"flame of hope") and became its secretary general. Now, she began to also receive recognition from the establishment. Queen Sirikit congratulated her upon receiving the Magsaysay Award. In 1980, the Ministry of Education (which once had opposed her efforts) named her the most outstanding teacher of Thailand. In 1981, she became the first Asian citizen to receive the John D. Rockefeller III Youth Award for "outstanding contribution to Mankind". With the prize money she established the Foundation for Slum Child Care. In the same year, Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda visited the slums and her school. In 1992 she became a committee member of the Confederation for Democracy and one of the leaders of the opposition to the then ruling military-sponsored government of General Suchinda Kraprayoon, that led to the bloody clashes of "Black May" and the eventual resignation of Suchinda. In Thailand's first direct election of the Senate in the year 2000, she won a seat in this chamber of parliament. She used her position to advocate the rights of the poor and discriminated people on political level. In 2004 she received The World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child from Queen Silvia of Sweden. After the coup d'état in Thailand 2006, she became a supporter of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship ("Red Shirts"). During the protests of 2010, she belonged to the more moderate wing of the movement and was concerned to see the militant tendencies within the group. Her commitment to the "Red Shirts" and the political polarisation in Thailand led to a decline of donations for her Duang Prateep Foundation from within the country. Some regular donors who are affiliated with the opposite political camp refused to give to an organisation headed by a "Red Shirt" and stopped their payments. Personal life In 1987 she married the Japanese citizen Tatsuya Hata, a Kinki University professor for international studies and charity activist. References External links Duang Prateep Foundation World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child 2004 the Foundation for Slum Child Care 1952 births Living people Prateep Ungsongtham Hata Prateep Ungsongtham Hata Prateep Ungsongtham Hata Prateep Ungsongtham Hata Prateep Ungsongtham Hata Prateep Ungsongtham Hata Prateep Ungsongtham Hata Prateep Ungsongtham Hata Prateep Ungsongtham Hata Ramon Magsaysay Award winners