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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO VOTED IN THE TEEN CHOICE AWARDS!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

8/10/2008

Caitlin Cohen was named by FOX's Teen Choice Awards and Do Something Inc as one of the top 9 youth activists in the US!

Sadly, MHOP did not win the $100,000 grand prize. However, the major showing of voters is heartening, and we are eternally grateful to all of you who voted! A special thank-you to Do Something.org, who gave us $10,000 for the new clinic and an amazing opportunity to get the word out to the world. And thanks to Scarlett Johansson, Olivia Wilde (House MD), and Monique Coleman (High School Musical) for taking an interest in MHOP!

To see a video of the Teen Choice Awards go here:
http://www.dosomething.org/awards
CONGRATULATIONS CHAD BULLOCK

Thank you especially to our team captains who worked so hard to Get Out The VOTE:

Emma Clippinger
Brian Cohen
Benjamin Colburn
Patrick Cooke-Deegan
Amie Darboe
Charles Harding
Alan Harlam
Greg Harlam
Jeremy Harlam
Adama Kouyate
Rachel Levenson
Caroline Mailloux
Nat Manning
Patrick Martin-Tuite
Brendan Pelsue
Milan Satcher
Julie Siwicki
Zoe Schwartz
Erica Trauba
Katie Walter
Hannah Watson

And to the Do Something Staff who have provided us with excellent advice:
Michelle Bellinger
Kevin Forsythe
Kevin Hager
Nancy Lublin
Jonathan Schilit
Jordyn Wells
Chad Wolbrink

Monique Coleman (High School Musical) presenting the Do Something Award to Caitlin

News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 24, 2008

FOX'S TEEN CHOICE AWARDS AND DO SOMETHING INC. NAME CAITLIN COHEN - AMONG THE TOP 9 YOUTH ACTIVISTS IN THE USA

ONLINE VOTING WILL DETERMINE IF COHEN WINS $100,000 TO BUILD A MODEL HEALTH SYSTEM IN A SLUM NEIGHBORHOOD IN MALI, WEST AFRICA.

    Caitlin Lee Cohen, a 2008 graduate of Brown University, has received a $10,000 Do Something Award for her work on health systems development with government officials and slum neighborhood residents in Mali. Cohen was selected from over 1,000 people as one of the top nine activists under the age of 25 in the USA. One of the nine Do Something Award winners will be selected at the Teen Choice Awards to win $100,000 for their cause. Online voting will determine the winner, and people can vote once per day from now until the show airs at http://www.dosomething.org/awards.The award ceremony, hosted by Miley Cyrus, will be aired on August 4th at 8 PM EST on FOX.
    Cohen co-founded the Mali Health Organizing Project (MHOP) in Mali, West Africa in 2005. 93% of Mali's urban population lives in slums where residents face crippling poverty and little or no access to water, sanitation, healthcare, or education. Cohen explains, "One in four children in Mali dies before age 5. I didn't understand what that statistic meant, how enormous a toll this takes, until I worked the overnight shift in a maternity ward. I helped a woman named Sitan deliver her baby and the child was born dead. Living there, I realized that the root cause of this problem is the deadlock between slum residents and their government. MHOP enables slum communities to design their own sustainable healthcare systems with their governments investment."
    Cohen's program addresses the deadlock by bringing government officials and citizens together to address topics such as sanitation, malaria, diarrhea, and primary healthcare. To date MHOP serves over 8,300 people with healthcare and education through locally-designed initiatives. "I am thrilled to be named for this honor, thrilled for the recognition it will bring to both me and over 200 volunteers in Mali and the USA. If we win the $100,000 Do Something Award we can build a clinic serving 30,000 people, and a model government-sponsored healthcare and education system for 10,000 of the poorest women and children. I hope people find our mission of promoting sustainable health change compelling and vote for MHOP!"

    About the Award
The Do Something Awards (formerly the BR!CK Awards) recognizes amazing young peopleďż˝like, seriously amazing young people. Nine nominees, all young people who saw a problem in the world and then tackled it, will each win $10,000 for their cause. One Do Something Awards winner will receive a whopping $100,000 and will be announced during the Teen Choice Awards, airing on Fox on August 5th. The Teen Choice Awards are presented annually by Fox Television Network to recognize the year's biggest achievements in music, movies, sports, and television and were the most-watched hour of television last summer. The Do Something Awards (formerly the BR!CK Awards) is a program of DoSomething.org and is open to all US and Canadian citizens under age 25.

Contact:
Hannah Watson
Brown University Swearer Center, Program in Social Entrepreneurship
Tel: (401) 863-2338
Email: Hannah_Watson@brown.edu

Caitlin Cohen
Email: Caitlin@malihealth.org
Mali tel: 011(223)8702545

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO VOTED IN THE TEEN CHOICE AWARDS!

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