All will agree that, as a Greek philosopher once said, “the foundation of every state is the education of its youth.” Yet, education continues to be an issue. In most countries, governments do not (or cannot) invest in it enough to meet the demand, and problems of quality, capacity, and access limit education’s potential as the foundation of healthy, dynamic, and democratic societies.

In Bangladesh, one of the world’s most populated countries, education is critical in addressing widespread poverty as well as sustaining and fueling the remarkable economic advances the country has been making in recent years. This is the challenge that thirty-eight-year-old Korvi Rakshand has taken up. He led a privileged, socially sheltered life, earned a law degree from the University of London, and seemed destined for a lucrative career in law or business, when he had a life-changing moment. Exploring a country he had not quite seen up close, he came upon a group of children scavenging for scraps in a dump. He spent some time playing with them, shared food out of empathy, and as he was walking away, a little girl approached him and asked him to take her home with him since she had none. This shocked him and left him feeling so helpless and guilty, he soon made up his mind about what he really wanted to do with his life.

He convinced six friends to join him in a project to teach English to poor children so they will have the chance to get jobs in Dhaka’s growing industry. With a rented room in the Rayer Bazar slums of Dhaka, furnished with nothing but a carpet, plus a whiteboard and marker, they taught their first set of seventeen students. Thus began JAAGO Foundation (the Bangla word means “wake up”), a non-profit organization established in 2007 that aimed to address problems of access and quality education for underprivileged children.

From such small beginnings, it has grown into one of the largest, most dynamic non-profit organizations in its field in Bangladesh. With education as its core program, it provides free of cost, government-recognized English-language primary and secondary education to underprivileged children through eleven traditional and online schools in ten districts of Bangladesh. Students are provided free uniforms and school supplies, food, personal hygiene items, health check-ups, and medicines. Located in rural areas, its online schools operate in the same way as traditional schools except that teachers deliver lectures from the JAAGO’s teachers’ center in Dhaka, using video conferencing technology. Students watch on big screens and interact with the teachers. Trained facilitators are present onsite to assist and monitor the students. JAAGO is pioneering in exploiting technology to address problems of access in hard to reach areas and the shortage of qualified teachers. Starting from that one classroom with seventeen students, JAAGO now has 206 classrooms and has reached 30,000 students.

JAAGO’s success and rising reputation as a change maker have enabled its expansion into other engagements. A major initiative is its Volunteer for Bangladesh (VBD) program, established in 2011. It seeks to involve the youth in positive social change through capacity building, youth led community participatory campaigns, mobilization for humanitarian assistance to build a skilled Bangladesh. This has stoked such wide enthusiasm that VBD is now a movement of 50,000 youth leaders. JAAGO’s programs have evolved into other themes, such as women empowerment and children’s rights, climate change, democracy & governance.

Illustrations of its dynamism is that it has set up a “Safe Haven Project” that supports the physical and mental well-being of the children of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in the sprawling Cox’s Bazar camp in Bangladesh.

The driving force behind all these is Korvi Rakshand, whose innovative, enterprising, and bold leadership has enabled JAAGO to build a network of support from donors, sponsors, and partners in government and the private sector, in Bangladesh and abroad, and more importantly, the popular participation of Bangladeshis themselves in their country’s social transformation. Venturing outside of his sheltered background, Rakshand started his journey by saying to himself, “Wake up!”—and, in the process of truly seeing—has awakened others as well. He said, “We wanted to start a movement. We were young, we were activists. It was a movement of young people. We said, ‘Wake up, it’s time to wake up. Not from your dreams but from (within) your heart.’”

In electing Korvi Rakshand to receive the 2023 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, the board of trustees recognizes his determined spirit and quiet courage in turning away from a secure life to a more demanding one of working for the underprivileged; his strong, visionary leadership in democratizing education and inspiring thousands of young people to heed the call of social transformation, and for thus demonstrating how the young can be not just the bearers of the promise of the nation, but its realization.

As Salam Walaykum and a very good evening. Salamat Philippines, for inviting me to your beautiful country.

Today I am truly honored to stand before you and be awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leader for our collective efforts of JAAGO Foundation and Volunteer for Bangladesh.

Before I talk about my work, I must share the story of how I got to know that I was selected for this Award. I was travelling with my colleagues and suddenly received a message from Susan Afan. “Good Morning Korvi, this is Susan from Manila, Philippines. May I call you? My reply was, sure, you can. I didn’t realize it was a video call and I received it. When she said she was calling from Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, I was pretty sure that she would ask me about someone’s work, doing their background checking. I had no idea that she would end up congratulating me. Once again, thank you for recognizing our work.

Children are the future of a nation and youth is the power. The journey of JAAGO started with 17 children, a whiteboard, a piece of carpet and a room full of hope. I still remember the first day, when I asked the children, what do you want to be when you grow up. One student said, Rikshaw Puller, another said Tuk Tuk Driver, their biggest dream was to become a driver of a Yellow cab. The same children, after receiving quality education, now dreams of becoming pilot, engineer and doctor. Actually, one of the students who wanted to become a pilot now dreams of making planes. This is the power of education.

When we went to the rural parts of Bangladesh and opened schools there, we realised that it’s hard to find quality teachers. But why will distance be a barrier between education and children? We launched our Digital School Program, where teachers from Dhaka can teach students in the most remote parts of Bangladesh using a video conferencing platform. Today, these students from the slums are not only studying in universities in Bangladesh but all around the world. Despite their background, an opportunity like education can change the lives of thousands of children, whether in Bangladesh, Philippines or Asia.

As I mentioned before, youth is the power, Bangladesh and Philippines both have one thing in common. In both countries, the population of youth is around 30%. Through Volunteer for Bangladesh, we were able to bring like-minded youth to come together and volunteer for the causes they believe in. Every year more than 50,000 volunteers actively participate in various Sustainable Development Goals to achieve the mission of United Nation to have a better world. Imagine, if we can have a Volunteer for Philippines Program where young people can come together, discuss their ideas and take action to make Philippines even better. Imagine, if all the Islands in Philippines had Digital Schools where every child could go to school and have a better future. Now imagine the same in every country in Asia. Let’s join hands together and promise to stand beside the people of our countries, Asia and Humanity. Together, let’s make this a better place for you, me and the future generation.

To celebrate this achievement, today I have my family with me. My Parents, wife, sister, in-laws and friends. I would like to thank the people back at home, my JAAGO family of 600 colleagues, 50,000 volunteers, my students, child sponsors, corporate partners and supporters. without whom I wouldn’t be able to achieve this. I wish they were with me but to represent the JAAGO Team, I have a few of my colleagues from Bangladesh. I would like to request them to stand up. Thank you for what you are doing every day.

Being a Bangladeshi, I would like to end my speech in Bangla: Bangladesher jonogon er pokkho theke, Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation o Philippines er nagorik er oshonkho dhonnobaad. Thank You.

In the current global pandemic, science has become a subject of public discourse to a degree perhaps unprecedented in recent decades. Emerging from the laboratory to the public square, science has been politicized, but mostly people have become more acutely aware of the vital role of science in improving the quality of life and preserving life itself. Let us then praise science and scientists.

Bangladeshi FIRDAUSI QADRI, seventy years old, was born to a middle-class family that encouraged women to pursue an education and a career. Early on, she decided to specialize in medical research, earning a degree in biochemistry, and culminating in a doctorate from Liverpool University in the United Kingdom. Set on working in her homeland, she taught in a local university and in 1988 joined the International Centre For Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), an international health research institute based in Dhaka. Here, Dr. QADRI focused on communicable diseases, immunology, vaccine development and clinical trials.

