NICHD Renamed for Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Right
Click to Download MP3 File
Brief Description:
Recently, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development,
one of the 27 institutes and centers at NIH, was renamed at a
ceremony on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland to honor Eunice
Kennedy Shriver.
Transcript:
Balintfy: Recently, the National Institute
of Child Health and Human Development, one of the 27 institutes
and centers at NIH, was renamed at a ceremony on the NIH campus
in Bethesda, Maryland to honor Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
Zerhouni: We're witnessing an event that is
illustrative of a fundamental truth.
Balintfy: Dr. Elias Zerhouni is the Director
of the NIH.
Zerhouni: History is made by a few leaders
with a vision when it's embraced by all of us as a mission. And
I think today, we're seeing the vision of a few leaders.
Balintfy: Members of Congress, federal officials,
as well as family and friends of Mrs. Shriver at the renaming
event, included Senators Edward Kennedy and Orin Hatch, Congressman
Steny Hoyer, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Dr. Duane Alexander
is director of the newly renamed institute. He highlights Mrs.
Shriver's leadership.
Alexander: In Washington and elsewhere, many
good ideas languish unfulfilled. That could have happened with
the idea of a new institute if a champion had not come forward
to bring it to fruition. That champion was Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
Balintfy: Dr. Alexander explains that in the
early 1960s, Mrs. Shriver urged her brother, President John F.
Kennedy, to establish an institute that would conduct research
on children's health and human development. She later worked
with House and Senate leaders to help ensure passage of the legislation
that would make the institute a reality. Mrs. Shriver says much,
but not all of her life has been spent working to make the world
a better place for people with intellectual disability.
Shriver: That has been a huge part of my life.
It inspired me to work and research when we were young, to create
sports programs with others, Special Olympics and Best Buddies,
to ask political leaders for more education, more health care,
more housing and more acceptance.
Balintfy: Again, Dr. Zerhouni.
Zerhouni: It is with the greatest pride for
all of us at the National Institutes of Health, to witness the
change of the name of the National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Balintfy: The NICHD sponsors research on development,
before and after birth; maternal, child, and family health; reproductive
biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation. For
more information, visit www.nichd.nih.gov.
This is Joe Balintfy at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda,
Maryland.