World Rabies Day Awards

World Rabies Day awards banner

We're excited to announce the World Rabies Day Awardees! 

After weeks of voting, the World Rabies Day Awardees have been determined! The judging was closer than ever, and the public vote was the tiebreaker!

See the deserving Awardees below and read all about the excellent work that they have been doing to have caught the judges (and your) attention!

We would like to congratulate all those who have received the World Rabies Day awards for the accomplishments!

We would also like to commend all those who were shortlisted, as their work is no less significant and they should be highlighted as exemplary individuals who lead the way in terms of driving rabies elimination efforts in their own communities. 

Congratulations to everyone and we would like to sincerely thank all of you who participated and voted for contributing to the World Rabies Day Awards for 2023. 

The Awards process:

The inspirational work of so many around the world certainly make the need to evaluate nominees for a WRD award quite difficult. For this reason, we appoint a panel of independent experts every year and consider several criteria in the evaluation of nominees. In the ensuing process each nominee is allocated scores based on project sustainability, collaborative efforts and impact. From here, a shortlist of nominations is generated and announced on World Rabies Day, September 28th. Next, civil society is given representation and the public vote contributes (about 25%) to the final selection of awardees in each of the specified categories. The announcement of winners is on One Health Day on November 3rd. We sincerely thank all the nominees and the panel of expert judges as well as civil society in general for your role in this most worthwhile endeavor.

Vaccination champion

Dr Daniela Steckler

Dr Daniela Steckler WRD 2023
Funda Nenja
South Africa

AWARDEE: Dr James Ngatia

Dr James Ngatia WRD 2023
Mpala Research Center - Laikipia Rabies Vaccination Campaign
Kenya

Dr Uqubazghi Mesgun

Dr Uqubazghi Mesgun WRD 2023
Ministry of Agriculture
Eritrea

Veterinary Clinic champion

Dr Rebecca Dobinson

Miss Rebecca Dobinson WRD 2023
Compassionate Paws International
Sierra Leone

Miss Gridsana (Cooky) Laksana

Miss Gridsana (Cooky) Laksana WRD 2023
Rescue P.A.W.S.
Thailand

Animal Welfare champion

Dr Sara Platto

Dr Sara Platto educating children
Jianghan University & China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation
China

Mr Abraham Fofana

Mr Abraham Fofana WRD awards 2023
Liberia Animal Welfare & Conservation Society
Liberia

AWARDEE: Ms Aishwarya Ramasamy

Ms Aishwarya Ramasamy WRD awards 2023
Humane Animal Society
India

Education champion

Dr Yimesgen Tarekegn

Dr Yimesgen Tarekegn WRD 2023
Elnet Foundation
Ethiopia

Miss Aiko Adade

Miss Aiko Adade WRD 2023
The Aiko Adade Foundation
Ghana

AWARDEE: Mr Manish Saxena

Mr Manish Saxena WRD 2023
Wing Of Research In Local Development (WORLD)
India