The Committee of Good Will – The Olga Havlová Foundation will award the Olga Havlová Award for the thirtieth time this year and the Public Award for the eighth time. The award goes to personalities who, despite their health handicap, help others and are an inspiration to others. The laureate of the Olga Havlová Prize is chosen by a jury appointed by the foundation’s board of directors, while the winner of the Public Prize will be chosen from an online vote. The medallions of the nominees, who can vote until May 10, are published on the website www.cenaolgyhavlove.cz.
“The jury of the Olga Havlová Prize selected three candidates for short nomination for the Public Prize. They are Daniela Bláhová, Michaela Linková and Jaroslav Winter. It also selects the winner of the Olga Havlová Award from all 19 nominees,” says Monika Granja, director of the Goodwill Committee – Olga Havlová Foundation. Like the winner of the Olga Havlová Prize, the winner of the Public Prize will be presented at the award ceremony on May 27 in the Fant building of the Main Railway Station in Prague.
Candidates for the Public Award within the Olga Havlová Award
Daniela Bláhová
Daniela has been living with multiple sclerosis for more than 25 years, due to which she is confined to a wheelchair. All this time she has been working full-time in the ROSKA organization, and since 2013 she has been the president of the Prague organization. In addition to ensuring operation, he conducts occupational therapy and art therapy for clients of ROSKA Prague. He organizes rehabilitation stays for patients with multiple sclerosis and handles accounting for the non-profit organization Center for Disabled Skiers, z.s. She became a model, and showed off models that convinced hundreds of women that they could look good even in a wheelchair. She managed to get financial resources, as well as media and, above all, enormous moral support for a group ascent to Kilimanjaro to tell everyone that a wheelchair is not an absolute barrier to life. She herself climbed to a height of 5100 meters! Daniela has also become an example of life’s optimism, diligence, perseverance and overcoming difficulties for thousands of healthy students – her classmates at the Metropolitan University of Prague.
Michaela Linková
Michaela suffers from a rare and very serious disease, systemic scleroderma. She works in the association Revma Liga Czech Republic, where for the last two years she has been intensively dedicated to the preparation of a project that fundamentally changes the patient environment in our country. During this time she had to face two difficult battles with cancer. Although she is currently undergoing regular chemotherapy, Míša is not leaving the project. Even in the most difficult moments after chemotherapy, she helps others by phone or email, organizes congresses and workshops, and in addition, she works with energy on the Revma web project in peace. In addition, in 2018 she founded the Skleroderma patient group, which provides valuable assistance to all patients with this diagnosis in our country. As a patient herself, she decided to take the initiative and start actively caring for the education and care of these patients. She is a pioneer in the field of care for rare rheumatic diseases, through her participation in the creation of official recommendations, organizing conferences and other projects that really help people with this diagnosis.
Jaroslav Winter
Jaroslav, although he himself is almost deaf, has been running the www.helpnet.cz portal for over 20 years, which provides the public with information about the lives and needs of people with medical disabilities and interesting things from the world of disabled people. He is very actively involved in raising awareness about the world of the deaf. As a coordinator of projects supported by the Vodafone Foundation between 2008 and 2011, he made a significant contribution to the introduction of simultaneous transcription of spoken speech as a social service and, through the management of the project Elimination of discrimination of hearing-impaired persons in court proceedings, contributed to the use of simultaneous transcription in courts. He has already organized 20 years of the INSPO conference, the largest of its kind in Central Europe, which focuses on technologies for people with specific needs and which is completely barrier-free for participants with any handicap. In 1999, he co-founded and since then manages the BMI association, whose mission is to support the development of the Internet as a global means of communication and the use of modern technologies for the development of civil society and especially people with specific needs.
About the Olga Havlová Prize
The Olga Havlová Award was first announced by Mrs. Olga in 1995 with the aim of honoring people with a medical disadvantage who, despite their handicap, do not forget others and are an inspiration to overcome obstacles for others. Olga Havlová participated in the first year, and after her departure, the Award became a memory of a personality who always stood up for the rights of endangered citizens.
The main media partners of the 30th Olga Havlová Prize are Český rozhlas and Deník N. Other partners are: Railway Administration, Minet Elektro, spol. s. r. o., ČSOB, Mountfield, Rückl, Copy General, Model Obaly a.s. and Radio 1.
You can vote for the Public Prize as part of the Olga Havel Award 2024 here: https://www.cenaolgyhavlove.cz/