2013 Environment Award: World Information Transfer
The recipient of WANGO's 2013 Environment Award is World Information Transfer (WIT). Dr. Christine K. Durbak, Founder and Chair of WIT, received the award from WANGO Secretary General Taj Hamad on December 2nd at the 22nd International Conference on Health and Environment: Global Partners for Global Solutions, held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.
An international non-governmental organization in general consultative status with the United Nations, WIT has been active since 1987 in promoting environmental health and literacy.
Since 1989, WIT has published the World Ecology Report, a quarterly journal dealing with critical issues in environment and health. The World Ecology Report is produced in six languages and distributed throughout the world.
WIT also convenes one of the world’s premier international conferences on health and the environment. Titled “International Conference on Health and the Environment: Global Partners for Global Solutions,” these forums gather international experts who present scientific papers addressing the link between degrading environments and diminished human health. Convened as a parallel event to the annual meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, the conferences have been held since 1992, with the 2013 event the 22nd such conference.
WANGO awards recognize non-governmental organizations from throughout the world that demonstrate exceptional effort, service, innovation, and excellence. Previous recipients of the environment award include the Green Belt Movement (received in 2003, a year before the founder, Dr. Wangari Maathai, received the Nobel Peace Prize), the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, Buccoo Reef Trust, Altai Foundation, and Ecotropica.
In presenting the 2013 environment award to Dr. Durbak, WIT Founder and Chair, WANGO Secretary General Taj Hamad noted that the WANGO Awards Committee was impressed with the dedication and very substantial accomplishments of WIT in its promoting of environmental health and bringing awareness and accurate actionable information about the impact of a deteriorating global environment on human health.
