The Province/Calgary Herald investigative series on abandoned brides in India has won the Commonwealth Press Union/Rolls Royce Words & Images Award

The project, “Abandoned Brides: Canada’s Shame, India’s Sorrow,” was a joint public service investigation by the two Canwest newspapers about sham weddings by Canadians to women in India.

Province deputy editor Fabian Dawson, who is also the former editorial consultant for the Asian Pacific Post, led the team which was made up of Province feature writer Mike Roberts, Calgary Herald columnist Valerie Fortney and photographer Ted Rhodes.

The Province package was edited by Alan Ferguson and designed by Nick Murphy.

“We have many people to thank who helped us with the series none more so than the brave women in India who stepped forward to tell us their stories,” said Dawson.

The Abandoned Brides series, which ran over five days in October 2005, triggered international debate, the issuance of a religious decree in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar and sparked community and government action in India and Canada.

In July, the Abandoned Brides series won the Daniel Pearl Award for 2005’s outstanding story about South Asia, or South Asians in North America beating entries from the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times and Business Week magazine.

The series has also received citations of merit from the National Newspaper Awards, the Canadian Association of Journalists and The Society of Newspaper Design.

The Commonwealth Press Union/Rolls Royce Words & Images Award from the London-based Commonwealth Press Union is to honor the complementary crafts of writing and photo-journalism in a single accolade.

The Commonwealth Press Union has a membership of  750 newspaper groups (with several hundred newspapers), individual newspapers and news agencies in 49 countries.

The Commonwealth Press Union award award carries a cash prize of 750 pounds. All prize money has been donated by the team to a legal aid clinic set up in India to help abandoned brides.