Dr. h.c. Ute-Henriette Ohoven
UNESCO Special Ambassador for Children in Need
Personal information
Mrs. Dr. h.c. Ute-Henriette Ohoven is a UNESCO special ambassador, the President of the Hannelore Kohl foundation ZNS and the counsel general of the republic of Senegal. She is married to Mr. Mario Ohoven the President of the German Federation of Business Enterprises and of the European medium-sized enterprises. Mrs. Ohoven has four children.
Humanitarian engagement
For more than 20 years Mrs Ohoven supports humanitarian concerns. In the first years she supported the cancer research and treatment for children in Germany. She was involved in the creation process of the first bone marrow donor file in Germany.
In 1992, she was announced as the first Goodwill Ambassador of the UNESCO and her engagement becomes an international focus. In 1994, the general director of UNESCO announced her as the first special Ambassador the organization and for the program “Education for children in need”. Her full support is concentrate on collecting money and getting attention for this program.
In 2002 the German Chancellor Dr. Helmut Kohl asked Mrs. Ohoven to succeed and take office as the president of the Hannelore Kohl Foundation ZNS. More than 270 000 people in Germany are victims of tragic accidents and have to live with serious damage to their central nervous system. In this position, her engagement is focusing on younger victims, particularly with regard to prevention and provision for accidents.
Annual international UNESCO Charity-Gala
The international UNESCO Charity Gala is organized by the general director of UNESCO and Mrs Ohoven in Germany. Over the last years the event has become to one of the most important charity events worldwide. Guests from all fields of the Europe’s business like e.g. politics, economy and art show their support for the UNESCO program “Education for children in need”.
The patrons of this event have been: His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Empress Farah Diba Pahlavi, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, President Lech Walesa, President Stepan Mesic, Prince Talal Bin Soud, Queen Noor of Jordan, Sir Peter Ustinov, Sir Bob Geldof, Dame Helen Mirren, Pierre Cardin, Michael Schumacher, Montserrat Caballé, Shirley Bassey, Jane Fonda, Forest Whitaker, Placido Domingo, Goldie Hawn, Eva und Roberto Cavalli, Don Johnson, Shakira, Jessica Simpson and many selected personalities.
Mobilization of funds
Over the last years Mrs. Ohoven mobilized an estimated amount of 40 million US Dollar of voluntary donations for the UNESCO. Her engagement for the cancer research achieved an amount of 3 million US Dollar. These donations come from broad levels of the population like e.g. economy, media and famous personalities. Through these donations the foundation UNESCO has the opportunity to support over 362 projects in 95 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Arab States, and Latin America. All projects provide children a future by educating them in an individual way. The focus of the foundation’s work are children with different backgrounds like handicapped children, children whom are affected by war, child soldiers, street kids and drudges whom have to life without family commitment. The foundation UNESCO – “Education for children in Need” provided close to 1 Million children a future by taking them off the streets and giving them a future.
First-hand experience of developing countries
Mrs Ohoven has made it as her principle to visit the projects of the UNESCO program Education for children in need by herself to get impressions of the different situations. She has established close personal contacts with governments and humanitarian organizations in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and other developing regions. Through this personal engagement she gets direct assistance from the government of these countries.
Honours
Pope Johannes Paul II, Mother Teresa, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama granted Mrs. Ohoven an audience to appreciate her humanitarian and social engagement.
Special Ambassador Ohoven has been honoured with the Federal Cross of Merit from Germany, the order of merit from the federal state North Rhine Westphalia, the highest civil order of the Republic of Senegal which she represents as Consul in Germany, and the Picasso Medal of UNESCO in gold, the “Women World Award”, “The Golden Heart Award” and the religious order of “Saint Eufrosinia from Polotsk”. She has been voted amongst the 100 most influential women in Europe. She is also Honorary Citizen of Belo Horizonte and San Salvador, and has been awarded the degree of Doctor honoris causa of the Pontificia Universidade Catolica de Minas Gerais, one of the oldest and most reputed universities in Latin America. She was selected for the UNESCO publication “60 Women contributing to the 60 years of UNESCO”.
