Pinay champion vs trafficking wins World's Children's Prize

MANILA, Philippines -  An anti-human trafficking advocate from the Philippines was one of this year’s awardees of the prestigious World’s Children’s Prize in Sweden.

Cecilia Flores-Oebanda, founder and executive director of the Visayan Forum Foundation, was one of the two recipients of the World’s Children’s Honorary Award in the 2011 World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child.

Flores-Oebanda was recognized for her work against child labor and human trafficking in the Philippines.

The other recipient of the World’s Children’s Honorary Award is Monira Rahman of Bangladesh, who was cited for helping victims of acid attacks.

Murhabazi Namegabe of the Democratic Republic of Congo received the top prize for “his dangerous struggle to free children forced to be child soldiers or sex slaves” in his country.

Queen Silvia of Sweden presented the awards during a ceremony at the Gripsholm Castle in Mariefred yesterday. The winners share a cash prize of $100,000.

At least 24 million children from 101 countries participate in the global voting for the annual awards.

Founded in Sweden in 2000, the annual World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child has honored outstanding contributions in defending the rights of children and youth.

Among its laureates are South African leader Nelson Mandela and Jewish girl Anne Frank, who was given a posthumous award. Frank wrote poems and stories and recorded her experience during the Nazi regime for two years until she died in a concentration camp at age 15.

Flores-Oebanda, who was five when she started working, founded the organization Visayan Forum, which has rescued tens of thousands of girls from slave labor and trafficking.

The Visayan Forum runs eight halfway houses for girls all over the country, four support centers for domestic workers and one safe house, a home for those worst affected.

Since 2000, the foundation has helped 60,000 victims of trafficking and taken several cases to court. They have trained thousands of partners to combat trafficking, including judges, prosecutors, police, travel agencies and government authorities.