For the Manobos of Mindanao whom legend credits with illiteracy because a hungry ancestor ate their alphabet, and 35 other Filipino ethnic minorities, the SUMMER INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS is unlocking doors to knowledge. To this end, among each non-literate people it now reaches in five Asian and 20 other countries on five continents, the INSTITUTE places a pair of missionary-linguists. Members of an international fraternity of 3,000 scholarly missionaries representing 18 nationalities, they remain until concepts and customs are mastered and the language recorded.

The INSTITUTE pursues its mission of research and service to nonliterate minorities with broad creativity. Employing the science of descriptive linguistics, primers are prepared with glossaries in the tribal tongue, the main regional and national languages and English. Apt pupils are trained as teachers and help conduct literacy classes for adults and youth. Dictionaries, folk stories, songbooks, simple readers on arithmetic, hygiene and Christian scriptures all become vehicles for new ideas that spur social and spiritual change and national integration.

As in other countries, INSTITUTE personnel in the Philippines—numbering 150—cooperate with the departments of Education, Health and Defense, as did their predecessors who first came to work here two decades ago. Filipino linguists and the Institute of National Languages are principal beneficiaries of their research. At their remote posts they regularly administer first aid and assist in epidemic outbreaks. Field workers are sustained and tribal folk given emergency care by pilots, five aircraft and 30 stations of their unique Jungle Aviation and Radio Service.

The SUMMER INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS was established in 1934 to provide qualified personnel for the growing ministry that William Cameron Town sends began in 1917 by translating the Bible for the Cakchiquel Indians of Central America. A sister organization, the Wycliffe Bible Translators, manages missionary activities. Special INSTITUTE linguistic courses are given at universities in the United States, Australia, Great Britain and West Germany. A jungle training camp in Mexico and a rugged arctic school in Canada ready volunteers for hardship.

Underwritten by no government or denomination, the INSTITUTE is supported voluntarily by individuals, church groups and communities. Foundations and government agencies have given grants for specific projects and lent their facilities. Nonsectarian believers in Christ, members complete they’re linguistic work in five, ten or more years and go, leaving behind a base for education. Respecting differences of language and culture, they provide avenues for modernization that yet allow individual and communal stability in the transition from isolation to full citizenship.

In electing the SUMMER INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS to receive the 1973 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, the Board of Trustees recognizes its inspired outreach to nonliterate tribespeople, recording and teaching them to read their own languages and enhancing their participation in the larger community of man.

It is with a particular sense of appreciation and encouragement that the SUMMER INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS accepts the 1973 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding.

My first contact with the late President Magsaysay was in March 1952 when he phoned from Manila to thank me for a copy of Cameron Townsend’s biography of the Mexican leader, Lazaro Cardenas, which I had mailed to him.

When my wife and I reached Manila in October of that year, I had the privilege of meeting Magsaysay personally, thus beginning a friendship which continued without interruption until his untimely death in March 1957.

President Ferdinand Marcos, from the very start of his administration, has continued the tradition of attention to needs of the cultural minorities and of unstinting help to the SUMMER INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS. Earlier this year, on the twentieth anniversary of the INSTITUTE’s work in the Philippines, President Marcos graciously gave renewed expression of his interest at a special function at Malaca?ang.

My colleagues and I in the SUMMER INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS begin to see the heartening results of the work we have happily volunteered to do in the hinterlands of this Republic. Provision of literacy materials in the Botolan Sambal language of Zambales is now well along. Speakers of that language should experience little difficulty in sustaining, through their own human resources, the momentum toward universal literacy and learning of the national language.

Cultural minorities in all parts of the Philippines are achieving dignity as literate, articulate citizens. A T’boli, for example, is supervising 22 other T’bolis in a highly successful program of teaching members of their group to read. One of the Tausug supervises an important dictionary project with only occasional help from an outside linguist. An Isneg is training to be an airplane pilot.

