste into social wealth, not just wealth’.
Other award winners came from Kenya and Tanzania, all representing scalable advancements in agriculture, technology, economic empowerment and the ‘green’ economy.
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