On Monday, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation announced it had awarded Boston-based Partners in Health a $1.5 million Humanitarian Prize for its community health-care work in Haiti, Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, Russia, Rwanda and inner-city Boston. Foundation head Steven Hilton lauded PIH for its role in advancing "ideas of social justice and challenging the conventional wisdom of public health care funding." PIH trains local people to deliver basic health care, including providing antiretrovirals to HIV/AIDS patients, care to pregnant women and treatment to malaria patients. PIH, which was chosen from among 200 nominees for the award, was created by a group of physicians in 1987 and set up its first community-based health care project in Cange, Haiti. Today, PIH provides help to about 1 million Haitians annually. PIH Director Paul Farmer said the award will allow his group to "bring more people on board to provide decent health care to everyone in need."

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