September 30, 2014

AWARDEE AND SPEAKER BIOS

HUMAN RIGHTS HERO AWARD – Fr. Michael Lapsley A New Zealand-born Anglican priest, Father Lapsley moved to South Africa in 1973. He began to speak out on behalf of schoolchildren who were being shot, detained and tortured and was subsequently banned from South Africa in 1976. A colleague of , Father Michael traveled around the world mobilizing support to oppose . In 1990, a covert branch of the apartheid security forces sent him a letter bomb. He lost both hands and the sight in one eye in the blast. Undeterred, he later became Chaplain of the Trauma Centre for Victims of Violence and Torture in , which assisted the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In 1998, he launched the Institute for Healing of Memories in Cape Town which seeks transformation and peace by empowering communities and nations through the healing of memories.

CITY OF SECOND CHANCES AWARD - Nazanin Boniadi Best known for her roles in , Iron Man and , actress Nazanin Boniadi is a graduate of UC Irvine. The daughter of a British father and Iranian mother, she was born in , raised in England, and now lives in . As a spokesperson for , she has brought attention to the unjust treatment, detention, and execution of Iranian women, political dissidents, human rights activists, journalists and to the continued religious persecution of the Bahá’ís by the Iranian government. In 2012, she helped launch a successful Amnesty International campaign to free filmmaker Behrouz Ghobadi, brother of acclaimed filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi, from an Iranian prison. He was released by the government in early 2013.

SURVIVOR – Paul Kato For 25 years, teachers Paul Kato and his wife Harriet, ran a school and orphanage in Uganda. By 2009, they were educating and caring for more than 400 children. But that year, the Ugandan government turned against Paul’s ethnic tribe - the Baganda. The Ugandan military burned the tribe’s cemetery, a global heritage site, and beat, arrested and killed many of the tribe’s adult men. Paul was repeatedly interrogated by the police, beat with batons in front of the children and imprisoned for nothing other than being a member of his tribe. Paul was able to escape Uganda by bribing a soldier, while his wife and their four children went into hiding. Arriving in Los Angeles, Paul turned to PTV for help with counseling, housing, food and finding a pro bono attorney. Paul received political asylum in 2012 and PTV helped to reunite his wife Harriett and their four children with him last year.

PROGRAM FOR TORTURE VICTIMS (PTV) • 3655 S. GRAND AVE. STE. 290 • LOS ANGELES, CA 90007 PHONE: (213) 747-4944 • FAX: (213) 747-4662 • EMAIL: [email protected] • WEB: WWW.PTVLA.ORG