United Nations Radio

The Dag Hammarskjöld Scholarship Fund for Journalists honored Academy Award winner Emma Thompson and Psychotherapist Helen Bamber, with the Inspiration Award at United Nations Headquarters Wednesday. Both women were recognized for their efforts against human trafficking.

Emma Thompson meeting SG

Thompson is chair of the Helen Bamber Foundation, which works with survivors of gross human rights abuses, providing medical consultation, therapeutic care, and practical support. The foundation is particularly engaged building awareness for human rights through media.

Helen Bamber herself has been helping survivors of human rights abuses since she first worked with victims of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during the end of World War II. In 1961, Bamber joined Amnesty International and became chairman of its first British Group. Bamber is also the founder of the Medical Foundation for Care of Victims of Torture.

Evelyn Leopold, chair of the Hammarskjöld fund, which each year awards four journalists from the developing world funding to come to New York for the opening of the U.N. General Debate, says "despite lots of information, human trafficking remains a global scourge, with victims forced into labor and subject to sexual abuse. Helen Bamber and Emma Thompson want the world to listen and do something."

For United Nations Radio this is Chelsea Moore
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