The President of the United States, Barack Obama, this week awarded his country’s highest civilian honor to Dr. Tom Little, a Christian worker for the International Assistance Mission (IAM) who was murdered in Afghanistan last August.
"Tom Little could have pursued a lucrative career," Obama said. "Instead, he was guided by his faith, and he set out to heal the poorest of the poor in Afghanistan. For 30 years, amid invasion and civil war, the terror of the Taliban, the spread of insurgency, he and his wife Libby helped bring Afghans—literally—the miracle of sight."
As an optometrist of vast field experience, Little was leading an eye care team in the remote northeastern region of Badakhshan when he and nine others were murdered by political and religious extremists.
The Taliban later claimed responsibility for the act, alleging that the group were proselytizing and carrying Bibles in the Dari language, which the IAM have firmly denied.
Little's widow Libby Little accepted the award on her husband's behalf.
In a speech made during the awards ceremony, President Obama described Little as "a humanitarian in the truest sense of the word: a man who not only dedicated his life to others, but who lived that lesson of Scripture: 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' "
Little's was the only posthumous Medal of Freedom awarded this year.
(The image depicts Libby Little receiving the award from President Obama).