Posted on September 28, 2005

Partners in Health Receives Hilton Humanitarian Prize

Boston-based Partners in Health has been named the winner of the 2005 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, the world's largest humanitarian award. This year's prize, marking the tenth anniversary of the competition, comes with a $1.5 million cash award.

PIH successfully established its first community-based health project in Cange, a small impoverished settlement in Haiti, in 1987. Today that project serves nearly a million people while also tackling the conditions of poverty that cause disease. In the almost twenty years since its founding, PIH has taken its pioneering model of care to Peru, Russia, Mexico, Guatemala, Rwanda, and inner-city Boston, and has seen its HIV Equity model, developed in Haiti, and its protocol for multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis adopted in developing countries around the world.

Previous recipients of the Hilton Humanitarian Prize include Heifer International (United States) in 2004; the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (Denmark) in 2003; SOS Children's Villages (Austria) in 2002; St. Christopher's Hospice (England) in 2001; Casa Alianza (Costa Rica) in 2000; the African Medical and Research Foundation (Kenya) in 1999; Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (France) in 1998; the International Rescue Committee (United States) in 1997; and Operation Smile (United States) in 1996.

"Partners in Health provides 'first world' health care to the poorest societies, creating an innovative model that successfully has reversed the most devastating illnesses and returned people to productive lives," said Conrad N. Hilton Foundation chairman and CEO Steven Hilton in announcing the winner of this year's prize. "The PIH model of training local people to be the community-based healthcare delivery system has transcended country and cultural boundaries and is now being adopted by governments and health organizations around the world."