​We are excited to announce the 2019 winners of the HRiC Champions Award. It is a privilege to provide a platform for five strong women from different parts of the world who are working in their own settings and in other countries to improve maternity care for women, babies and families.

Hundreds of nominations poured in for the first edition of the HRiC Champions Award, showcasing amazing individuals from all over the world who are working to make human rights in childbirth a reality for families in their communities and beyond. Winners will be showcased individually over the next few months as we work with them over the next year.

We are proud to present five award winners, each in their own category:
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Midwife: Heloisa Lessa, Brazil

Heloisa Lessa PhD, is an autonomous midwife attending home births in Rio de Janeiro and a birth activist. She trained with indigenous traditional midwives. She organized several birth conferences in Brazil and abroad and is an international speaker. She is the founder of a multidisciplinary team of midwifes and obstetricians caring for women in Rio and the Founder of Instituto Michel Odent. She received over 350 nominations for the Champions Prize.

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Physician: Gloria Esegbona, United Kingdom

Dr Gloria Esegbona is a London specialist obstetrician from the UK who is passionate about maternal rights. She has empowered many birthworkers to set up maternal critical care units in Kenya, Nigeria and Malawi that have dropped death rates. And trained globally about how to bring choices and voices  to mothers and babies with the art of birth platform and her S_HE (Social Determinants of Health Equity) framework.

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Activist: Sylvia Bahr, Honduras

Since 2007, Sylvia Bahr has worked on a volunteer basis in Honduras to advocate for human rights in childbirth and respectful maternity care in hospitals, empower rural midwives and transform obstetric violence. Now, she collaborates with the largest teaching hospital, medical school and Secretary of Health to improve conditions across the country.

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Lawyer: Francisca Fernández Guillén, Spain

Francisca Fernández Guillén is a feminist lawyer who specialises in sexual and reproductive health and patient’s rights. She collaborated as an expert with the Women’s Health Observatory (part of the Spain’s Ministry of Health) on the development of the “Strategy for Assistance at Normal Childbirth in the National Health System”. She also gives training and talks for professionals on health legislation and bioethics and contributes articles and opinion pieces to journals and specialist press. Francisca alknowledges that the work would not have been possible without  Teresa Fernández Paredes, Lucía  Maravillas Martínez Losas, Paloma Torres López, Marina Morla González y Tatiana Khemet. 

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The Agnes Gereb Champion Award is a special award that celebrates individuals who have furthered the cause of human rights in childbirth in extremely adverse conditions, and who may have faced bullying, mobbing, professional sanctions, legal persecution, criminalization and even acts of direct physical violence.

This year, we are honored to be able to give the award to the person it is named for – midwife and obstetrician Agnes Gereb from Hungary.