This award, established in memory of pioneerng producer and founding Rex board member Bill Graham, is designated for organizations and individuals working to assist children who are victims of political oppression and human rights violations. Bill himself was a childhood refugee from Nazi Germany, and devoted a significant part of his professional life to the production of benefits for people in need. The Tibet Child Nutrition & Collaborative Health Project is an organization very much in the spirit of the many good works Bill did when he was here, and we're delighted to acknowledge their efforts in that spirit.

The Tibet Child Nutrition & Collaborative Health Project is a multi-phase program dedicated to nutritional research, training and primary health care for the people of the Tibetan Plateau. Currently, the survival of Tibetan children is threatened by malnutrition and disease. Many children within the Tibet Autonomous Region are extremely short for their age, falling dramatically below accepted international growth reference values. Preliminary data indicate that this shortness is a result of nutritional stunting, chronic malnutrition during the first three years of life, rather than a result of genetics and altitude. Severe nutritional stress at this critical period in a child's early growth affects neurological development and renders children vulnerable to the common fatal diseases of childhood in the developing world: diarrhea and pneumonia. The Tibet Child Nutrition & Collaborative Health Project is the first US sponsored applied health program to document the causes of child malnutrition and utilize this information to assist implementation of culturally appropriate and economically sustainable health care solutions. The Project represents the determination of Tibetan, Chinese and American health professionals to work together towards an urgent humanitarian goal-improved child survival on the Tibetan plateau.

For Further Information contact:
Tibet Child Nutrition & Collaborative Health Project
210 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060; (408) 427-4965