Aung San Suu Kyi

The Nobel Peace Prize 1991

Prize motivation: "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights."

Nobel Prize Cash and Philanthropy

Aung San Suu Kyi announced that she would use the $1.3 million Nobel Prize money to establish a health and education trust for the Burmese people. However, at that time, such a trust did not come to fruition. TIME magazine reported that there is speculation that the Burmese military leaders would not allow for her trust to be created. In 2007, a Burmese National paper reported that the Burmese Government accused Suu Kyi of tax evasion for spending the Nobel Prize money abroad; however, this was widely seen as a political attempt by the Burmese government to silence their harshest critic, Suu Kyi.

“The Daw Khin Kyi Foundation was established in 2012 by the Nobel Laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, in loving memory of her mother, Daw Khin Kyi. The purpose of the foundation is to promote the health, education and living standards of the people of the country, focusing its attention especially on the needs of Burma’s least developed areas.” - Daw Khin Kyi foundation.