William H Gates, Sr. co-chair of the Gates Foundation, presented the award to Fazle Hasan Abed, founder and chairman of Brac, at Global Health Council's 31st annual international conference in Washington DC, a Brac press release said yesterday.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced yesterday that Brac was singled out for its pioneering community-based health programmes, which serve 31 million poor Bangladeshis -- representing almost a quarter of the country's population -- and have influenced other health initiatives around the world.

"Brac has done what few others have -- they have achieved success on a massive scale, bringing life-saving health programmes to millions of the world's poorest people," said Bill Gates, co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

"My colleagues and I are honoured to receive this recognition, and we are pleased to announce that the award money (US dollar one million) will be used to support the new James P. Grant School of Public Health at Brac University," Abed said.

A jury of international public health leaders, including the Global Health Council's board of directors and other experts from around the world, selected Brac from more than 50 other organisations nominated for the 2004 Gates Award for Global Health.

The Global Health Council is the world's largest membership alliance dedicated to saving lives by improving health throughout the world.

Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said, "Fazle Hasan Abed and his colleagues at Brac are true heroes, whose tireless commitment has been saving and improving the lives of millions for more than three decades. We are very pleased to recognise them with the Gates Award for Global Health."