Organisation Open Heart-2015

The Children of the World Prize for 2015 was awarded to Halvard Hasseløy (left in photo) and his Open Heart Foundation. For more than 30 years the organization has provided efficient humanitarian aid to the poorest people in a number of Eastern European nations. In 1993 Mr Hasseløy paid his first visit to the Ukraine, and ever since, this country has been the main focus area of the foundation's relief efforts.

The political unrest due to the ongoing conflict with Russia has increased the misery and poverty particularly in the Eastern parts of the Ukraine, and strongly intensified the need for humanitarian aid.

"When I look into anxious eyes of children and watch the empty faces of their mothers who have given up hope, I simply cannot stop helping" says Halvard.

The Open Heart Foundation offers free food to thousands of children every day - through a network of food stations in the Ukraine. The foundation also runs care centres for street children, kindergartens, drug and alcohol rehab centres and also organizes summer camps for children. Three trucks filled with food, clothing and other aid material is constantly commuting between Norway and the Ukraine. On a yearly basis this humanitarian aid reaches more than 500,000 people.