Her most challenging engagements came in the fight against cholera and typhoid, major diseases in Bangladesh and Asian and African countries with poor access to safe water, sanitation, education, and medical care. In this, she had a key role in the development of a more affordable oral cholera vaccine (OCV) and the typhoid conjugate vaccine (Vi-TCV) for adults, children, and even infants as young as nine months. Under the auspices of World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), she led a team of experts in the 2017-2020 OCV mass vaccination of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, thus preventing a mass cholera outbreak in what is the largest refugee camp in the world. In 2020, she helped facilitate the OCV vaccination of 1.2 million people in six high-risk districts of Dhaka. Not surprisingly, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. QADRI was involved in vaccine trials and Covid-19 testing and research in Bangladesh.

Beyond current health interventions, Dr. QADRI dreams of building in Bangladesh the human and technical infrastructure for research in health science. It is a role she is well positioned to fill, having participated in scientific networks and institutions both locally and globally. In 2012 she was awarded the Christophe Rodolfe Grand Prize from the Fondation Christophe et Rodolfe Mérieux. Two years later, she used her prize money to found the Institute for Developing Science and Health Initiatives (ideSHi). Dr. QADRI leads ideSHi, which conducts biomedical research and runs training courses and a testing center. It has become a hub of scientific activity by local and visiting scientists in Bangladesh.

Dr. QADRI loves to train and mentor young scientists and inspire them by putting them in contact with well-known scientists in other countries. But building local capability is her greater goal. She is focused on upgrading laboratories so that Bangladeshi scientists will not have to go abroad (as she did early on) for lack of facilities available. Building local capability is demonstrated in her work on typhoid and cholera vaccines (already approved in Bangladesh and other countries), her current work on E. coli diarrhea vaccine, and interest in Covid-19 vaccine development.

Dedicated to science, she believes that finding answers to the health problems in her country will benefit other countries as well. She has worked in Bangladesh as a scientist for more than forty years but has no thought of retiring. Of her research niche, ideSHi, she says: “I want it to be bigger in the coming years and self-supporting in the future, less dependent on international funding. It should carry out research at the highest level and have a good number of scientists who will carry out this work. I am looking at that in the future.”

In electing FIRDAUSI QADRI to receive the 2021 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes her passion and life-long devotion to the scientific profession; her vision of building the human and physical infrastructure that will benefit the coming generation of Bangladeshi scientists, women scientists in particular, and her untiring contributions to vaccine development, advanced biotechnological therapeutics and critical research that has been saving millions of precious lives.

I am overwhelmed and extremely delighted but also humbled and thankful to the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for this great honor. I am grateful to the Foundation for selecting me, to those who have nominated me and supported my nomination. And, of course, I thank my husband and children and friends, people of Bangladesh, and my team at icddr,b and ideSHi for their continued support.

Dear friends, let me share with you my journey until this very day:

I was born in Bangladesh, in a middle-class family with many other girl siblings, in a family dominated by women. This matriarchal family was actually headed by my grandmother, Firdausi Bano, after whom I was named. She did not go to school herself but was self-taught and knew many languages. She believed in girls’ education and saw to it from our childhood that we sisters learn to have a purpose and determination in life. She saw us off to school with tasty tiffin boxes each day and would always be waiting for us with hot lunches. She cooked and stiched pretty dresses for us and made us feel like we were special. It was for her that I grew up with a determination to do something purposeful.

When I was around five years old, I already wanted to be in public health, and my first wish was to be “Florence Nightingale,” and from then onwards, I kept on changing my interests until I got into the University of Dhaka to study Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. This was when I learned the details of the physiology, biochemistry, immunology, nutrition, and molecular biology of life and the working of the human body.

It was with great interest that I tried to assimilate all this information and my efforts were always aligned to better understanding all the health and nutritional problems of people in my country. After doing my PhD from Liverpool University, I returned to Dhaka within a week. I started teaching at the University of Dhaka and tried to carry out research. But it was difficult for me to do both research and teaching simultaneously. Within six years, I realized that I was born a researcher and a full academic profession somehow left me dissatisfied. Although fortunate to start my profession as a teacher in the best university in Bangladesh, I soon moved to icddr,b to become a full-time researcher.

Ladies and gentlemen, I do not know how much you know about Bangladesh.

In the beginning of my career, I had to learn a lot about the public health problems confronting our country. Infectious diseases in the 1980s were still a major killer in the country. Cholera and typhoid though these are ancient diseases were still causing so much suffering and misery to people every day. Our icddr,b hospitals were filled up with mostly needy people seeking free care suffering from dehydrating diarrheal disease, especially cholera. I involved and immersed myself in laboratory work to understand the immunological basis of the disease. I started exploring ways to connect clinical work in the early 1980’ with laboratory experiments to answer questions that still remained unaddressed. The role of vaccines to protect against these diseases appeared to me to be the most important solution in tackling these problems.

Indeed, I was inspired by the work that was being carried out for so long at icddr,b both in clinical care and vaccine development. Although I published a lot, I soon realized that if I do not reach out to communities and tried to help them, I would end up my career and not achieve anything. I then decided to focus on studies to reach out to people to protect them against cholera and typhoid using solutions offered by vaccines, which are the main public health tool/short term tools for eliminating diseases from high-risk populations with poor access to clean water, sanitation, good living conditions-basically diseases of poverty-stricken people.

In 33 years of my research career, I have attempted to learn about different aspects of public health which is needed for implementation science. I do not know how much I have been able to deliver and contribute. I am grateful for this award to Bangladesh, to icddr,b, the institution that has given me the environment and encouragement to carry out my work, and last but not least to my great team in Bangladesh and all over the world without whose support I could never have achieved anything. I thank my family for their support.

Ladies and gentlemen, I finish on a very tragic and sad note. My husband passed away just several hours after the official announcement of the Ramon Magsaysay Award on 31 August 2021. He could not hear this wonderful news. His encouragement and strong support in the 45 years of our marriage have made it possible for me to dedicate my life to science and balance family life with research. I remain indebted to him. I want to share a message he wrote to me 46 years ago:

“Wish you God Speed, May Allah grant you much glory in your search for knowledge”

He is not here today to join in this celebration but his wishes for me have come true. I feel his presence all the time, and he will always be with me.

After receiving the Ramon Magsaysay Award, I now feel that I need to deliver even more for Bangladesh, for the people living in low- and middle–income countries, and for people living in fragile settings. The award has made me feel more responsible, and I promise to dedicate the rest of my life to public health and contribute to saving lives.

Few cases of social inequity are as stark and dramatic as these. In Bangladesh, around 150 decommissioned ships—mostly from rich nations—arrive every year, to be beached and dismantled as scrap. These ships poison coastal waters with toxic chemicals, and expose 20,000 ship-breaking workers – many of them child laborers—to extremely dangerous working conditions. Also, in Bangladesh, irresponsible but powerful private developers are converting critical wetlands into commercial real estate through landfills, in utter disregard of the law. In doing so, they displace settlers, damage a fragile ecosystem, and worsen the country’s vulnerability to catastrophic floods.

Lawyer SYEADA RIZWANA HASAN has committed her life to seeing to it that all this must stop. Born in Dhaka to a family with a tradition of public service, HASAN earned a master’s degree in law and immediately went to work for the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), a pioneer in public interest litigation founded by the highly-respected lawyer-activist Mohiuddin Farooque. When Farooque died in 1997, HASAN assumed leadership as BELA’s executive director. Since then, BELA’s legal activism has widened. It has taken on close to a hundred cases involving industrial pollution, sand extraction from rivers, forest rights, river pollution and encroachment, hill cutting, illegal fisheries, waste dumping, and others.

Two precedent-setting cases raised BELA’s visibility and generated wide public support for the cause of environmental justice. Since 2003, HASAN and BELA have fought a battle in the courts to prevent toxin-laden ships from entering Bangladesh unless they have been decontaminated at their origin, and to enforce standards for the protection of workers and the environment. Even as this battle is not over, HASAN has scored significant successes. Compensatory fines were ordered—the first time in Bangladesh’s judicial history that a polluter was fined. Then, in 2009, the Supreme Court directed the closure of all thirty-six ship-breaking yards in Bangladesh that have been operating without environmental clearance, and directed the “pre-cleaning,” at origin or before entering Bangladesh, of all ships to be imported for breaking.

