Gena a finalist for Irish Red Cross Humanitarian Awards
WESTPORT native Gena Heraty has been announced as a finalist for the Irish Red Cross Humanitarian Awards, along with Vivien Lusted and Sr. Stan.
Gena is being honoured for her work in Haiti over many years.
The winner will be announced at the Irish Red Cross Humanitarian Awards ball which takes place this Saturday, November 16, in the Ballsbridge Hotel, Dublin 4.
There are six categories of award being presented on the night - Humanitarian of the Year, Young Humanitarian Award, Journalism Excellence, Innovation for Change, Corporate Impact and the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Humanitarian of the Year finalist Gena arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1993 and almost three decades later is known all over Haiti for challenging prejudice against people with physical and intellectual disabilities.
Gena is the coordinator of the special needs programme with Nos Petits Freres et Soeurs (NPFS), a home for orphaned and abandoned children. Her team has developed an outreach programme which provides education for over 100 school children with neurological disorders while approximately 80 patients a day (or 30,000 a year) receive physical therapy treatments.
Gena is the co-founder of the Kay Christine home for children with special needs at NPFS which has created services to ensure children with special needs are not abandoned.
Conditions are challenging, and Gena has faced a vicious attack by armed men, where one of her colleagues was killed.
Finalist Sister Stanislaus Kennedy is an Irish Sister of Charity who has been on the frontline of social innovation for almost 60 years.
Galway nurse Vivien Lusted has worked for the Irish Red Cross for over 14 years on overseas missions in some of the world’s toughest armed conflicts, including Iraq, Israel, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Myanmar.
The awards seek to recognise those who have had a humanitarian impact on the lives of others through volunteering, skill sharing, storytelling or fundraising and will highlight the efforts of those who have given a voice to humanitarian issues.