Washington:
US President Barack Obama has made good on a promise to give his $1.4 million in Nobel Peace Prize money to charity, releasing on Thursday the names of the organizations that will benefit.
"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'm proud to support their work."
Obama put Fisher House, an organization that provides housing for the families of those being treated at major military and Veterans Affairs medical centers, at the top of the list with a $250,000 donation. Fisher House was followed by the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, the project his two immediate predecessors are running to raise money for relief and reconstruction efforts in Haiti, which will get $200,000.
White House officials said that the money would go directly from the Nobel Committee to the charities and that it would be released in the next few days.
Obama promised last fall to give his prize money to charity when the Nobel Committee stunned the world by choosing him for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize less than nine months into his presidency.
Republicans contended that Obama had won more for his star power and oratorical skills than for his actual achievements, and even some Democrats privately questioned whether he deserved the award. Obama, himself, maintained that he did "not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who have been honored by this prize."
Other organizations receiving some of Obama's prize money include the Posse Foundation, which helps nontraditional high school students get into college; the United Negro College Fund; the Hispanic Scholarship Fund; the Appalachian Leadership and Education Foundation; the American Indian College Fund; Africare; and the Central Asia Institute, which promotes girls' education in Pakistan and Afghanistan.