| 2009 Opus Prize Recipients | Past Winners |
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Opus Prize recipients may not be household names, but don't be fooled by their relative anonymity. The Opus Prize winner and finalists are beating daunting odds to bring about lasting social change in their communities and countries.
In these recipients, an unshakeable faith and a belief in entrepreneurship mingle and the results are stunning. Their efforts to help the poor and underserved transform their lives makes the case that real, upward change is possible and inspires others to get involved.
2009 Opus Prize
$1 Million Opus Prize Winner
Aïcha Ech Channa
Association Solidarité Féminine
Casablanca, Morocco
Aïcha Ech Channa is something of an icon in Morocco when it comes to human and civil rights for single mothers and their children. For more than 30 years, she has been their defender and public spokesperson.
In 1985, Ech Channa founded the Association Solidarité Féminine in Casablanca to provide services for the unmarried and their children. She started in a basement and now operates three day-care centers and training schools, two restaurants, four kiosks and a hammam (fitness center and spa).
More than 50 women receive training every year in cooking, baking, sewing and accounting. Participants are also provided daily child care, counseling and medical treatment.
As a Muslim, Ech Channa is inspired by a sense of justice rooted in the value systems of all religions. “For too long,” she says, “single mothers have been stigmatized, had their babies taken away. The baby belongs with the mother, and we have hundreds of cases as evidence that this can work.”
Read more about Ech Channa’s work.
$100,000 Opus Prize Finalist
Sister Valeriana García-Martín
Asociación Hogares Luz y Vida
Bogotá, Colombia
Sister Valeriana García-Martín is founder and director of the Asociación Hogares Luz y Vida, which cares for 145 physically and mentally handicapped children and educates or provides day care services for 850 children from the community.
García-Martín, a native of Spain, was working as a Sister of Filipense at the National Institute for Blind Children in Bogotá in 1991 when she opened a home for four abandoned handicapped infants.
She established Hogares Luz y Vida – Homes of Light and Life – which has expanded to eight locations in the Bogotá area, including an elementary school and day care centers that integrate high functioning and handicapped children.
García-Martín adopted two girls, both Luz y Vida residents under her care, in the 1990s. Blind and at the age of 25, Valeriana is studying in Spain. Rosita, who cannot speak and is wheelchair-bound because of cerebral palsy, is 18 and attends the Luz y Vida school.
Read more about García-Martín’s work.
$100,000 Opus Prize Finalist
Father Hans Stapel
Fazenda da Esperança
Guaratinguetá, Brazil
Father Hans Stapel is co-founder and president of Fazenda da Esperança – Farms of Hope. He has established more than 60 therapeutic communities in 10 countries to help people with drug and alcohol addictions rebuild their lives.
Stapel, a native of Germany, is a Franciscan priest and in 1979 became pastor of Our Lady of the Glory Church in Guaratinguetá, northeast of Sao Paulo. He established Fazenda da Esperança in 1983 to help addicts in Guaratinguetá, and the enterprise has grown to include operations in Argentina, Guatemala, Germany, Mexico, Mozambique, Paraguay, the Philippines, Russia and Uruguay.
Addicts live in houses of 14 persons for a year, supporting each other and guided by two recovering addicts. More than 10,000 people have participated in the program, and 80 percent have abstained from further drug use.
Pope Benedict XVI visited Fazenda da Esperança in May 2007 and gave his blessing to 2,000 current and former Fazenda residents who came from around the world to see him.
Read more about Stapel’s work.
