Biographies
Previous winners of the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award have been worthy recipients in diverse fields. Please see below for a brief synopsis of the previous winners.
Whether it is someone who has dedicated their life to helping others or charity workers either from abroad or closer to home there is no doubt that there are many worthy candidates for the Award. Last years' winner sums up perfectly what the award is all about. Guy Willoughby was awarded the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award 2009, for his humanitarian work in the removal of debris of war.
- Guy Willoughby
- 2009-05-16
- Robert Burns Humanitarian Award
Guy Willoughby is the founder and CEO of the HALO Trust which specialises in the removal of war debris. The Dumfries-based Trust has over 7,500 staff working overseas, clearing landmines and unexploded bombs as an act of charity on behalf of some of the most impoverished communities around the world. Since founding HALO in 1988, Guy?s actions have saved countless thousands of people from either violent deaths or severe disability.
Read full biography- Jonathan Kaplan
- 2008-05-17
- Robert Burns Humanitarian Award
Humanitarian aid surgeon Jonathan Kaplan was presented with the prestigious Robert Burns Humanitarian Award at a special award ceremony in Ayr on Saturday 17th Many 2008. Jonathan was one of three individuals short listed for the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award, which reflects the humanitarian values of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns. Film star and UNICEF ambassador Ewan MacGregor, and founder of the Ozanam Clubs for disabled young people James Lynch, were also short listed for their outstanding work.
Read full biography- Adi Roche
- 2007-05-24
- Robert Burns Humanitarian Award
Adi Roche has spent the majority of her life campaigning for peace, humanitarian aid, and education. As the Founder of Chernobyl Children?s Project International, Adi has worked for the past 15 years to provide humanitarian aid to the children of Belarus, Western Russia and the Ukraine.
Read full biography- Marla Ruzicka
- 2006-05-27
- Robert Burns Humanitarian Award
Marla Ruzicka was a passionate young relief worker and the founder of CIVIC (Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict) she was, in the words of one obituary, "an extraordinary, one-person American aid agency, who worked tirelessly to get compensation for victims of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq." Though only 28 when she died, killed by a car bomb in Baghdad in April 2005 - she had spent much of her life helping ordinary people whose lives had been shattered by conflict.
Read full biography- Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulowavo
- 2005-05-01
- Robert Burns Humanitarian Award
Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulowayo has been a shining light in the fight for human rights ? demanding that his government address the mounting food and economic crises and put an end to torture and rape.
Read full biography- Clive Stafford Smith
- 2004-05-01
- Robert Burns Humanitarian Award
Clive Stafford Smith, a British lawyer who practises in the areas of civil rights and the death penalty in the United States of America, has spent 25 years working on behalf of defendants facing the death penalty in the USA.
Read full biography- Yitzhak Frankenthal
- 2003-05-01
- Robert Burns Humanitarian Award
Yitzhak Frankenthal founded the Bereaved Families Forum, an organization of bereaved Israeli parents, Palestinian and Jews, who lost their children during army service or in an act of terrorism.
Read full biography- John Sulston
- 2002-05-01
- Robert Burns Humanitarian Award
Sir John Sulston has devoted his scientific life to biological research and played a central role in the human genome sequencing project. In 2002 he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine .
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