Award Recipient
Mr. YI VEASNA　(Cambodia, 35 years old)
■　 Current Occupation
	Executive Director of the National Center of Disabled Persons Secretary-General of National Paralympic Committee of Cambodia
■　 Education and Work History
1994 Established Cambodia Disabled People rganization (CDPO). 1995 Established a Braille library. 1997 Executive Director of the National Center of Disabled Persons and Secretary-General of National Paralympic Committee of Cambodia. (present post). 2001 Graduated from Norton University Law School (BA Course). 2003 Graduated from Pagna Sastra University Law School (MA Course).
■　Major Accomplishments
・ -　Mr. Veasna became infected with polio when he was six years old. He began committing himself to the movement of the disabled when he was in his junior year at university. 　- Together with his friends, Mr. Veasna worked to establish several organizations for the disabled, including the Cambodia Disabled People Organization (CDPO), Disability Action Council (DAC) and Blind Association in Cambodia (BAC). At present, as the Executive Director of the National Center of Disabled Persons, a cross-sectional organization for people with various disabilities, he is devoted to empowering the disabled in Cambodia. Representing Cambodian disabled people, he is also committed to international movements. 　- He occasionally visits farm villages to offer devices for assisting local disabled people who rarely access necessary services, and to provide land mine victims with opportunities to learn handicraft skills. Moreover, through TV and other media, he works to enhance public awareness of disability-related problems. He is a pioneer in various programs designed to support the independence of disabled people. 　- Through effective use of information technology, he developed the Braille system for Cambodian language and established a Braille library. 　- He also established the National Paralympic Committee of Cambodia,where he has assumed the post of Secretary-General and is promoting sports among the disabled. In this way, he is working to empower the disabled, both in Cambodia and other countries.
■　Future Projects
・ Being disabled himself, Mr. Veasna is firmly determined to help other disabled people, regarding them all as his friends. To date, he has been a key person in disability-related programs in Cambodia. In coming years, he is expected to play a leading role in addressing various disability-related challenges in various Asian countries, as well as Cambodia, by establishing partnerships with national governments, international organizations and NGOs.