BHUBANESWAR: Hollywood actor and global goodwill ambassador of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Ashley Judd was conferred KISS Humanitarian Award 2016 here on Thursday.Governor of Odisha S C Jamir gave away the award to Judd at a glittering function at KISS, a residential school offering free education to 25,000 tribal children from across the state.A visibly excited Judd addressed the children during the award function and said: "This award will empower and make me energetic to do more work for women and girl children. It's a great honour but the real prize has been to visit the tribal children who are enrolled here, it has been deeply moving, profoundly inspiring and taking away so many valuable lessons, role of education, nutrition and community in raising children who are safe and have rights and who grow up to be empowered and powerful.""On sexual exploitation: I should say our cultures and faith practices share the same underlined spiritual principles but yet on the outside can look quite different. And yet your vulnerabilities were my vulnerabilities. My parents loved me very much, they are very proud of me today and yet, for reason both within and beyond their control, our family system didn't work particularly well. We talk so much about the rights of the girl child here in India, about eradicating sexual abuse, the system of prostitution and human trafficking and yet I, a white American girl, was sexually assaulted too at the age of seven."

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