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.
The winner of the 2009 Robert Burns Humanitarian Award will be announced at the award ceremony in May. The ceremony will be the opening event of the 2009 burns an' a' that! festival.
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. Jonathan Kaplan was awarded the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award 2008, for his work as a humanitarian aid surgeon in developing countries and crisis areas.
Watch Jonathan Kaplan's acceptance speech at the 2008 Robert Burns Humanitarian Awards Ceremony
Watch Sir Tom McKillop's opening address at the 2008 Robert Burns Humanitarian Award Ceremony
- Jonathan Kaplan
- 2008-05-17
- Robert Burns Humanitarian Award
Jonathan grew up in South Africa and studied medicine in the University of Cape Town. After serving his internship in hospitals that provided medical care to the country?s black population, he went into exile to avoid serving in the South African Army under the apartheid regime. Since then he has worked around the world as a doctor in developing countries and crisis areas, sometimes for international medical organisations or where a clinical need became apparent.
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 .
Read full biography
