Los Angeles Foundation Awards $1.5 Million Humanitarian Prize

The Los Angeles-based Conrad N. Hilton Foundation has announced HelpAge International, an NGO which provides assistance for disadvantaged older people in developing countries, as the winner of the 2012 Hilton Humanitarian Prize, the world’s largest humanitarian award.    HelpAge provides funds and training for elderly people world-wide to enable them to lead dignified, active, healthy and secure lives.   

The organization’s work is increasingly critical with the world’s population aging at historic rates.  By 2015, nearly 900 million people will be older than age 60 which is close to three times the population of the U.S.  The aging trend is happening fastest in the developing world where incomes are lower and many elderly people live in extreme poverty.  HelpAge will receive $1.5 million from the Hilton Foundation as this year’s winner. 

www.helpageusa.org

www.hiltonfoundation.org 

Aravind to receive $1.5 million Hilton Humanitarian Prize

Results do the talking: ''We never advertise,'' says Aravind's chief, P. Namperumalsamy.

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation announces jury selection of innovative eye care provider that has saved millions from blindness in India, now recognized as a low-cost model for efficient healthcare globally.

Aravind Eye Care System, the world’s largest eye care provider that has developed innovative technologies allowing it to perform 300,000 eye surgeries each year – 70 percent subsidized or free for the poor – has been selected to receive the 2010 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize of $1.5 million. The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation presents the annual award, the world’s largest humanitarian prize, to an organization that is doing extraordinary work to alleviate human suffering. More than 200 nominations are received from throughout the world, and an independent international jury makes the final selection.

“Aravind is a remarkable enterprise and its scale of impact on millions of patients is phenomenal,” said Steven M. Hilton, CEO and president of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. “In a 30-year quest to end blindness in India, Aravind has developed innovative technologies that are now a model for both the developed and developing world.”