MILWAUKEE – Fr. Trevor Miranda,
SJ, founder and
director
of the Reach Education Action Programme (cq) in Mumbai,
India, is the recipient of the annual $1 million Opus Prize
awarded this year at Marquette University.
An international humanitarian award given to people
or organizations committed to changing deeply rooted
problems such as poverty, hunger, illiteracy or disease,
the
Opus Prize was awarded at the university in November.
 |
| Fr. William Wasson. |
The winning program, known as REAP, is based
in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and seeks to empower the
underprivileged through literacy for a new world of
freedom, justice, dignity, and self-respect.
Under Fr. Miranda’s leadership, in just six years
REAP
has opened more than 450 literacy centers to bring books
and teachers to the desperately poor in India. Wherever
the children may be – on the streets, in the hills, on the
highways or in tribal areas – REAP’s mission is to reach
them, and to set them on a more hopeful path in the
mainstream of society. REAP also launched an adult literacy
program that focuses on giving women the education,
training, and skills they need to take on dignified jobs
and
escape from the streets.
Additionally, Fr. Miranda received an honorary
degree from
Marquette.
 |
| Dr. Juliana
Akinyi Otieno |
Two other
organizations
were also
recognized
at the awards
ceremony.
Nuestros
Pequenos
Hermaños
(Our Little Brothers and Sisters), a
charitable organization serving orphaned
and abandoned children in Latin America
and the Caribbean, received a $100,000
prize. The prize was accepted in honor
of its founder, Fr. William Wasson, by
Fr. Phil Cleary, who runs the day-to-day
operations. Dr. Juliana Akinyi Otieno also received $100,000 for her service as
a pediatrician in eastern Kenya, where
two in every 10 children still die before
the age of 5. Until recently, she was the
only pediatrician serving a community of
300,000 people.
The nondenominational Opus Prize
honors faith in action, singling out the
good works, fidelity, and exemplary
character of recipients. The Opus Prize
Foundation was established by the
Opus Corporation, a Minnesota company. Marquette’s
participation in administering the Opus Prize has been a
catalyst to exploring issues of human dignity and human
rights and the response of individuals and institutions to
such issues.
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