UN Population Award Goes to Family Care International, Billie A. Miller of Barbados

CONTACT:

Omar Gharzeddine, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, +1 (212) 297-5028

NEW YORK, March 5 – The United Nations today honored the New York-based organization Family Care International and Barbados activist Billie Antoinette Miller with its prestigious Population Awards, bestowed to recognize outstanding contributions to population issues worldwide.

FCI was named in the institutional category for its 20 years of global advocacy to improve maternal health and place reproductive and sexual rights and health care on the global agenda. FCI President Ann Starrs said the group was “thrilled to be recognized for our work to make pregnancy and childbirth safer for women around the world.” She praised the “tremendous efforts” of FCI’s partner organizations that work on projects in Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean.

Dame Billie Miller, an attorney, was the first woman in Barbados to become a cabinet minister, where she has been Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade as well as health, education and culture. She received the individual award for her advocacy on behalf of women, including her work as chair of the NGO Planning Committee of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development and as a former president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation’s Western Hemisphere Region.

The UN Population Award, established by the UN General Assembly in 1981, was first presented in 1983, to Prime Minister Golda Meir of Israel. The award committee of 10 member states, chaired by Sweden’s UN ambassador Anders Liden, chose the 2008 winners from 11 individual nominees and seven institutional nominees from around the world. The gold medal, certificate and monetary award will be presented to the honorees at a ceremony here on May 22.

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