Two population experts win UN awards

Demographer John C. Caldwell, who focuses on Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and physician Catherine Hamlin of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, a pioneer in women's childbirth injuries, have won the United Nations Population Awards, a UN spokesman said today.

Each winner will receive a certificate, a gold medal and an equal share of a monetary prize next Tuesday, he said.

The Award Committee, comprising representatives of nine UN Member States, is chaired by Ambassador Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury of Bangladesh, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said. The panel selected the two Australian winners after reviewing outstanding work by 10 nominees to improve people's health and welfare.

Mr. Caldwell, the Emeritus Professor of Demography in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra, has published more than 300 articles. His work to frame the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa as a demographic, epidemiological and socio-cultural phenomenon is considered to be without peer.

The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, which Australian-born Dr. Hamlin co-founded, specializes in treating obstetric fistula, a devastating childbirth injury that leaves a woman incontinent.

The hospital provides free medical care to more than 1,200 women annually and has treated over 25,000 women. It also offers literacy classes and physiotherapy to help women rejoin their communities once they are cured.

The winners will receive their awards at a ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday.