Going beyond the call of duty

Medical professionals who have shown extreme commitment to helping others

Singapore, 22 June 2006 -- Any individual entering the medical profession is, by this very choice of career, demonstrating his or her commitment to helping others. In Singapore alone, we have nearly 6,500 doctors, and 10,500 nurses and midwives* who have devoted their professional lives to improving the well-being of their fellow citizens.

Not satisfied with just focusing on an already demanding “day-job”, some medical professionals have demonstrated an awe-inspiring humanitarian spirit. This year, Rolex celebrates 30 years of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, an Awards scheme which recognises individuals who seek to advance human knowledge and well-being. Of the 85 award-winners – known as Laureates or Associate Laureates – 12 of these have used their scientific and medical knowledge to promote human welfare. Moreover, a number of these Laureates have taken on this onerous task over and above their day jobs.

Inventing a safe lamp to prevent burns
Sri Lankan Rolex Laureate (1998), Wijaya Godakumbura, is a surgeon who has battled apathy and ignorance for nearly 20 years to save people from disfigurement and death by fire. Appalled by the number of burn victims he saw in his clinic as a result of accidents from home-made kerosene-oil bottle lamps, Godakumbura invented an accident-proof lamp. He found a factory prepared to manufacture the lamps, raised funds and began the Herculean task of forming a distribution network that would reach over 1.5 million homes without electricity.

Today, Godakumbura’s invention is preventing the loss of thousands of lives and sparing many more from lifelong disfigurement. Moreover, in the wake of the tsunami, cheap, safe lamps were a primary necessity and aid agencies clamoured for Godakumbura’s invention.

Godakumbura is a most determined man. On top of his demanding surgical duties, he puts in at least 150 hours per month, generally alone, on the safe-bottle lamp project.

Supplying unused medical equipment to impoverished hospitals
Every year, U.S. hospitals discard clean, unused medical supplies worth an estimated US$200 million. Yet doctors and hospitals in many parts of the world are unable to carry out their work because of the lack of medical equipment. Professor William H. Rosenblatt, MD, Professor of Anesthesiology at Yale University School of Medicine in the U.S., has been leading a revolution to bridge this gap. In 1991, he founded Recovered Medical Equipment for the Developing World (REMEDY), a group of health care professionals promoting the nationwide practice of the recovery of open-but-unused surgical supplies.

Dr Rosenblatt was made a Rolex Laureate in 1996 in recognition of his pioneering initiative. The Award enabled him to hire staff, whereas initially he had been working on his own. As of June 2004, the REMEDY at Yale programme alone had donated more than 30 tons of medical supplies. The supplies are sent through U.S. based charities to over 50 countries in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa.



The travelling doctor
Rolex Laureate, Aldo Lo Curto, has put himself at the service of humanity by spending over 30 years working as a doctor in almost 40 countries. This “volunteer travelling doctor” spends half the year in his medical practice in Italy and the rest of his time healing, teaching and living among indigenous people on several continents. At the same time, he wants to bring indigenous holistic views of illness to the West in order “to humanise the relationship between doctor and patient”.

Lo Curto funds his humanitarian activities by saving as much as he can from his medical practice in Italy to pay for his travels. He also works autonomously, collaborating with organisations and individuals, but not depending on them.

In the early 1980s, Lo Curto began spending several months a year with indigenous people in various countries, healing their illnesses and teaching them how to avoid falling ill again. In the early 1990s, he wrote a health manual for the people of the Amazon. His 1993 Rolex Award enabled him to print 2,000 copies of the manual and subsequently produce an African version.

More recently, Lo Curto has spent time in Mongolia, working with the Red Cross, combining health care with health education and often travelling vast distances on horseback to provide medical care to patients. He also hopes to travel to Australia to work with Aboriginal communities.

Championing the rights of women
Here in Singapore, one of the former Rolex Awards Selection Committee members, Dr Kanwaljit Soin, has also demonstrated her human-centered approach to life. Not only is Soin one of Singapore’s most respected orthopaedic and hand surgeons, but she is also a champion of disadvantaged women.

An outspoken public figure, Soin began asserting her views on women’s rights and social issues in 1985 as a founding member of the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE). Six years later, she was elected the organisation’s president and also became the nation’s first woman to serve as a Nominated Member of Parliament, appointed by Singapore’s president for two two-year terms.

Today, in addition to her medical practice and duties as president of the local International Women’s Forum, Soin is mainly involved with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). As the founder and a former president of UNIFEM’s Singapore chapter, she is the driving force behind programmes to alleviate poverty and improve education and health care throughout Asia.

