by Gregory Dale
For New Pittsburgh Courier
(NNPA)—President Obama will donate $1.4 million from his Nobel Peace Prize to several charities, according to a White House press release.
Obama will donate a total of $750,000 to six groups that assist students going to college. The Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, which helps to rebuild the devastated country, will receive $200,000. Fisher House, which supplies housing for the families of hospitalized veterans, will receive $250,000.
“These organizations do extraordinary work in the United States and abroad helping students, veterans and countless others in need,” President Obama said in the statement. “I’m proud to support their work.”
Donations to the Fisher House will help fund new temporary lodgings at Bethesda Naval Hospital and Dover Air Force Base for family members of injured and slain soldiers.
“It’s work that needs to be done for these men and women who have served this nation so gallantly,” Fisher House Foundation Chairman and CEO Kenneth Fisher told The Associated Press. “It’s a privilege to serve these men and women and these families because they give so much to this nation.”
Donations to Haiti will assist the relief efforts led by Former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton in Haiti, which has been suffering since it was hit by a devastating quake Jan. 12.
United Negro College Fund, College Summit, The Posse Foundation, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the Appalachian Leadership and Education Foundation, and the American Indian College Fund, will each receive $125,000.
“We are grateful that President Obama has seen fit to use the proceeds from his Nobel Prize to help seniors at UNCF-member colleges and universities complete their studies and graduate on time,” UNCF President and CEO Michael L. Lomax said in a press release. “The recession has been hard on them, and they will be encouraged that the first African-American president of the United States is investing in their education and their future.”
College Summit is a national nonprofit that helps high schools raise the college enrollment rates of graduating students. “We feel very privileged that President Obama has made the commitment to our students and to our school partners and we believe that the next generation is ready to create, thrive and compete in 21st century jobs,” Donna Fleming, the executive director of College Summit’s National Capital Region told the AFRO. “This is the single best way to advance innovation, prosperity and peace.”
AfriCare, which funds HIV/AIDS programs, water resource development and public health programs, will receive $100,000, as will the Central Asia Institute, which supports education for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
President Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2009 and was the third president in U.S. history to receive the award.
(Reprinted from the Afro American.)
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