U.S. non-profit organisation Helen Keller International today won one of the world's largest science prizes for its work in preventing childhood blindness in developing countries, according to Reuters. The organisation received the 1-million-euro ($1.43 million) prize from Portugal's Champalimaud Foundation. Established in 2006, the foundation's annual award is for work related to vision. "It is a recognition of an extraordinary work that takes light to the shadow, hope to despair, for millions of people in Africa, especially Mozambique, and in Asia," Leonor Beleza, the head of the foundation, said at the award ceremony. The sum is in line with the 10-million-Swedish-crown ($1.39 million) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The foundation praised HKI's "decades-long leadership in the global control of vitamin A deficiency -- the leading cause of childhood blindness and a major contributor to child mortality" -- which it said helped to save the sight and lives of millions. HKI has programmes in 22 countries, mainly in Africa and Asia, focusing its efforts on fighting and treating preventable blindness, including conditions like cataract, trachoma and river blindness, as well as malnutrition. HKI head Kathy Spahn said the award would be used to engage more professionals, further train staff and "will make a huge difference for our ultimate beneficiaries, the most vulnerable and disadvantaged". The HKI, named after the late deaf-blind U.S. author and activist Helen Keller, was founded in 1915 to help soldiers blinded in World War I. The awarding foundation was set up at the bequest of Portugal's industrialist Antonio Champalimaud who died in 2004.