Soin’s achievements as a surgeon and active participant in welfare, advocacy, artistic and professional organisations helped gain her the title of Singapore’s “Woman of the Year” in 1992.

Singapore – a future Laureate?
Here in Singapore, there are undoubtedly hundreds of health care workers and medical experts whose devotion to their work and patients means that they do not hesitate to go that extra mile, taking on additional tasks and responsibilities to help others. Their names and faces may not always make the headlines, but their efforts are appreciated by those whose lives they touch.

In Singapore, this courage and selflessness was clearly seen during the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Singapore in 2003. Singapore is now celebrating its second year free of SARS.

Rebecca Irvin, programme director of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, commented: “In the same way that Rolex recognised the courage and determination of medical professionals such as Dr Godakumbura and Dr Lo Curto, we will reward more exceptional individuals and their achievements on 26th October 2006, when we celebrate 30 years since the inception of the Rolex Awards with the announcement of five new Laureates at a ceremony in Singapore.

“These people will come from all walks of life, but they will have one thing in common: a passion to protect the world they live in, and those who inhabit it, and make it a better place.”

* Source: Ministry of Health, Health Facts Singapore 2005

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About Rolex Awards for Enterprise:
The Rolex Awards for Enterprise
Fact Sheet


Objective The Rolex Awards for Enterprise aim to encourage a spirit of enterprise in visionary individuals around the globe by providing the financial support and recognition they need to implement innovative, working projects that advance human knowledge and well-being.

History Rolex established the Awards 30 years ago, in 1976, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Oyster chronometer, the world’s first waterproof wristwatch. Now held every two years, the Awards have been presented on 12 occasions.

Award Areas The five key areas of recognition are:
 Science and Medicine
 Technology and Innovation
 Exploration and Discovery
 The Environment
 Cultural Heritage
However a project may be submitted in almost any field of endeavour, provided it contributes to the betterment of humankind.

Eligibility Anyone of any age, from any country or background is eligible to apply for a Rolex Award. Applicants must submit their own ideas and proposals. Typically these individuals have little or no access to traditional sources of funding.

Prizes The Rolex Awards fund new or ongoing work and assist in the completion of outstanding initiatives rather than rewarding past achievements.

Five Laureates, those who present the most exceptional projects, each receive US$100,000 and a specially inscribed, gold Rolex chronometer at an official awards ceremony. Five runners-up, the Associate Laureates, each receive a cash award, as well as a steel-and-gold Rolex chronometer. Ceremonies for these men and women are held in their home country or region. All Award recipients must use their monetary prizes to implement or complete their pioneering projects.

Selection Criteria Four main criteria are used to select the winning projects:
 Spirit of enterprise – a project carried out with determination, tenacity and boldness
 Feasibility – a project that is likely to succeed
 Originality – a project that breaks new ground
 Impact – a project that has a positive impact on the community

Selection Process A team of specialised scientific researchers at the Rolex Secretariat conducts a rigorous 10-month analysis of the projects submitted before presenting them to the Selection Committee.

Judges The Selection Committee, an independent, voluntary jury of internationally renowned experts representing a variety of disciplines and countries, evaluates the projects and chooses the Laureates and Associate Laureates. Chaired by Rolex CEO Patrick Heiniger, the panel changes for each series.

2006 Application Statistics A total of 1,671 entries were submitted from 117 countries for the 12th Awards series. Topping the number of applications were entries from the United States (224), Germany (103), Argentina (99), Italy (93), India (83), France (75), the United Kingdom (55), Australia (54), Switzerland (47), the Philippines (44), Brazil (40) and Nigeria (35). Among countries showing an increase in entries were those in South-East Asia, where the 2006 Awards ceremony is being held – in Singapore on 26 October 2006.

A small percentage increase of female applicants was registered – from 20 per cent in 2004 to 22 per cent for 2006. The youngest applicant was 16 years old, the oldest 97, with the average age 47.

Applications for 2008 Prospective entrants for the 2008 series can obtain further information about the Rolex Awards or access an Official Application Form online via the Awards website, http://www.rolexawards.com, or by writing to the Rolex Awards Secretariat at PO Box 1311, 1211 Geneva 26. Applications are accepted by geographical region, with the following deadlines:
Asia, the Pacific and North, Central and South America:
May 31, 2007
Europe, the Middle East and Africa:
September 30, 2007.

Media Contacts:
Belinda Tan / Lim Siow Joo
Tel: +65 325 4606
Fax: +65 6325 4616
Email: /

Submitted by Grayling Asia, Grayling Asia on Thursday, 22 June 2006 at 12:01 PM
Category: Health Care & Medical

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