Hussein Al Qaidi

MUMBAI: The prestigious Mother Teresa Memorial Award ceremony that will be held in the city on November 3, will honour Hussein Al Qaidi who rescued 5000 Yazidi women from the clutches of the ISIS terrorists. Iman Abdullah, one of the rape survivors who was sold to three ISIS terrorists, will testify her ordeal at a seminar a day ahead of the award function.

Currently in its 15th year, the annual Awards celebrate and commemorate the legacy of Nobel Laureate Mother Teresa. “Each year Harmony Foundation identifies a theme that highlights the need of the hour affecting humanity worldwide,” said founder-chairman of the Harmony Foundation Abraham Mathai. Al Qaidi, director of the Office of Rescue of Yazidis , has reportedly said there are 1323 Yazidi women and 1585 Yazidi boys still missing.

Among those who will attend this year’s award function is Azad Zalaf who was conscripted into the terrorist outfit as child soldier. “The brave rescuer deserves awards and applause. He is an inspiration for many,” said Mathai, adding: “Slavery is a man-made curse on humanity and affects us all.

To highlight this issue, we are honouring crusaders who have immensely contributed to rescue those who are tricked, trapped and trafficked.” This year’s theme is ‘Combating Contemporary Forms of Slavery’.

The Yazidi community once lived peacefully in Iraq until they were decimated by the invading ISIS forces in the August of 2014. What followed was unimaginable when men were marched and shot while women and girls were raped and then sold as sex slaves. Young boys were forced to become child terrorists of ISIS.

This year’s other awardees include anti-child labour and trafficking activist Kailash Satyarthi, filmmaker Robert Bilheimer , crusader against use of child soldiers Nzita Nsuami, Ajeet Singh for efforts to create a first red-light area in India free from commercial sexual exploitation of minors, Alezandra Russell for being the one who stood behind the young boys in red-light districts of Thailand, Hasina Kharbhih for rescuing and empowering more than 72000 vulnerable victims of trafficking, among others.