In 2000, BELA mounted a successful campaign for a law that would ban the filling up of wetlands, but the law was never enforced. In 2004, HASAN put the law to a test by filing a case against a large and powerful land development company, for filling land for a new township in the middle of a flood-flow zone. HASAN and her small team had to face twenty senior, high-profile lawyers, navigate court corruption, and endure protracted delays. Eventually, they won, when the court ruled the housing project to be illegal. However, the judgment was undermined by the fact that the developer had already sold lots in the meantime. Undaunted, even as appeals and counter-appeals have been filed, HASAN asserts: “Standing against all these forces is in itself a victory.” She and BELA have sent a clear message that it is not going to be business-as-usual, and that despoilers of the environment are going to be challenged.

Under HASAN, BELA expanded its programs and sparked wide awareness that the “right to environment” is part of the constitutional “right to life.” A charismatic and intense advocate, she is unswayed by the threats and intimidation that have come her way. She remains focused and passionate. Fighting those who violate environmental laws with impunity, she explains: “My job is to revive hope in the judicial system among Bangladeshis, to give the message to the people that the law and lawyers do not always exist for the mightiest.”

In electing SYEDA RIZWANA HASAN to receive the 2012 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes her uncompromising courage and impassioned leadership in a campaign of judicial activism in Bangladesh that affirms the people’s right to a good environment as nothing less than their right to dignity and life.

Let me first of all express my heartfelt gratitude to the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for giving me this honor and for recognizing my work for environmental justice. This indeed, is recognition of, and a definite encouragement for all movements around the world for the protection of the mother earth.

My journey as an environmental lawyer started back in 1993 when I joined Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, BELA which imbibed the visionary and dynamic leadership of its founder Dr. Mohiuddin Farooque. The BELA leadership inspired young lawyers like me to work for the cause of environment and explore innovative ways of using law to defend rights and denounce injustices. Since then, our journey for environmental justice has been a relentless one. We, at BELA, are proud to be associated with a cause that deeply affects the life of every Bangladeshi and indeed every human being around the globe.

We began our first fight against the plundering of our natural resources by those privileged corporations and bodies who enjoyed a long culture of impunity. Our effort was aimed at halting such trends of plundering by subjecting the wrongdoers to due process of law. We had to rebut erroneous economic arguments and challenged mindsets that made our job eventful, challenging, adventurous and thrilling. We believed the law was for all and had to ensure for all equally.

We are fighting for the rights of our farmers, our fisherfolk and our forest-dwellers. We stand for the protection of the trees, the hills, the lakes and the rivers to whom we are all indebted for our wellbeing. We continue to question the faulty, short-sighted and exploitative path of development that destroys the natural resource base. Our fight is against deprivation, maladministration and abuse of power.

Due to the mighty vested powers involved in the game, the process of change has been cumbersome and lengthy. We live with hope and on the face of adversities, gather strength from the force of truth and truth only.

Nineteen years down the road, we may not claim to have righted all the wrongs, we are unable to paint a rosy picture, but we can boldly and strongly assert that hardly any environmental wrong or any attempt to interfere with people’s environmental rights in my motherland goes unattended or unchallenged.

Although we may seem unconventional in what is considered traditional legal practice, this recognition by the Magsaysay Award Foundation today testifies that we are on the right track and reasserts the validity of our movement for environmental justice. This Award, I firmly believe will help strengthen the process greatly.

With my full commitment to continue more rigorously in pursuing the cause of environmental justice particularly for the poor, let me conclude by echoing the famous words of Martin Luther King Jr.

“No, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice pours down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Persons with disabilities constitute close to ten percent of the developing world’s population. They have little access to livelihood, education, medical services, and opportunities for a more productive life. Among the most disadvantaged groups in society, they are also the most vulnerable, particularly in the world?s poorest countries. This is painfully true of Bangladesh, where there are an estimated thirteen million people with disabilities. Bangladesh has progressive policies on disability and a huge civil society. However, resources are meager; effective coordination is lacking; and groups focused on disability issues are few in number. Moreover, disability is still isolated as an area of special advocacy, rather than a cross-cutting issue of development. A.H.M. NOMAN KHAN and his organization have addressed this challenge. 

Like his father, KHAN was in government service but opted to join a rural development organization because, he said, he wanted “to do something for the poor.” It was not, however, until 1995 — after attending a training program on community-based rehabilitation in Indonesia — that he decided to focus on the issues of disability. Prior to this, KHAN says, he was not even aware that people with disabilities constituted such a sizeable sector of the Bangladesh population. 

In 1996, with seven colleagues in the development field, he organized the Center for Disability in Development (CDD), and became its executive director. Under his leadership, CDD tackled disability with a unique twin-strategy they called Community Approaches to Handicap in Development (CAHD). This strategy involved, on one hand, strengthening the capacities of communities to serve the needs of their disabled members. And on the other hand, it sought to “mainstream” disability as an integral part of the development work of government and non-government organizations, so that disability issues would no longer be addressed in a piecemeal, small-scale and isolated way. 

In Bangladesh, this approach was both ambitious and revolutionary. Implementing their strategy, KHAN and his group had to deal with the myriad problems that come with pioneering a radically different approach, and having to network with a large number of people and organizations. A strategic thinker with a passion for work, Khan proved equal to the task. Since its establishment, CDD has trained over ten thousand development workers from 350 organizations in Bangladesh, who can now provide services and create inclusion opportunities for persons with disabilities. 

With seven service-and-training centers, and in partnership with other organizations, CDD has reached out to fifty-two of the country’s sixty-four districts. It has carried out innovative, disability-inclusive projects in such areas as education, food security, and disaster risk reduction. It operates centers and mobile units that provide information, counseling, and therapeutic services. It has established a National Resource Center in Assistive Technology that manufactures and distributes orthosis and prosthesis devices, and trains craftsmen to produce these devices. And KHAN has been equally energetic in policy advocacy. 

As long-time secretary-general of the National Forum of Organizations Working with the Disabled, KHAN has led in strengthening inter-organization collaboration and in working at national and international levels to push initiatives for a disabled-friendly society. Without great fanfare, Khan and his group have transformed the ways a society can address the issue of disability. Their work has gone beyond national boundaries. CDD has trained organizations from numerous countries, and its CAHD strategy has been replicated in countries like Nepal, India, and the Philippines. 

A leader who speaks through his work and does not draw attention to himself, KHAN explains what drives him simply: “Persons with disabilities have dreams which they want to fulfill like everyone else — to work, to sustain a future, to exist side by side with others. All they need is the proper environment to work in and lead life as equal to everyone else.” 

In electing A.H.M. NOMAN KHAN to receive the 2010 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes his pioneering leadership in mainstreaming persons with disabilities in the development process of Bangladesh, and in working vigorously with all sectors to build a society that is truly inclusive and barrier-free.

President Benigno S. Aquino III, Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, distinguished guests, fellow Awardees and friends. 

I would like to express my deepest respect for the late president of the Philippines, Honorable Ramon Magsaysay, his humane qualities and his belief in equal rights and dignity of all people. It is for me an immense honor and pride to be elected for the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award. 

It is for me an even greater honor to receive this as a citizen of Bangladesh and as a representative of the disability movement that promotes empowerment of persons with disabilities through mainstreaming and inclusive development. It is awarded at a time of global initiatives to put into action the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 

I must acknowledge that this Award is not attained by me solely, but rather as a proud member of collective actors. I salute the contributions of each member of my organization, Centre for Disability in Development, our partner organizations, our funding partners, the government of Bangladesh, and most importantly the persons with disabilities who made us realize that it is not their impairment, but rather the attitudinal and environmental barriers that impede their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis as others. 

