Recognition 

This professional experience of many years standing comes to force in the close and successful co-operations with authorities, academic experts, other educational institutes and aid agencies. But also through the fact that SOS Children's Villages is often approached with the request that a village be built in a country, a region or a specific place - in those places where there are so many abandoned and orphaned children and where there are not enough facilities to care for them.

SOS Children's Villages has had contact with a considerable number of UN organisations over the years. This has been when carrying out and supporting aid programmes or as part of long-term humanitarian projects aimed mainly at children, mothers and families in need. On the occasion of SOS Children's Villages 50th anniversary in 1999, President Helmut Kutin met with the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan in New York.

Kofi Annan highlighted the importance of the SOS Children's Village work for disadvantaged children all over the world. He emphasised how significant the neighbourhood aid projects such as the SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools and SOS Medical Centres were. According to him the successful and rapid implementation of SOS Emergency Aid Programmes in trouble spots and disaster areas were also an important humanitarian effort.

On 14 October 2002 President Helmut Kutin received the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, the world's largest award for humanitarian service, on behalf of SOS-Kinderdorf International. The prestigious one million dollar prize is presented annually by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation (named for its founder, late hotel entrepreneur Conrad N. Hilton) to an organization making extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering.

Previous recipients have included: St. Christopher's Hospice (2001); Casa Alianza (2000); African Medical and Research Foundation (1999); Médecins Sans Frontières (1998); International Rescue Committee (1997); and Operation Smile (1996).

Mr. Steven Hilton, president of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation (based in Los Angeles, California), said: "SOS Children's Villages is providing hope for more than 50,000 orphans and destitute children and youth in loving family-oriented environments that provide the security and stability needed to prepare children for life."

More information on the Hilton Prize can be found in our News Archives

Helmut Kutin, who from the age of twelve was raised in an SOS Children's Village, said: "Receiving the Hilton Humanitarian Prize is a very special honour for our thousands of SOS co-workers worldwide, and it emphasizes the absolute right of children to a family, to respect and to having equal chances." Helmut Kutin particularly emphasised the need to fight Aids together, above all in Africa - a fight which has to be fought by taking small steps day by day so as not to become overwhelmed by the dimension of the Aids epidemic.

The prize-money was and is used to fund projects for AIDS victims run by SOS Children's Villages in southern and eastern Africa. The programmes have been created to test new ways of helping, counselling and caring for AIDS orphans, and assisting children and families affected by AIDS.

One of the biggest rewards for the work carried out has been the multiple nominations of both the SOS Children's Village organisation and its founder, Hermann Gmeiner, for the Nobel Peace Prize. Over the last five decades, Hermann Gmeiner and his successor and current president, Helmut Kutin, have received a multitude of awards and honours in recognition of the SOS Children's Village work. The organisation has received important prizes in almost all the countries in which SOS Children's Villages is active.

Apart from all the honorary citizenships, orders of merit and honorary doctorates, a cross-section of them is listed below:

1980 Grand Cross and Star of the Papal Order of St. Gregory to Hermann Gmeiner, 1999 also awarded to Helmut Kutin / 1983 The Wateler Peace Prize, The Hague, The Netherlands to Hermann Gmeiner / 1985 The "Aristotle Prize" of the Onassis Foundation, Athens, to Hermann Gmeiner / 1986 In recognition of its commitment to peace and as an expression of appreciation for special efforts made in the context of the International Year of Peace, SOS-Kinderdorf International was honoured as a "Peace Messenger" by the then Secretary General of the United Nations, Javier Pèrez de Cuèllar / 1990 Huan Chuong Huu Nghi (Friendship Order), Republic of Vietnam, to Helmut Kutin / 1990 "Distinguished Service Cross of the Order of Merit", Federal Republic of Germany, to Helmut Kutin / 1994 Commander of the Order of Merit, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to Helmut Kutin / 1997 "The Award of Friendship Order" of Russia to Helmut Kutin / 2001 "Honor al Merito Parlamento Centroamericano", Guatemala, to Helmut Kutin / 2001 Medal of Honour for service to the Republic of Austria to Helmut Kutin