On Tuesday, May 5, at the 13th annual Hope Awards, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children will recognize the courage of survivors and the contributions of individuals in the fight to protect children from victimization.
The awards are presented each May in honor of National Missing Children’s Day.
Expected guests include Cleveland abduction survivors Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus; survivors and advocates Jaycee Dugard, Alicia Kozakiewicz and Katie Beers; Emmy Award-winning journalist Soledad O'Brien; “Washington Post” journalists and authors of “Hope: a Memoir of Survival in Cleveland,” Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan; and U.S. Sen. John McCain
Honorees Include:
- Cindy Hensley McCain
Cindy Hensley McCain has dedicated her life to improving the lives of those less fortunate both in the United States and around the world, tackling numerous humanitarian issues. Her work on the issue of human trafficking through the Arizona Governor’s Council on human trafficking and the McCain Institute’s Human Trafficking Advisory Council have brought much needed awareness to this issue and helped build partnerships that are finding solutions. McCain’s husband, U.S. Sen. John McCain, will also be in attendance.
- Eric Schmidt
Eric Schmidt has been with Google since 2001, serving as executive chairman since 2011. He helped grow the company into the global leader in technology it is today. He is responsible for the external matters of Google: building partnerships and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership. Under his direction, Google has become an industry leader in the fight against child sexual exploitation, offering support to the organizations engaged in this effort and finding new ways to apply technology to the problem.
- Carlina White
Carlina White was 19 days old when she was abducted from a Harlem hospital in 1987. Raised by her abductor as Nejdra “Netty” Nance, she became suspicious about her identity when her mother could not provide a birth certificate. She eventually came to NCMEC’s website seeking answers and found a baby picture on a missing poster that she thought bore a striking resemblance to her own daughter. After calling NCMEC, a DNA test in January of 2011 confirmed that she was the abducted infant, allowing her to start the journey to establish a relationship with her biological parents. She has become a passionate advocate for missing children’s issues, presenting her story for the first time this year at the Dallas Crimes Against Children Conference.
When: Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Where: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, 1150 22nd St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20037
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is the leading 501c3 nonprofit organization working with law enforcement, families and the professionals who serve them on issues relating to missing and sexually exploited children. Established in 1984 and authorized by Congress to serve as the nation’s clearinghouse on these issues, NCMEC operates a hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678), and has assisted law enforcement in the recovery of more than 205,550 children. NCMEC also operates the CyberTipline, a mechanism for reporting child pornography, child sex trafficking and other forms of child sexual exploitation. Since it was created in 1998, more than 4.5 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation have been received, and more than 141 million suspected child pornography images have been reviewed. NCMEC works in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. To learn more about NCMEC, visit www.missingkids.com.
