About Us
About the Foundation
Daw Khin Kyi foundation was established in 2012 by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, in loving memory of her late mother, Daw Khin Kyi.
The purpose of the foundation is to promote health, education and living standards of the people of the country, focusing its attention especially on the needs of Burma’s least developed areas.
The foundation is a non-profit charitable organization that seeks to achieve its goals irrespective of ethnicity, race or religion, believing that improvement in one place creates a better future for all. It is politically neutral and works with local and international agencies and partners to achieve its goals.
Officially registered at Ministry of Home Affairs with properly drawn up Article and Memorandum of Association, the foundation’s establishment is legitimate to operate in all parts of the country.
The foundation’s head office is located in Yangon and in managed by an Executive Committee headed by the Foundation Chairperson, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
The foundation receives support from local and international partners and it is also able to accept charitable donations, both public and private subsidies.
Our Vision
The transformation of Burma into a Democratic Nation which is able to stand with pride among the countries of the world; is our vision. We believe that the people of Burma will live in peace, enjoying the freedom that is their rights.
The needs of Burma’s rural communities are vast, the challenges faced by the villages and remote townships are in numerous, but the opportunities for lasting change are immense and exciting. It is our vision to bring development that librates isolated places, linearization of economics and social potential and libration also of mind.
Our Mission
Achieving that vision requires us to focus upon practical interventions. We must support new direction to our education system; we must work towards effective health care system which can be enjoyed by people at all levels.
We must invest in our rural communities, developing a new agriculture venture which produces safe and quality food, human capacity building, more job opportunities for our growing young generation.
These are huge tasks but we believe that these can be done by bringing together the skills of Burmese people and the good will of our many friends and supporters. With our firm commitment and determination, we will succeed.
Daw Khin Kyi
The foundation takes its inspiration from Daw Khin Kyi, the wife of Burmese independence hero General Aung San and the first woman to represent her country as an ambassador.
Born on April 16, 1912, Daw Khin Kyi studied in Rangoon, being trained as both a teacher and a nurse. She met General Aung San in 1942 while working in the New Japan General Hospital and got married the same year. Daw Khin Kyi was a devoted wife to the General and a caring mother to their three children.
In 1947, after General Aung San was assassinated, cutting cruelly short the hope of the newly independent country that he would lead his country into the future. Immediately, Daw Khin Kyi became Member of Parliament for her husband’s constituency Lanmadaw Township, Rangoon and worked as representative in the Hluttaw from 1947 to 1952.
During these years, she brought her knowledge of health care to the service of newly independent Burma. She founded the Maternal and Child Care Association and served as Chief Director of the Maternal and Child Welfare Board from 1953 to 1958.
From 1952-1960, she served as Patron of Burma’s Nurses and Midwives.
She also served as Chair of the Government Social Welfare Planning Commission; the Burma Health and Civic Council, the National Women’s Council, the Burma Ambulance Army; and the Burma Girls Scout. At the same time, she sought to promote the values of Democracy through the Council for the Development and Dissemination of Democratic Principles.
In 1960, Daw Khin Kyi was nominated as Burma’s Ambassador to India and Nepal, posts that she held until 1967. She remains the only woman to have held the rank of Ambassador in the country’s history and to have spoken for Burma at World Health and other International Organizations.
Care for others, a love of serving others through development works, faith in her country’s independent future, and the opportunity of free Burmese people to live in peace and dignity. These values, which inspired Daw Khin Kyi, are those which the foundation seeks to express. Speaking in 1989, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi recalled how;
From my earliest childhood, my mother taught me this idea of National Unity; not by merely talking about it but by including it in everyday work. We need to give thought to ethnic groups other than our own. We need to show sympathy and understanding towards them. Without this, progress for our country will be impossible.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of General Aung San and Daw Khin Kyi, embodied the hope of her parents and her people for a free and prosperous Burma whose people can have their human rights and human values.
In 1991, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Speaking in 2012, when she was at last free to receive the award on her behalf, she described how
During my days of house arrest it felt as though I was no longer a part of the real world. There was the house which was my world, there was the world of others who also were not free but were together in prison as a community, and there was the world of the free.
But after winning the prize, she came to believe that,
The Nobel Prize had drawn the attention of the world to the struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma. We were not going to be forgotten.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi won the Pyithu Hluttaw seat for Kaw Hmu Township constituency in April 2012. She now represents her community in the Burmese Parliament and lead the National League for Democracy and Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, putting into practice her faith in her country.
