James Annan receives Frederick Douglass Freedom Award

Mr James Kofi Annan, Founder of Challenging Heights, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in Ghana, will receive the 2008 Frederick Douglass Award on September 15, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.

The award, which will be presented by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel and 2007 Gandhi Peace Prize winners, honours the tremendous resilience of the human spirit and emphasises that many of the survivors of modern day slavery go on to help others to freedom.

A release signed by Ms Sheila Acquah-Asare said the award was being given to Mr Annan for his remarkable life story and twice overall winner for Africa and Global Barclays Bank awards in 2006.

The award is given to an individual who has survived a form of slavery and is now using his or her life in freedom to help others exercise the purpose of their lives.

The recipient would receive 10,000 dollars for a programme of training and capacity building to continue and expand his work, as well as 10,000 dollars to be awarded over two years, and used as he or she feels appropriate.

The release said Mr Annan was nominated for the Freedom Award by Global Fund for Children, USA, and the award was decided after a number of field investigations of the recipient's practical work of fighting for the rights of children.

Trafficked into child labour at the age of six, he worked in Ghana's fishing villages for long hours a day. “Food and shelter were scant, abuse was constant”.

It said seven years later, Mr Annan escaped back home to his parents and at age 13, he could not read and write, but befriended kindergartners so he could use their schoolbooks to learn to read, and worked to feed himself and pay for school.

“Eventually, he broke still unsurpassed records on standardised tests, graduated from university and landed a job at Barclays Bank. But Mr Annan did not limit his goals to self-improvement, but has devoted himself to end modern-day slavery and helping the less fortunate.”

In 2003, he founded his NGO, Challenging Heights, in Ghana to empower children through education, funding Challenging Heights with his personal earnings.

Mr Annan used his own means to fight against the things that militated against him – poverty, disease, child labour – to work for the empowerment of children and youth, paying for educational materials, scholarships and health education for children.