When CDD started its journey, persons with disabilities were largely excluded from society and were deprived of the benefits of development. We advocated for poverty reduction through development programmes, but we were not reaching persons with disabilities. We were alarmed at this exclusion and realized that no development can be achieved excluding this population. 

For Bangladesh, a country with limited resources, poor infrastructure facilities, a large population living in poverty, it was a huge challenge. Besides, disability issues were still addressed from a charity-based approach. We wanted to bring positive changes, at the same time realized that significant changes can not be made only through the initiatives of a few NGOs. 

CDD came into existence, developed in-country capacity, partnered with development organizations and government to mainstream disability issues, then contributed to engage all development actors, the public and private sectors towards creating an inclusive rights-based society for all. Currently hundreds of development organizations are mainstreaming disability issues as CDD’s partners. 

In addition, there are many other NGOs, DPOs, networks and associations that address the issue. The government is also very supportive to the cause of disability. However, we still cannot claim that the results as satisfactory. We have fifteen million persons with disabilities, of which around 75 percent live in rural areas and in difficult conditions. Unfortunately, most are still not reached by the required disability and development services. Today, we have the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability as policy and legislative guidelines, we have Millennium Development Goals as development targets, and we have Community Based Rehabilitation as a strategy to ensure implementation of UNCRPD and attainment of development goals. 

We at CDD firmly believe that with participation, contribution and support of all, we can collectively bring positive changes in the quality of life of persons with disabilities in Bangladesh, in Asia and beyond. 

This award will strengthen our commitment and boost the disability movement for empowerment of persons with disabilities. CDD and I are extremely proud and would like to express our sincere commitment to work for persons with disabilities towards creating an inclusive society. 

Finally, I reiterate my gratitude to the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation by accepting this award. I also declare that the award money will be utilized for the empowerment of persons with disabilities in Bangladesh.

Few crimes are so vicious as acid throwing. When flung upon the face, common acids used by jewelers and in battery shops and tanneries melt the skin and eat into the bone and eyes, leaving victims permanently disfigured. A life of ostracism and shame awaits them. In Bangladesh, some three hundred people each year lose their natural-born faces in such attacks. Most of them are young women who have offended their attackers by denying them sex or marriage or suitable dowries. But others are maimed in family feuds or land disputes or local rivalries. This hideous crime is new to Bangladesh and has grown alarmingly in the past decade. As editor of Bangladesh’s largest-circulation Bangla-language newspaper, MATIUR RAHMAN has stirred the nation to respond. 

RAHMAN was born in 1944 and grew up in the era of decolonization and fervent nationalism that gave birth to East Pakistan and then Bangladesh. He became a Marxist and, for twenty-one years, edited Dhaka’s socialist weekly Ekota. When communism’s failures gave him second thoughts, he withdrew from leftist politics to concentrate on journalism. In 1998 he founded Prothom Alo, or First Light, a daily newspaper. Rahman established Prothom Alo‘s credibility by exposing the missteps of both the government and its foes, and by aggressively covering corruption, terrorism, and human rights violations. The newspaper’s constructive advocacy and RAHMAN’s own unsparing editorials attracted legions of readers. Today it reaches two million of them. 

Prothom Alo naturally covered the alarming rise of acid throwing in Bangladesh. But in 2000 a heartrending case involving a fifteen-year-old girl riveted RAHMAN’s attention. He determined to harness the resources of his newspaper to fight the scourge. 

In prominent daily appeals, RAHMAN declared war on acid throwers and called upon his readers to contribute to the Prothom Alo Aid Fund for acid victims. With scarred women at his side, he solicited donations at rallies and press conferences and called upon celebrities and volunteers to carry the appeal throughout the country. People from all walks of life and even Bangladeshis abroad became donors. RAHMAN acknowledged each small gift in the newspaper and steered help directly to the victims: money for burn treatments, plastic surgery, legal fees, and living expenses, plus new dwellings for some and income-generating assets such as milking cows, sewing machines, cultivable lands, and shops for others. At the same time, Prothom Alo pressured the government to strengthen laws against acid attacks and the reckless sale of dangerous chemicals. 

The response to RAHMAN’s appeal reassured him that “the society is not sleeping.” By June 2005, some 8.2 million taka had been coursed to over one hundred victims. Moreover, in 2002 the country’s Acid Crimes Prevention Act and Acid Control Act stiffened penalties for acid throwers and tightened licensing requirements for acid sales. 

RAHMAN has been described as “the navigator of positive social and cultural change” in Bangladesh. He has used his authority as editor of Prothom Alo not only to fight the crime of acid throwing but also to raise public consciousness about HIV/AIDS and drug abuse, and to reveal the role of certain Muslim extremists in fomenting militancy and violence. His provocative independence comes at a price. He is regularly harassed and threatened, and the government itself has withdrawn advertising from his newspaper and taken him to court in reprisal for Prothom Alo‘s critical reporting. 

Despite these pressures, RAHMAN aspires to no other vocation. Readers look to Prothom Alo as “a hope against hope,” he says. “I work to use it for the cause of the people.”

In electing MATIUR RAHMAN to receive the 2005 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts, the board of trustees recognizes his wielding the power of the press to crusade against acid throwing and to stir Bangladeshis to help its many victims.

This auspicious ceremony will remain as one of the most joyous moments in my life and in the life of those who helped to build the daily Prothom Alo. We are grateful to the Roman Magsaysay Award Foundation for honoring the paper and myself with such a prestigious award. 

The world of mass media today is in turmoil. The post World War II intellectual edifice of international laws, norms and practices are today under serious challenge as the bipolar world learns to deal with one super power in the international scene. The war on terror and the traditional values of liberalism and open society, on which the Western media flourished for so long, are on an apparent collision course. There are clear signs of erosion on the fundamental values of individual freedom and national independence under the pressure to ensure national security, both real and imaginary. 

In the developing world new social and economic challenges, the ever-increasing burden of poverty and the marginalization of the poor have brought the media into deeper questions about their relevance and purpose. Rising corruption, the nexus between politics and crime, disregard for the law by the rich and the powerful and the clear danger of social outburst caused by neglect and continued discrimination have revealed, as never before, the possible constructive role that an independent and socially committed media can play. 

It is within these changing times and demands that the role of Prothom Alo has to be judged. From the very outset we were fully aware that Bangladesh needed a more independent media voice than was so far available. The country needed a newspaper that was bolder in its articulation of the problems that faced us, and more imaginative in its thinking as to how to solve them. Encompassing it all, we needed a more socially responsible newspaper that combined the core value of press freedom with the goal of democracy and people’s prosperity. 

Thus was Prothom Alo born, and thus has grown its relevance, credibility and popularity. “People” are at the center of our journalism. We never forget for a moment that they are our strength, and it is for them that we exist. Hence, all our energies are devoted to making the paper closer to the needs of the masses. 

We do not dwell on dreams alone; we lend a helping hand to the people, we stand by them in solving their day-to-day problems. 

Following are examples of some of the initiatives we took. 

1. For the scholastic development of children, Prothom Alo helped the national committee for the Mathematics Olympiad in raising funds and in organizing regional and national Mathematics Olympiad competitions across the country for the last three years. A total of fifteen thousand students have participated in 2004-2005. For the first time, a team from Bangladesh participated in the World Mathematics Olympiad in Mexico. 

2. We started a campaign to increase sensitivity towards the Bangla language and culture by initiating language competitions at the regional and national levels. Four thousand students from 333 schools participated in this program.Besides this, we regularly help young students to organize debates all over the country. 

3. During the terrible flood last year, a cross section of people deposited in cash and in kind aid for flood victims that amounted to US$166,700. We distributed food and clothing in 44 districts. When the floodwaters receded, we, as part of our rehabilitation effort, distributed bamboo, wood, and seeds and fertilizer for farming, as well as chairs, tables and other amenities for schools; doctors were sent and medicines were distributed. 

