Thank you very much Premier Harcourt, Minister Marleau, Director-General Nakajima, Dr. Tze, Mrs. Grant. I join you today to pay tribute to Jim Grant and all of us guided by his boundless spirit to finish the job he so heroically began. Jim Grant was a leader who drank from the well of courage and conviction, distributing health and hope to millions of children he educated a generation of international leaders teaching us all to be citizens of the world. And through it all he lived by a simple motto, "Never Give Up, Never Give Up". When we celebrate Jim Grant's life we celebrate the best of the human spirit. We celebrate his unyielding energy and a mortal commitment to the world's children and we celebrate the dreams he ignited and the gifts of life that he gave. For those children in South East Asia who might have gone blind, under Jim's leadership UNICEF gave the gift of sight. For those children in South America who could have gone hungry UNICEF gave the gift of food. For those in Africa who might have died from preventable diseases UNICEF gave the give of immunization and for those children in the Middle East who could have perished from diarrhea, Jim Grant provided his famous recipe, a small sachet of oral rehydration salt, always conveniently tucked in his shirt pocket. He was a voice for the voiceless, a force of strength and vision for people too often left behind. The children of the world were Jim Grant's constituents. They were his mission, they were his hope for the future and he never gave up on them. Whether he was holding the hand of a child in Cambodia or talking policy with presidents and kings and ministers he put his eye on the ball and focused on one thing and one thing only, getting the job done. To Jim Grant's UNICEF getting the job meant increasing immunization rates in the developing world from 20% to 80%.
Getting the job done meant disseminating simple prevention tools like the oral rehydration therapy which is now reaching half of the families in the developing world and saving more than one million young lives each year. Getting the job done meant bringing together more than 70 of the world's presidents and prime ministers for a historic world summit on children in 1990. And once there setting out clear goals that we as a world community are now beginning to reach and getting the job done meant turning the dream of the UN Convention on the rights of the child into a reality. What more fitting salute to these and other efforts than at Jim Grant's memorial service to have the first lady of the United States, Hillary Clinton, announce that the United States would finally sign that historic document. He had only 24 hours in each day and 72 years to live, but he made them most of every minute. That's why the format of our tribute today is so appropriate. If in the purest Jim Grant tradition short on pomp and circumstance, long on dreams and direction. For if Jim Grant were here with us today he would ask us to look beyond our own back yard to the plight of our children and our grandchildren throughout the world. He would tell us that too many children still go unfed, too many infants still die from preventable conditions and too many young girls are not given the education and support they need to reach their full potential. He would tell us to look at the distance we have traveled and the mountains we have yet to climb. And quite simply he would ask us to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Jim Grant had faith in humanity and faith in our collective future. He was like the old man before he dies plants a tree for future generations to nurture and enjoy. In UNICEF's 1995 report on the state of the world's children Jim Grant ends with these powerful words written by George Bernard Shaw, "Life is no brief candle for me, it is like a splendid torch which I have got to hold on to for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations. Because of Jim Grant that candle is burning brightly illuminating the eyes and the hopes of children throughout the world. Our challenge, our obligation must be to keep that flame lit and pass it on. Pass it on. Thank You.