LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The board of directors of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation announced today that it approved $19.53 million in grants during the third quarter of 2016, including $9.5 million across Safe Water Network, World Vision and PATH in support of a new strategic approach for the Hilton Foundation's Safe Water program area.

For more than 25 years, the Foundation has been committed to improving access to safe drinking water in low-resource settings of Sub-Saharan Africa, Mexico and India, with investments in the water sector having been guided by global ambitions, beginning first with the call to eradicate guinea worm followed by the Millennium Development Goals' (MDGs) drinking water target.

The adoption of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) gives the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector a new global ambition to strive for – pushing for bigger and better services. The Foundation has embraced this bold challenge with the design and release of its 2017-2021 grantmaking strategy.

Taking this into consideration, within the Safe Water program area, the Foundation will make investments in three key focus areas: 1) advancing proven and promising solutions and models, 2) strengthening water governance and in-country systems, and 3) building and disseminating credible and actionable evidence.

"We are pleased to announce another $19.53 million in funds to organizations all over the world, and are particularly excited about our new strategy for our Safe Water program," said Peter Laugharn, president and CEO of the Hilton Foundation. "The three approaches outlined in the strategy will be applied in an integrated way within the countries where we work in sub-Saharan Africa, with the objective of accelerating the coverage of reliable access to safe and affordable water for households, health facilities and schools in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Uganda."

Of the $9.5 million to support the Safe Water program area, Safe Water Network was awarded $5 million to develop a market for small water enterprises (SWEs) in Ghana. $3 million was granted to World Vision for the purpose of demonstrating sustainable WASH services in all health care facilities in two districts in Mali. PATH was awarded $1.5 million to advance the development of a commercially viable on-site chlorine generator (SE-Flow) for drinking water treatment and infection prevention and control (IPC) in low-resource health facilities, schools and communities.

Grants in the third quarter of 2016 were awarded to a total of 17 organizations spanning across the Hilton Foundation's priority areas, including organizations serving the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people both in the U.S. and internationally.

Following is an overview of other grants awarded in the third quarter of 2016:

Children Affected by HIV and AIDS – King Baudouin Foundation United States, Inc. was awarded $260,000 to support the African Early Childhood Network's efforts to strengthen early childhood development  research and advocacy in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. Additionally, $400,000 was awarded to PATH to assess the impact of health facility-based early childhood development interventions and plan for replication in Kenya. Finally, The World Bank was awarded $300,000 for the Early Learning Partnership to provide the Government of Tanzania with data on the pre-primary teaching workforce.

Foster Youth – $750,000 was awarded to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy to build the capacity of community colleges to address unintended pregnancy among youth transitioning out of foster care in Los Angeles and New York. Annie E. Casey Foundation was awarded $300,000 for learning and assessment of the Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential (LEAP) initiative.

Catholic Sisters – Alverno College was granted $2.75 million to expand and deepen National Catholic Sisters Project (formerly known as National Catholic Sisters Week) to include three additional Catholic colleges and universities located in California, Texas and Wisconsin. $900,000 was awarded to LifeNet International to build the capacity of Catholic sisters to operate in 22 community health centers in Uganda, while Medicines for Humanity received a $250,000 grant to build the capacity of 11 congregations of Catholic Sisters in Haiti to implement effective training programs for traditional birth attendants. Finally, Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate was granted $240,000 to support research that advances our understanding of Catholic sisters.

Homelessness – $1.9 million was granted to Abt Associates to serve as Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning partner for Phase II of the Foundation's Homelessness Strategic Initiative. Downtown Women's Center was awarded $450,000 to build partnership and foster cross-sector programs between permanent supportive housing and domestic violence providers serving individuals experiencing chronic homelessness.

Disaster Relief and Recovery – Harvard University was awarded $480,000 to support continued development and scale-up of KoBo Toolbox, free and open-source suite of data collection and analysis tools that aims to facilitate better coordination and more timely humanitarian service delivery in the field.

Catholic Education – $550,000 was awarded to Step Up for Students to expand private school choice in the state of Alabama, in partnership with the Archdiocese of Mobile, to include Catholic schools serving low-income students.

Additionally, a grant in the amount of $500,000 was awarded to Boys Town Nevada to support family services in a school-based initiative.

For more detailed information on our grantmaking, please visit hiltonfoundation.org/grants.

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 six priority areas: providing safe water, ending chronic homelessness, preventing substance use, helping children affected by HIV and AIDS, supporting transition-age youth in foster care, and extending Conrad Hilton's support for the work of Catholic Sisters. In addition, following selection by an independent international jury, the Foundation annually awards the $2 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize to a nonprofit organization doing extraordinary work to reduce human suffering. In 2016, the Humanitarian Prize was awarded to The Task Force for Global Health, an international, nonprofit organization that works to improve health of people most in need, primarily in developing countries.  From its inception, the Foundation has awarded more than $1.4 billion in grants, distributing $107 million in the U.S. and around the world in 2015. The Foundation's current assets are approximately $2.5 billion. For more information, please visit www.hiltonfoundation.org.

Contact: Julia Friedman, Communications Manager, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
818.851.3754 / julia@hiltonfoundation.org

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