4. We helped Tipu Sultan, a journalist severely injured by the political cadres, in association with The Daily Star, by raising the money needed for his treatment. 

5. By raising funds we have also extended our help to children and young students affected by cancer and other pernicious diseases. 

It is these positive, constructive and timely interventions that have made Prothom Alo a symbol of hope to our people. 

In accepting the honor that you have bestowed upon us, we promise to commit ourselves further to serve our people to gain greater freedom and prosperity. We will strive to expand our social commitment and take up newer roles in the area of human rights and economic development. 

I would like to declare that one-third of the award money will go to the Prothom Alo Aid Fund for acid victims, one-third will be deposited to the anti-drug and HIV awareness campaign, and the rest will be used to create a new fund for deceased and injured journalists who are victims of political persecution. 

The Ramon Magsaysay Award will certainly inspire all who are a part of Prothom Alo. We will continue our work for the transformation of society. Our main ethos is: “Wherever there is good, Prothom Alo is with it.” We will remain true to this goal.

The Bengali literary tradition is among the richest in Asia, drawing upon a deep well of its own and upon centuries of cosmopolitan interaction with the rest of the world. ABDULLAH ABU SAYEED cherishes this tradition and is part of it. But modern history and its upheavals have left many people in Bangladesh without access to literature or to books of any kind. Today, television and other media have largely displaced books as the primary source of knowledge and pleasure. Reading has gone out of fashion. Sayeed despairs for this trend. Through his Bishwo Shahitto Kendro, or World Literature Center, he is acting to reverse it. 

Born in Kolkata (Calcutta) in 1939, Sayeed was the son of a well-known playwright. After Partition, he attended Dhaka University in East Pakistan, which became Bangladesh in 1971. As a young man, SAYEED wrote poetry and prose and led a vibrant literary movement in the 1960s as editor of the magazine Kanthashar (The Voice). He drifted into the new medium of television and hosted a succession of popular shows. For some thirty years, he taught literature at Dhaka College. 

Observing the decline of intellectual life in Bangladeshi society, SAYEED founded the World Literature Center in 1978 to restore interest in reading among the youth and to “enlighten human beings.” Under his guidance, twenty-five university students began reading and discussing great works of literature in an Enrichment Program that eventually grew to include high school students and general readers. Meeting in guided “reading circles” and drawing on literary and nonliterary works from the Bengali and world canons, each group in SAYEED’s program worked its way through a twenty-two-week reading course each year, completing more than one hundred books over seven years. 

Assisted by the Ministry of Education, SAYEED extended his Enrichment Program to branches in Dhaka and eventually throughout Bangladesh. Today, there are five hundred branches in fifty-four districts and the program has hundreds of thousands of graduates. In the meantime, SAYEED has developed the center itself as a library, serving hundreds of readers daily, and also as a publishing house. Yearly sales of its two hundred and fifty volumes provide financial support for the center’s many activities. 

Responding to the lack of public-lending libraries in Bangladesh, SAYEED launched a nationwide library program in 1998. Funded largely by the Norwegian government, its mobile libraries-actually, buses stocked with thousands of books-today make stops at two hundred and fifty locations in four cities throughout the country. Nearly twenty thousand readers have become members of the program. 

Versatile and charismatic, SAYEED has written twenty-two books. He devotes himself fully to the center and its programs and, these days, also to urgent environmental concerns. His work is constantly growing. Today, the center offers programs in the arts and possesses a film and music library. SAYEED manages it all with seventy-six staff members and more than four thousand volunteers, including many of his former students. He dreams of building an ever larger network of libraries, bookmobiles, and reading circles throughout Bangladesh; of publishing seven hundred and fifty of the world’s great books in Bangla translation; and of erecting a new twelve-story cultural complex in Dhaka. But, most of all, Sayeed dreams of a new generation of enlightened Bangladeshi citizens whose values and understanding of other cultures are enriched by reading. His country’s future leaders will emerge from such a group, he says hopefully. “We see our students everywhere.” 

In electing ABDULLAH ABU SAYEED to receive the 2004 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts, the board of trustees recognizes his cultivating in the youth of Bangladesh a love for books and their humanizing values through exposure to the great works of Bengal and the world.

I come from a country that is very new as a sovereign state. We have passed many years under foreign domination. Foreigners have occupied our land and played with our destiny. We did not have any scope to decide our own fate. This opportunity came to us only with our independence in 1971. 

Our nation achieved freedom through a war. But the war of liberation was against an external enemy. Our real war however began after that, in the free world of our independence, against not an external force but against ourselves. This was an all-out war, long drawn and sleepless. It was against the decadence and degeneration, indolence and inefficiency within us. Our enemy this time was our pettiness, greed, inadequacy, and capacity for self-destruction. The realization grew that the Bangladesh we had achieved was not the mythical Golden Bengal, but a Bengal of just plain earth. It was for us to transform it into Golden Bengal with our labor, endeavor, and dedication. Our main struggle therefore was to build a strong and prosperous motherland. 

Ladies and gentlemen, we soon left behind the restless phase and our national life began to stabilize. We began moving forward with some confidence. Trade and industry started to grow, and there began an initial capital accumulation. We achieved credible success in various sectors such as education, communication, population, agriculture, etc. There was global recognition for several positive NGO initiatives in Bangladesh, and the civil society movement gradually gained in strength. 

This is the context of the establishment of the Bishwo Shahitto Kendro in Bangladesh in 1978. We had realized then that we were entering a phase of nation building. Nation builders therefore were the need of the hour-enriched men and women inspired by ideals, dreams, and human values. These men and women would build the nation with their vision, their labor, and their excellence. Bangladesh?s future depends on developing these men and women, and in large numbers. 

Little minds and great nations cannot go together. Consequently, our aspiration for greatness as a nation must be matched by our commitment to create enlightened people within the nation. And, therefore, our endeavor is to create for Bangladesh an informed, enriched, and committed generation of future citizens. In this, our focus has been on the youth. We, the older generation, represent the past, while the youth are the future. They are young, impressionable, inquisitive, and receptive. At Bishwo Shahitto Kendro, we are preparing them with qualities of human leadership through the study of books and by engaging them in various cultural activities to promote a spirit of cross-cultural understanding, refined sensibility, and action. They are inspired to pursue great dreams early in life. 

Ours is a small country in terms of area, but our population is large. There is a pressing need for humanistic development in the nation as a whole. Therefore, parallel to our effort for enrichment, we have also endeavored to take books and other cultural opportunities to the doorstep of the citizens at large. 

Ladies and gentlemen, the awakening of human values is relevant not only for our nation alone, but also in the context of today’s world. Materialism has converted everything in this world into consumables. Man today is continuously becoming dehumanized. Mechanization is becoming the inexorable fate of humankind. We may have to witness the painful end of human civilization unless we are able to inculcate in our future generations the finer human values in the face of this overpowering trend of consumerism. This is what we have been trying to do in the limited context of our country. 

Distinguished guests, the promise of a prize or an award does not engender action. Initiatives are born in response to the sufferings that we are dogged by constantly. Nevertheless, prizes and awards are a source of great pleasure and satisfaction. These provide not only joy, inspiration, and strength, but also enhance our responsibility. The overpowering darkness and ignorance in our national life prompted me to act. That is all I can say. 

The Ramon Magsaysay Award has enhanced my sense of responsibility. And I accept this honor in all humility. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

In the village world of Bangladesh, a cruel code governs the lives of women. In a society already poor, women are poorer than men. A woman who is widowed, or who is divorced, or whose husband has abandoned her, is often left to fend for herself. When a woman lodges charges of desertion, assault, or rape against a man, those who determine her fate are men. In every way, a woman is less than a man. A great number of Bangladeshi women accept this as the natural order of things. ANGELA GOMES, founder of Banchte Shekha, does not.

