Child Rights Hero Nominee • Pages 50–70 WHY HAS ROSI BEEN NOMINATED?
Rosi Gollmann
Rosi Gollmann has been nominated for the World’s Children’s Prize for her over 50-year fight for the poorest and most vulnerable children in India and Bangladesh. Rosi grew up in Nazi Germany during the Second World War, and experienced the terror, discrimination and suspension of democracy that war brings. As an 18-year-old she decided to dedicate her life to help the poor and oppressed to help themselves. Rosi founded the organisation Andheri-Hilfe, which in the 50 years since it was established has carried out over 3,000 projects with local partners, and in doing so has helped ten million people gain a better future. With Rosi’s help, 50,000 child labourers have been set free and been able to go to school. Tens of thousands of children with disabilities have also received support and training. Rosi and Andheri-Hilfe support families living with HIV/ AIDS, and fight against the old tradition where girls are forced to be sex slaves in some temples. In Bangladesh, over one million people have regained their sight thanks to Rosi and the committed local staff. Through a campaign called ‘No girl is unwanted’, 12,000 Indian girls who would have been killed at birth have been saved. At the same time, girls’ rights have been strengthened and child marriage has been stopped.
It is evening when Rosi, 17, arrives at the hospital to visit her father, who suffers from pneumonia. Many of the other patients have severe burns. The war has been going on for four years, and now the bombs fall almost every night.
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uddenly the sirens sound, and Rosi hears the rumble of bombers overhead. A terrible explosion shakes the building, and all the windows shatter. Nurses come running to help the screaming patients out of bed and down into the basement. Rosi and her father are the only ones left. As she shouts for help there is a deafening bang, as the ceiling cracks and caves in. Rosi manages to lift her father out of bed and drag him down the stairs. Through the window, she can see the bombs raining down from the sky. All the fires and explosions are lighting up the sky like daylight.
Everyone takes shelter in the basement, but soon the hospital catches fire, so they flee out into the garden. Once outside, all those who can stand up build a human chain to try to put the fire out. For hours, Rosi runs back and forth with buckets of water, and by morning the fire is out. She and her father have survived, but much of the hospital has been destroyed. Later, as Rosi walks through the city towards the small health centre where she works, fires still burn in the streets. Smoke rises from ruined houses, and the streets are littered with burnt bodies that nobody has had a chance to attend to yet.
Hasna (left) and Saluddin can see again, after being blind for many years. They are two of the one million people who have got operations and regained their eyesight, thanks to Rosi’s long fight for the blind in Bangladesh.
Rosi escapes Shortly after this, Rosi’s workplace is also destroyed by a bomb. She and her father decide to flee the city along with thousands of others. It’s a dangerous journey, as the bombers attack train tracks and roads too. One night, Rosi’s father can no longer walk. So Rosi steals a wheelbarrow to carry her father and their bags. They manage to get to the next train station, 20 km away, and finally reach Rosi’s mother, who has already fled the city to the safety of the countryside. Just a few weeks later, in May 1945, the war comes to an end. Rosi is glad that Hitler and the Nazis are
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