Obama to give away $1.4m Nobel Prize

U.S. President Barack Obama plans on donating the $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize. He aims on giving it to the students, veteran’s families and survivors of Haiti’s earthquake through organizations doing “extraordinary work.”

The President is giving a total of $750,000 to six groups that help children go to college. The White house added on Thursday that $250,000 will be given to ‘Fisher House’, which provides housing for families with loved ones at Veterans Administration hospitals. The Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, for which two former U.S. presidents are raising money to rebuild the earthquake devastated country, will receive $200,000.

“these organizations do extraordinary work in the United States and abroad helping students, veterans, and countless others in need,” Obama said in a statement.

“I am proud to support their work,” he added.

Furthermore, he plans on donating $125,000 apiece to groups that help students go to college: College Summit, a national non-profit that works with elementary and middle school students to boost college enrollment rates; the Posse Foundation, which gives full college scholarships to public school students who might be overlooked by traditional scholarship programs; United Negro College fund; the Hispanic Scholarship Fund; the Appalachian Leadership and Education Foundation; and the American Indian College Fund.

Obama is also donating $100,000 to AfriCare, a program which funds HIV/AIDS programs, public health programs, water resource development, and agriculture in 25 countries in Africa. $100,000 will be given to the Central Asia Institute, which promotes education for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Obama won the Nobel Prize for his aspirations and approach rather than his accomplishments. The Nobel committee honored him for changing the tenor of international politics and for pursuing goals requiring worldwide efforts, including nuclear disarmaments and reversing global warming.

On winning the award, the surprised president announced he would donate the cash prize to charity.