A Christian in largely Muslim Bangladesh, GOMES was raised in a small village near Dhaka. Resisting an early marriage, she became a teacher at Sacred Heart School in Jessore and was there drawn into Catholic charity work in the city slums. The destitute women she met there—abandoned and abused women cast off from neighboring villages—deeply disturbed her. She decided to do something.

Walking from village to village in the outskirts of Jessore, GOMES began talking to women and learning from them. In 1977, she began forming women into small groups and teaching them how to make jute crafts and other products to sell. Then she taught them how to raise chickens and how to make fishponds and how to grow mulberry trees—having to learn all these things beforehand herself. Word of each small success spread from village to village. And soon, says GOMES, “Thousands of helpless women seemed to beckon me to them.”

As she worked alongside village women, GOMES also spoke about the problems they faced as women. “Eventually,” she says, “they were able to see the thread connecting food, work, education, and rights.”

GOMES studied the Koran and comported herself in proper Muslim fashion. And gradually, she won the support of open-minded Muslim clerics who understood, as she did, that the Koran was not the source of local practices demeaning to women. But she was not welcome everywhere. As an outsider who stirred women to action, she was harassed and pelted with rocks and excrement. To protect her little movement, in 1981 GOMES registered it as a foundation: Banchte Shekha, or Learn to Survive.

GOMES gained financial backing from international NGOs and guided Banchte Shekha into new endeavors. Its members formed village credit societies and became birth attendants, barefoot veterinarians, and community organizers, as well as sources of practical knowledge about health care, family planning, and nutrition.

In 1987, GOMES began training a team of paralegals in Muslim law and relevant legal procedures. As a result, in many villages today, cases involving domestic violence, dowry abuses, child support, and other gender-related conflicts are deliberated in public by arbitration panels convened and trained by Banchte Shekha’s paralegals, instead of by traditional all-male mediation councils.

Banchte Shekha now operates from a 1.5-hectare training complex in Jessore, which accommodates two hundred live-in trainees and also serves as a women’s shelter. Twenty-five thousand women in 750 village-based organizations are active members. GOMES estimates that over two hundred thousand people benefit indirectly from Banchte Shekha’s comprehensive interventions in village life. Through its gender-awareness training and legal innovations, women and men alike are making their way slowly to a new era of gender equality.

This is her great hope. Known for her dogged persistence and hearty laughter, ANGELA GOMES reminds us, “The problems of poor women in Bangladesh have been centuries in the making.” But Banchte Shekha’s successes are hopeful. And, she says, “Every day is a new day.”

In electing ANGELA GOMES to receive the 1999 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the board of trustees recognizes her helping rural Bangladeshi women assert their rights to better livelihoods and to gender equality, under the law and in everyday life.

It is a great honor and privilege for me to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award. But I must share the credit with the women of Banchte Shekha (‘Learn to Survive”), the organization I founded to help rural women stand on their own two feet.

When I started teaching in school after college I began to travel in the villages of Jessore District. I saw the tears of suffering women who were victims of dowry abuse. I met women beaten up by their husbands or in-laws, mothers deprived of their motherhood because of the husbands’ insistence on ligation, women who were cast aside through illegal divorce. I saw women treated not as human beings but as commodities, less dignified than animals. I felt compassion for them and from late 1975 began to do something to help them.

I started work 23 years ago among rural women who were oppressed, destitute, depressed, dominated, exploited, neglected and backward. They were not educated, not aware, not capable of taking decisions—only a hostile environment prevailed around them. I had to face criminal cases lodged against me by troublemaker people of the villages. They claimed that I am destroying the social system by bringing the women out of their homes. They did it because it was against their own interest in controlling the women. They did not want women to become educated, to come out of their homes, to take up income generating work, to become conscious of their situation and try to do something to correct it.

There are few bad people in our society but most are good, honest and truthful. They are willing to help support the struggle against injustices when they learn the facts and when they are organized to give help as a group. The Honorable Prime Minister has quoted “you have worked tirelessly to give smiles to the deprived and oppressed women of Bangladesh risking your own life.”

I wish that everyone would have the faith to be the source of power, moral strength and courage. I have been so taken up with women’s issues that I have never thought of having any family life. The people with whom I am working are my family and the children for whom I tried to do something for their education, they are my children.

The great leader who is remembered with honour and dignity by the people of Asia along with Filipinos who keep the memory unfaded. I extend my heartful felicitations and deep respect on behalf of the backward rural women of Bangladesh.

Today’s awarding ceremony added a new chapter to my experience which is full of both sorrow and happiness and this will inspire and energize me for my future activities.

With the news of this award, the destitute, depressed, dominated, exploited, neglected, and backward rural women deprived of their rights and for whom I had been working for the last 23 years flashed before my eyes. I can’t but remember their faces while I am receiving this award. I am dedicating this award in their memory.

I thank everyone who has helped me in any way to achieve this honour and wish to have the blessing to continue my work until I reach my last. I would like to conclude with a little poem of mine, translated from the original Bengali:

Tell me, friend
For what does life and youth pass away?
With a heavy load on the heart let life find a way.
In the next moment my mind said:
Only after the slow decaying of the seed
Does the new fruit and the beautiful tree breed.
For ages humanity will breathe fresh air
And all will enjoy that fruit of my labor
Millions of human beings with the fruit enjoy
Let me sow the seeds of the future in pure joy.

Throughout Asia, cooperative societies have attempted to empower the poor through collective savings and enterprise. Thousands of such societies exist in Bangladesh alone. Yet under the existing conditions of extreme poverty, mistrust and mismanagement often undermine the novice cooperatives. Many fail. Others simply fail to prosper. 

As a young tea shop proprietor in the adjoining rural villages of Kashinathpur and Balarampur, MOHAMMAD YEASIN lived amidst pervasive scarcity. From Akhter Hameed Khan, director of the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development, he learned how disciplined, cooperative saving by villagers can break the cycle of poverty. In October 1960, therefore, he convinced eight rickshaw men to contribute the cost of one cup of tea each day to form a fund. 

With this tiny sum YEASIN launched what later became known as the Deedar Comprehensive Village Development Cooperative Society. By 1986, when he stepped down as manager, Deedar was Bangladesh’s most successful cooperative. Relying solely on its own resources, by 1988 it had amassed assets in capital and property worth U.S.$300,000. 

YEASIN learned early that all households in a village must be “partners in the process of development.” He expanded Deedar to include not only laborers but artisans, tradesmen, small farmers, and, eventually, moderately well-off landowners. Today virtually all adult villagers are members of the society. Women joined in 1962 and now play a role in village affairs undreamt of in the past. Also hundreds of children, through their membership, are taught the lesson of thrift. 

Deedar’s members meet every week to propose, implement, and evaluate programs. These touch all aspects of village life. 

The cooperative operates its own stores for farm inputs and consumer goods. Its mills process mustard seed and rice. It manufactures bricks, hires out tractors and rickshaws, and operates an irrigation project and a fish pond. The society pays 70 percent of teachers’ salaries and administrative costs at Deedar Model High School, which it built in 1968. Through the society, village women learn to sew, weave, and embroider and to raise fish and fatten cows and goats. Young men without jobs are trained as mechanics, drivers, tailors, traders, and animal husbandmen. 

Deedar gives to the mosque and maintains special funds for the elderly and the destitute. In 1986-87 some fifty-five babies were delivered by Deedar-trained midwives. 

Incomes in Kashinathpur-Balarampur are rising for farmers and nonfarmers alike. Deedar itself employs 37 villagers; 160 others receive seasonal employment from the cooperative?s enterprises. Moreover, 250 members are now self-employed thanks to interest-free loans from the society. 

