{"id":4803,"date":"2011-10-11T03:30:37","date_gmt":"2011-10-10T19:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/charity-worker-awarded-john-curtin-medal\/"},"modified":"2022-12-07T13:06:47","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T05:06:47","slug":"charity-worker-awarded-john-curtin-medal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/charity-worker-awarded-john-curtin-medal\/","title":{"rendered":"Charity worker awarded John Curtin Medal"},"content":{"rendered":"

International charity worker Tanya Pinto was awarded the 2011 John Curtin Medal<\/a><\/strong> at a ceremony held today at her alma mater.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In the past five years Ms Pinto – a Curtin University graduate – has conceived, established and grown a charity that helps thousands of Indian children enjoy a better life.<\/p>\n

Curtin Vice-Chancellor Professor Jeanette Hacket said Ms\u00a0Pinto has displayed great compassion, a strong work ethic and an entrepreneurial spirit in developing Baal Dan, an Indian children\u2019s charity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith dedication and significant self-sacrifice Ms Pinto is working to break the cycle of poverty in the lives of thousands of Indian children, providing them with food, shelter, education, and the simple pleasures of childhood,\u201d Professor Hacket said.<\/p>\n

In 2005, after living in the United States, India, Dubai and Australia \u2013 where she completed an Honours Degree at Curtin University – Ms Pinto took three months out from her advertising career to volunteer at the Mother Teresa Orphanage in Calcutta.<\/p>\n

It was here that Ms Pinto’s belief in the power of ordinary people was reinforced through experience and symbolically through a sign at the orphanage that read: \u201cIf you can\u2019t feed a hundred people then feed just one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Founded in 2006, Baal Dan now feeds at least 1000 children a day and\u00a0sponsors 45 children in private education.<\/p>\n

Three medical camps have immunised 200 children and provided medication to 300 children and women.<\/p>\n

Ms Pinto’s plans include building a second school after a first was built this year, building an orphanage, and buying a bus to deliver essential items more quickly and widely.<\/p>\n

Ms Pinto said her\u00a0grandfather was an orphan and his life, and that of his descendants was greatly enhanced by the fact he had support in gaining an education.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf my work in India can change the lives of other children in a similar way, then I will have achieved what I set out to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The annually-awarded\u00a0John Curtin Medal<\/a><\/strong> is the highest non-academic award presented by Curtin University.<\/p>\n

The medal is presented to people who exemplify wartime Prime Minister John Curtin’s qualities of vision, leadership and community service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Curtin graduate helps Indian children enjoy a better life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-4803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Tanya-Pinto-thumb.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Jarrad","last_name":"Long","display_name":"Jarrad Long"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-16 01:45:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4803"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=4803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}