The 2011 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize dinner ceremony honoring Handicap International

WHO
International Keynote Speaker: Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile and first Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of U.N. Women, the new U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, will give the keynote address at the Hilton Humanitarian Prize dinner ceremony.

Steven M. Hilton, President and CEO of the Hilton Foundation, will present the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize. Accepting the Prize for Handicap International is executive director and co-founder, Jean-Baptiste Richardier.

WHAT
Live webcast of the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize ceremony via the Global Philanthropy Forum. Handicap International video shown.

WHERE
http://www.hiltonfoundation.org/prize

WHEN
Wednesday, April 13, 2011, at 8:20 p.m. (PDT: Pacific Daylight Time) / 11:20 p.m. (EDT: Eastern Daylight Time)

About the Hilton Prize: The Hilton Prize jury includes: Princess Salimah Aga Khan, international ambassador for SOS Children's Villages; Professor Catherine A. Bertini, professor of public administration, Syracuse University, and former executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme; Gro Harlem Brundtland, MPH, former director-general of the World Health Organization and former prime minister of Norway; Eric M. Hilton, director, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, and son of the late Conrad Hilton; James R. Galbraith, director, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation; Olara A. Otunnu, president of LBL Foundation for Children, former UN under-secretary-general and special representative for children and armed conflict; and Professor Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize Laureate in economics and Lamont University professor at Harvard University.

The Hilton Prize Laureates are recognized leaders in the humanitarian world and include: Aravind Eye Care System (India) 2010; PATH (Seattle, WA), 2009, BRAC (Bangladesh), 2008; Tostan (Senegal), 2007; Women for Women International (Washington, DC), 2006; Partners In Health (Massachusetts), 2005; Heifer International (Arkansas), 2004; International Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims (Denmark), 2003; SOS Children's Villages (Austria), 2002; St. Christopher's Hospice (United Kingdom), 2001; Casa Alianza (Costa Rica), 2000; African Medical and Research Foundation (Kenya), 1999; Doctors Without Borders (France), 1998; International Rescue Committee (New York), 1997; and Operation Smile (Virginia), 1996.

About the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation: The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation was created in 1944 by international business pioneer Conrad N. Hilton, who founded Hilton Hotels and left his fortune to help the world's disadvantaged and vulnerable people. The Foundation currently conducts strategic initiatives in five priority areas: providing safe water, ending chronic homelessness, preventing substance abuse, caring for vulnerable children, and extending Conrad Hilton's support for the work of Catholic Sisters. Following selection by an independent international jury, the Foundation annually awards the $1.5 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize to a nonprofit organization doing extraordinary work to reduce human suffering. From its inception, the Foundation has awarded nearly $940 million in grants, distributing more than $100 million in 2010. The Foundation's current assets are approximately $2 billion. For more information, please visit www.hiltonfoundation.org

About Handicap International: Handicap International is an independent and impartial international aid organization working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster. We work alongside people with disabilities and vulnerable populations, taking action and bearing witness in order to respond to their essential needs, improve their living conditions and promote respect for their dignity and fundamental rights.
Handicap International is the 2011 recipient of the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, a co-laureate of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize and a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Since its beginnings in 1982, the organization has gone on to work in more than 60 countries worldwide and our work has benefited several million people in that time. For more information about the Handicap International Federation, please visit: www.handicap-international.org, and for more information about Handicap International in Canada, please visit: www.handicap-international.ca