YEASIN attributes Deedar’s success to the active participation of its members and to excellent relations with government agencies and banking institutions. Most others attribute Deedar?s success to YEASIN. 

As manager for twenty-six years, YEASIN astutely practiced the art of the possible. Spurning flashy proposals, he moved the society from small projects to larger ones in accordance with its means and in keeping with local needs and circumstances. He stayed attuned to his members and won their confidence through his good judgment and tireless efforts. Most of all he inspired trust. Of himself, fifty-three-year-old YEASIN says, “I am a small man, and I work for the small man.”

In electing MOHAMMAD YEASIN to receive the 1988 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the Board of Trustees recognizes his moving rural Bangladeshis to self- reliance and economic security through an efficiently and honestly managed village cooperative.

I am a small man from Bangladesh. I work for the small man. My formal schooling is very little. I read only up to sixth grade and my English pronunciation is very poor. I beg your pardon for that. 

Today I feel very emotional. I know that I am not qualified to address such a distinguished gathering. I have been honored with the great Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership. At this memorable hour I thank God for the honor that he has given me. I pay my hearty salutation to the soul of late President Ramon Magsaysay. He is remembered by this great award. I believe he will remain immortal in the minds of millions of people for this great work. May God give him peace. 

I thank the honorable members of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation that they have selected a small rural worker like me for such an award. This will give inspiration to millions of rural development workers in Bangladesh and in the rest of Asia. 

Today I remember Akhter Hameed Khan, the founder-director of the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development and the architect of the Comilla Model, which is widely known throughout the world. Director Khan received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1963. I was a devoted student of his. He was my teacher, friend, and philosopher in the field of rural development. 

Being inspired and guided by Director Khan, I formed with eight other members the Deedar Cooperative Society in 1960. On the day of formation, we decided that each one of us would sacrifice one cup of tea everyday and would put the money into a savings account. Today, 1,650 members of the Deedar Society are following the same practice, although the price of tea has gone up. This way we have accumulated our capital and assets of U.S.$300,000. 

When I started my work as an organizer of my village cooperative, I did not know that for this work I would one day be honored in an international forum like this. But since I was a poor man myself, the poverty of my village people disturbed me; since I was young I wanted to do something for them. When I learned about the cooperative way of development, I dreamt of a good future. I faced many problems but I was always hopeful. I never became pessimistic. Today Deedar has become a model cooperative society. The achievement of Deedar is now a great inspiration for the other villagers of Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD) is now experimenting with a project called the Comprehensive Village Development Program, using Deedar as a model for a cooperative society. The influence of Deedar upon hundreds of cooperative organizations is great. Many people visit Deedar daily to learn of our experiences. 

In building Deedar, I faced many difficulties in the initial year. But within a period of seven to eight years, I was able to motivate the villagers and show them the way to self-respect and self-reliance. I tell my villagers that we are not helpless, we should not live on the mercy of others. We can build our own future. I love my people and my organization. In return my people give me their support. We put our labor together. I feel that sincerity, hard work, and devotion do not go unrewarded. 

I experimented with a number of my own ideas, which were let democratically accepted by cooperative members. The reason for the acceptance was that I had developed them by working very closely with the villagers. I did not impose ideas. Most of my experiments produced good results and some of the tested ideas were accepted by government. 

I confined my role to leading the organization. I remained in the same post for more than twenty-five years. Deedar is my only dream I want to die as a social worker since I believe that the struggle in which I am involved has yet a long way to go. My people are still poor and have to travel far. This award, and this honor that you have given me, will provide new enthusiasm and inspiration to me and to my colleagues. 

My award is a recognition of the good work done by the members of my society. I believe it will inspire millions of rural development workers working at the grass-roots level in Asia. It will be rewarding me when these workers receive such awards in the future.

To the over 100 million modern inhabitants of “golden Bengal” (Bangladesh), geography and history have dealt a cruel fate. Their once prosperous land — where waters of the giant Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers join and empty into the Bay of Bengal — is hostage to nature’s violence, and to man’s. Bangladeshis have endured an unfair share of famine, flood, communal discord, political strife, mass migrations and war. Dearth is their common lot. 

Since 1952 Fr. RICHARD WILLIAM TIMM has absorbed himself in the life and struggles of the Bangladeshis. In that year, newly arrived from theological studies at Holy Cross College and graduate specialization in biology and parasitology at Catholic University of America, both in Washington, D.C., he established a science department at St. Gregory’s College in Dhaka, then East Pakistan. Over succeeding years at Dhaka Medical College, and Notre Dame College, (as St. Gregory’s was renamed), he introduced a generation of Bangladeshi students to the biological sciences. Simultaneously engaged in research, he discovered 250 new species of nematodes (parasitic worms) and produced 70 scientific papers. 

When the cyclone and massive tidal surge of November 1970 devastated the coast of Bengal, TIMM mobilized relief. Distributing emergency food, blankets, medicines, and subsequently seeds and work animals, TIMM for the first time encountered brutal communal conflicts and rural power struggles. These intensified when the Pakistani military belatedly joined in the international relief efforts, and during the revolt, civil war and bloody struggle for independence that followed. His involvement revealed to TIMM the harsh, uncertain world of Bangladeshi villagers and led him to forsake teaching and devote himself wholly to rehabilitation, rural development, and the reduction of communal tensions and social injustices. 

TIMM was the first Planning Officer of the Christian Organization for Relief and Rehabilitation (CORR), and later became its National Director when it became Caritas Bangladesh. Initiating and coordinating relief funded by foreign charities, he demonstrated a concern for all in need, regardless of creed or ethnic origin. Directing and monitoring projects in irrigation, drainage, health and jute handicrafts, the six-foot two native of Michigan City, Indiana, became a familiar champion, cutting through bureaucratic obstacles and moving practical assistance to the villagers. To the (now) more than 130 voluntary agencies which he brought together in 1974 to form the Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB), TIMM was a guiding spirit. Typically, he relinquished leadership positions quickly: “This has been my role,” he says, “to get organizations going and then to let Bangladeshis take over.” 

Issues of social injustice preoccupy him today. Through the Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Church TIMM investigated the exploitation of tribal minorities, and exposed the harmful working conditions of the poor and landless women employed as domestics, health workers, and in the garment, tea and cigarette industries. After a series of conferences on these problems, working women in 1986 urged him to organize the Coordinating Council for Human Rights in Bangladesh. 

TIMM concludes that Bangladesh?s pervasive poverty is caused largely by the crippling powerlessness of the rural poor. He believes that arousing the poor to awareness and action is the first step toward reform. Now 64, and Superior of the Holy Cross Fathers in Bangladesh, TIMM confides, “I have more hope in changed people than in changed structures and political systems.” 

In electing Reverend Father RICHARD WILLIAM TIMM to receive the 1987 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, the Board of Trustees recognizes his 35 years of sustained commitment of mind and heart to helping Bangladeshis build their national life.

First of all I should like to pay homage to the memory of theory of the late President Magsaysay, whose 80th birth anniversary we celebrate to celebrate today. When I worked in the Philippines in 1964 on a SEATO Research Fellowship on plant-parasitic nematodes, or roundworms, I recall the great affection and respect in which he was held by all. Therefore I salute him and his dedication to freedom and human rights as I receive with give with great gratitude this Award which is named in his honor. 

In the Code of Procedure for the Award it says that the Award is ordinarily given for one’s past five years’ activities. Yet the citation for my Award states: “for 35 years of sustained commitment of mind and heart to helping Bangladeshis build up their nation.” I am happy that this exception has been made for me. I have probably had more careers than any previous Magsaysay Awardee?in college and university teaching; in administrative work in Notre Dame College, Caritas Bangladesh and my own religious community; in scientific research; recently in human rights activities. None of these alone would merit any award, but none of them should be considered in isolation from the others. For they all belong to one continuous role as educator. 

