Days for Girls International was named 2020 .ORG of the Year as the final winner of Public Interest Registry’s 10 Days of .ORG last week. As well, Newcomer of the Year and Promoting a Safer Internet categories were also awarded during the final days of the awards.
Overall there were nine winners in this second event, with the tenth winner the best of the best. The final winners announced were Newcomer of the Year award which went to Arwa Damon from INARA (International Network for Aid, Relief and Assistance) and the Florida-based Child Rescue Coalition, honoured in the Promoting a Safer Internet category for its work to protect and rescue children from sexual abuse worldwide.
Arwa Damon is the founder of INARA, which provides life-altering medical care for war-wounded children from conflict areas who have catastrophic injuries or illnesses and are unable to access treatment due to war. Damon is CNN’s Senior International Correspondent. She established INARA to fill the gaps in access to medical treatment for children impacted by war that she witnessed while covering the Middle East. The organisation provides an individualised approach to ensure each refugee child living with life-altering disabilities receives the most appropriate and best possible treatment by removing access to barriers.
“Throughout my time in the Middle East, I have consistently seen the need for paediatric care in towns and villages I visited. INARA focuses specifically on providing medical interventions where others don’t to ensure that war-wounded children don’t fall through the gaps in medical care,” said Arwa Damon, President and Co-founder of INARA. “We do this so that the children of these war-torn areas don’t lose their futures due to lack of medical care. It is our moral duty to help the children in need. We are honoured to win the .ORG Impact Award and we look forward to continuing working towards a better world.”
“Congratulations to Arwa Damon and INARA for being named the 2020 .ORG Impact Award winner in the Newcomer of the Year category,” said Jon Nevett, President and CEO of Public Interest Registry. “INARA addresses a significant gap in medical care access that many refugee children face in the Middle East and we celebrate their outstanding contributions.”
The Child Rescue Coalition won their award for their work building technology for law enforcement—free of charge—to track, arrest and prosecute child predators. The organisation collaborates with a global force of child exploitation investigators, law enforcement officers, digital forensic experts, child welfare agencies and donors to rescue children and apprehend abusers in real time.
Since the organisation’s founding in 2014, Child Rescue Coalition has had a major global impact — with their technology in use by 10,000 law enforcement officers in all 50 U.S. states and over 96 countries to target and apprehend predators most likely to sexually abuse children.
“Protecting children from abuse is our passion and we are incredibly proud of the impact we have made,” said Carly Yoost, CEO and Founder of Child Rescue Coalition. “ As the proliferation of sexual abuse material online continues, we will remain laser-focused on providing law enforcement with the technology they need to rescue more children and combat the scourge of abuse. We are honoured to win the .ORG Impact Award and we look forward to continuing our mission to protect the innocence of our young people around the world.”
“Congratulations to Child Rescue Coalition for being named the 2020 .ORG Impact Award winner in the Promoting a Safer Internet category,” said Jon Nevett, President and CEO of Public Interest Registry. “Their work is a critical part of global efforts to protect young people from sexual abuse. We celebrate their inspiring contributions as they continue to make the world a better place.”
In the final award handed out, Days for Girls International, the first of 10 winners in Public Interest Registry’s 2020 .ORG Impact Awards, winning the 2020 Combating Coronavirus category, won the .ORG of the Year for its ground-breaking work to improve health, education and livelihood for millions of women and girls around the world. Days for Girls provides health, feminine hygiene and education services for tens of thousands of women and girls in 144 countries worldwide. This year, in response to coronavirus, they launched two campaigns — Periods Don’t Pause for Pandemics and #Masks4Millions, which inspired over 3,500 people to register to make 1 million masks for those most in need.
“We are so incredibly honoured to be named the Combating Coronavirus and .ORG of the Year award winners,” said Celeste Mergens, Founder and CEO of Days for Girls International. “This year was filled with unprecedented challenges for the organisation, not just because delivering our usual services became more complicated, but because it brought a new challenge—the need for PPE. So thank you to Public Interest Registry and the .ORG Community for recognising our efforts with these awards. This is the culmination of more than a decade’s work in trying to improve the lives and livelihoods of women and girls around the world.
“Days for Girls International is a truly inspiring organisation, helping make the world a better place,” said Jon Nevett President and CEO of the Public Interest Registry. “Every day, Days for Girls is empowering women and girls to achieve their dreams by providing critical education and health resources to those who need them. On behalf of the entire PIR organisation, I want to congratulate Days for Girls. Days for Girls represents the best of what .ORG has to offer. Finally, as the 10 Days of .ORG concludes, let me congratulate all the winners, finalists and .ORGs that submitted entries to this year’s awards. It was an incredibly competitive year, with more than 500 .ORG nominees and I’m so proud of the incredible and amazing work that the .ORG Community is doing every day.”
Both INARA and the Child Rescue Coalition received a US$5,000 donation to a charity of their choice while Days for Girls had already received a US$15,000 donation.
| Day One: Combating Coronavirus | Monday, November 30th |
| Day Two: Promoting Education | Tuesday, December 1st |
| Day Three: Outstanding Volunteer | Wednesday, December 2nd |
| Day Four: Championing Equality, Equity and Inclusion | Thursday, December 3rd |
| Day Five: Innovation | Friday, December 4th |
| Day Six: Advancing Environmental Sustainability | Monday, December 7th |
| Day Seven: .ORG Newcomer of the Year | Tuesday, December 8th |
| Day Eight: Fighting Hunger and Poverty | Wednesday, December 9th |
| Day Nine: Promoting a Safer Internet | Thursday, December 10th |
More information on earlier winners of the 2020 .ORG Impact Awards is available here (day 1), here (day 2 to 4), here (day 5, 6 and 8).