Jenny Maher, wife of Vodafone Qatar’s late CEO Grahame Maher, and Andrew Dunnett, Director of Vodafone Foundation, at a news conference to announce the winners of Graham Maher World of Difference Award in Doha yesterday. (Salim Matramkot) DOHA: For pioneering the global humanitarian initiative that touches many people’s lives, the late Vodafone Qatar CEO Grahame Maher was given special tribute on his first death anniversary during the “World of Difference” awards held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel over the weekend. Wife of Maher, Jenny, came all the way from Australia to attend the awarding of the three winners for the global search of the “Grahame Maher World of Difference Award.” “He would be very proud and humbled by this. I am very fortunate I have the support of the Vodafone Qatar family and it gives me something to focus on, to live with his legacy,” Jenny said in her moving speech to commemorate the first death anniversary of her late husband. The grand prize of £100,000 “Grahame Maher World of Difference Award” went to Frederique Kallen from the Netherlands whose chosen charity was Mama Alice. The runners-up who each receive £10,000 were Sue Van Schreven from New Zealand whose chosen charity was Orphan Aid International and Nick Eastcott from the UK whose chosen charity was AfriKids. For posterity sake, large replicas of the checks were given to the winners during the awarding ceremony. “Congratulations to the finalists who were of exceptional quality, all being truly inspirational, passionate about their chosen charity and determined to make a sustainable difference. They all proposed projects that made full use of their experience and knowledge which are of benefit, not only to the charity but also to the broader community for the future,” said Andrew Dunnett, Director, Vodafone Foundation. Frederique Kallen’s charity Mama Alice will use the prize money to set-up a free support line for abused children in Peru, Sue Van Schreven will use her prize money to benefit the 2.7 million orphaned children in Uganda and Nick Eastcott’s prize money will benefit child rights charity AfriKids operating in Northern Ghana. The “Grahame Maher World of Difference Award” was launched on the 7th July by the Vodafone Foundation in honour of Vodafone Qatar’s late Maher. His passion helped spearhead the World of Difference programme 10 years ago while working in New Zealand and has now been extended to 21 other countries around the world including Qatar. The award was open to all previous World of Difference winners all over the world to which 265 applications were received from 16 different countries. The entrants were initially judged by their local Vodafone Foundation. Once the finalists were selected, members of the public were able to vote for their preferred winner via Facebook. As a result of the vote, global finalists were selected and judged by an expert panel in the UK who selected the last 3 finalists. The winner was selected by a judging panel in Doha,Qatar. The Peninsula

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