Half my working life I was an educator in institutions — an ivory tower scholar, I am reluctant to admit. But it is never too late for conversion and it was the poor the poor and the powerless, the voiceless ones, who converted me and forced me to become a practical educator. The country I call my home Bangladesh — is known as “golden Bengal.” These are the words of our national anthem. Both the words and music were composed by that giant of Bengali literature and song, Rabindranath Tagore. In the waning monsoon months the “gob” the “golden fiber”– jute” — is everywhere seen throughout the land. In the cooler days of winter the golden sun bathes the countryside in its warm glow, and rice end vegetables spring from the soil. Bangladesh is not only amar sonar Bangla (My golden Bengal) butamar shobuj Bangla (my green Bengal) . In every season of the year its verdant fields and forests are vests are alive with growth. 

Yet there is want and misery and the distress of frequent natural calamities. It was not always so. In the beginning the Lord said: “Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all living animals on the earth. See, I give you all the seed-bearing plants that are upon the whole earth, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruit; this shall be your food.” (Gen. 1:28-29) The plethora of food from the fields no longer reaches all the mouths that are hungry. As human greed expanded and world resources contracted, a fierce competition among rivals has too often replaced sharing and international understanding between brothers and sisters. 

I accept this Award in the name of the youth and the poor and powerless of Bangladesh, the people whose lives have been touched by my efforts of the past 35 years. We cannot really share the life of the poorest of the poor. We would be dead in a week if we tried to live under the same wretched conditions. But I have tried to analyze and expose some of the reasons for their degrading poverty. It is for that reason that I have concentrated in recent years on human rights activities. If the people can be organized to understand and defend their basic rights, they can also learn to make the decisions that influence their destinies. Thus, human rights and participatory development go hand-in-hand. 

I thank the Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation for the honor they have conferred on me. My best wishes and blessings to all of you who share with us in our joy this day.

A fear of illness and of the often exorbitant costs of treatment and medicine is shared by all except a few wealthy elites in the developing world. Families frequently are driven into debt by the calamity that illness brings. Tragically, many invest their scant savings in medicines that are worthless and sometimes even harmful. Their predicament is compounded by ignorance and lax professional and government monitoring of the pharmaceutical industry. 

Dr. ZAFRULLAH CHOWDHURY was in surgical training in London when the Bangladesh “war of liberation” erupted in 1971. Hurrying home he, with colleagues, established a field hospital to treat battle casualties. The nearby rural poor, however, soon proved to be his principal patients. After the war a shattered economy and a lack of sanitary and health facilities made apparent the need for a permanent rural health program. His answer was to found at Savar, 40 kilometers north of Dhaka, Gonoshasthaya Kendra, or People’s Health Clinic, as a charitable trust. 

As medical services at Savar expanded to nearby villages, it became evident that medical care was of little worth without programs in general sanitation, nutrition and education, and without training for productive employment. CHOWDHURY organized a low-cost health insurance scheme and launched a Bengali-language consumer magazine with a health bias which now has the second largest distribution of any periodical in Bangladesh. He trained illiterate rural folk to vaccinate and treat common ailments, sending them out on bicycles to teach rudimentary maternal and child care, and family planning, including sterilization and menstrual regulation. In predominantly Muslim Bangladesh two-thirds of the village workers are women and these “barefoot doctors” are now also teaching the villagers handicrafts and improved practical techniques in farming, gardening and poultry raising. 

Because of the high cost of imported medicine, CHOWDHURY founded Gonoshasthaya Pharmaceuticals, Ltd., to manufacture cheaper generic drugs. Although more than 4,000 commercial drugs were for sale in the country, including some that were unnecessary and others that were dangerous, some 150 of the most essential were in short supply. The government responded in April 1982 by establishing a committee of experts, including CHOWDHURY, to seek a countrywide solution. The committee recommended restricting manufacture and import to roughly the 225 essential drugs on the list compiled by the World Health Organization for developing countries. Despite protests from drug manufacturers abroad, this policy has been pursued. The result has been wider availability of essential drugs at lower prices, and less confusion among laymen. 

In an iconoclastic approach to customary bureaucratic practices CHOWDHURY has not spared many of the international agencies whose avowed objectives are to facilitate development. Often, he insists, they are as concerned with the welfare of their frequently highly compensated expatriate staffs as for the programs under their auspices. 

CHOWDHURY, energetic and unconventional at the age of 43, lives the simple life of service he preaches — which is shared by his wife and only child. He is now organizing a new kind of medical school where the emphasis will be upon teaching holistic preventive medicine as an integral part of daily village life. 

In electing ZAFRULLAH CHOWDHURY to receive the 1985 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the Board of Trustees recognizes his engineering of Bangladesh’s new drug policy, eliminating unnecessary pharmaceuticals, and making comprehensive medical care more available to ordinary citizens.

I am honored to be here. We are all members of an uneven and unjust world, where one class is ruling over another; one expropriates the fruit of another?s labor. Such exploitation leads to ill health of nations, both physical and mental. Ill health is not just a misfortune but largely a product of the social and economic organization of society. 

It is well-known that people with lower incomes tend to have higher morbidity and mortality. Malnutrition is the constant companion of the lower social class. The health and illness of rural people or people in urban slums is neither the act of God nor of their genes, but a measure of the misery caused by present social and economic organization. Every year about five million children under five years of age die of diarrhea. Each year a similar number die from measles, whooping cough, polio, diphtheria and tetanus, all of which are easily preventable through vaccination. One estimate suggests that the cost of providing sufficient Oral Rehydration Salts for treating all cases of diarrhea in the world?s 1,000 million children under five years of age would be $300 million a year. Another $500 million would be needed to vaccinate all such children. This may seem high. But what is the world spending on the military? 

World military spending in 1982-83 exceeded $600 billion a year, in other words, $1 million a minute. The USA spent one trillion dollars ($1,000 billion) between 1981 and 1984 on arms. Next to the USA, the USSR and the United Kingdom are the largest spenders. Under developing countries are no exception. [I do not like the word “developing” as it does not reflect the truth. Most of the Third World countries are not “developing” but rather “under developing: because of the continuation of past colonialism and imperialism in different disguised forms.] Britain spent $9 billion on health in 1981-82, which represents 5.7 percent of its Gross National Product (GNP), while spending $13 billion on defense. Most Third World countries spend between 25 and 40 percent of the GNP on so-called defense. 

One half of one percent of one year’s world military spending would provide agricultural implements to allow food deficient, low income countries to attain self-sufficiency by 1990. 

While developed countries, with a few exceptions, persistently violate the recommendations of the United Nations to give 0.7 percent of their GNP as development aid to underdeveloped nations, civilized (!) developed countries continue to increase their arms exports to Third World nations. While people go hungry in most underdeveloped countries, purchase of arms is the main item in their budgets. And it may be no coincidence that in many of these, the form of government is military dictatorship. 

Where is the world?s conscience? Where is our humanity? Has it gone to sleep? No. People all over the world will definitely rise soon against exploitation and imperialism to end human sufferings. 

We, the workers in Gonoshasthaya Kendra (GK) in Bangladesh, are also trying in our humble way to move in that direction. The workers of GK have asked me to express their gratefulness to the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for giving me the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1985. I have come here to receive the Award on their behalf. We consider the Award to be for the collective work of GK workers, not for an individual. You will be pleased to know that the workers of Gonoshasthaya Kendra have decided in a meeting to invest the whole amount of the Award in our endeavor to bring about a change in medical education. The proposed education will not transform the medical students into businessmen; greed will not rule them. These new doctors will be the “Doctors of Health,” not the “Doctors of Disease.” 

They will be the change agents for tomorrow’s healthy, humane and sane world, where exploitation through imperialism and capitalism will not exist. 

Thank you very much for helping us in our efforts for the development of a healthy society in Bangladesh. And probably the endeavors of the late President Ramon Magsaysay were in the same vein.