A Subanun, with only two years of schooling, has learned touch typing and been made barrio secretary in spite of having lost a finger on his right hand. One of the western Bukidnon Manobo, though he has had only three years of schooling, is a voluminous writer of original compositions designed to promote literacy among his own language group. Similar gratifying developments are transpiring among the Sarangani Manobo, Ilianen Manobo, Balangao, Kasiguran, Dumagan, Samal, Kalinga, Gadang and Bilaan.

Since this is an Award for work in Asia, I will only add that our efforts in four other Asian countries—Papua New Guinea, South Vietnam, Cambodia and Nepal—are proceeding in a like pattern to that of the Philippines, with the preparation of alphabets and literacy materials for a large number of linguistics minorities.

In closing I would like to share with you three verses of Matthew 20:25 to 28 that I took the liberty of having printed on one occasion for President Magsaysay. He read them aloud to his aides: “You know the rulers of the people have power over them, and their leaders rule over them. This, however, is not the way it shall be among you. If one of you wants to be great, he must be the servant of the rest; and if one of you wants to be chief, he must be your slave—like the Son of Man, who did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life to redeem many people.” As he finished reading, the President said: “That shows me the kind of man I ought to be.”

It also is a reminder which the SUMMER INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS takes to heart again in accepting with deep gratitude this recognition.

Giving relief is difficult especially when the goal is to generate positive human response. The recipient readily comes to feel obligated, dependent and ill at ease about the relationship. The challenge to the donor is to fortify rather than inhibit self-reliance. Working wherever possible through local agencies in eight countries and two colonies in Asia, the COOPERATIVE FOR AMERICAN RELIEF EVERYWHERE, known as CARE, has managed this delicate assignment with sensitivity and a continuing concern for long-term results. 

Inaugurated in November 1945 as a cooperative of American private charitable and service organizations to send food parcels to the starving in war-ravaged Europe, CARE soon broadened its scope, changing the “E” to Everywhere. Discovering that an equal need was for the means to self-help, CARE aid began emphasizing plows, technical books and much else that man needs for his productive efforts. As food commodities became available from the U.S. Government, which also paid for most of the freight, CARE took responsibility for a vast international feeding program. In March 1962 MEDICO became a service of CARE, adding a new dimension to the assault on hunger, poverty and disease. 

Filipino children numbering yearly some four million in 27,000 elementary and pre-schools benefit from the free lunch program of CARE and the Bureau of Public Schools. Blending powdered milk and cornmeal, teachers are distributing a nutritious supplement to guard the younger generation against the intellectually numbing hazards that scientists have uncovered in a protein deficient diet. Sprayers for fruit and tobacco growers, 3,000 transistor radios distributed to barrios, woodworking tools for vocational schools, and vita-pops (vitamin fortified buns) for orphans in institutions are but a few of CARE’s contributions. In South Vietnam, war refugees are given soap, vitamins, textile packages and sewing kits by CARE and are helped to become self-supporting with seeds, irrigation equipment, livestock, and tools for carpenters, masons and blacksmiths. When famine threatened millions in India two years ago, CARE was among the agencies that helped with effective emergency food aid. 

Now representing 26 American agencies CARE, in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1967, distributed in 32 countries US$99,194,128 worth of food, supplies and equipment. From its founding to date its contributions have exceeded one billion dollars in value. Costs of administering this service have been kept to approximately seven per cent. Accomplishing this immense task with a modest budget and insuring integrity in use sets a standard for constructive relief. It also is heartening reassurance for the many in Asia who benefit to know that others care. 

In electing the COOPERATIVE FOR AMERICAN RELIEF EVERYWHERE to receive the 1968 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, the Board of Trustees recognizes its constructive humanitarianism, fostering dignity among the needy in Asia and on three other continents for over 22 years.

I bring greetings from CARE’s Chairman, Mr. Ben Touster, and his sincere regrets that he is unable to be here today to accept this great honor on behalf of the organization he has served and loved for more than 20 years. 

We accept the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding in the name of the American people whose generous support has made it possible for CARE to be effective. 

Challenge abounds in the world today. I speak particularly of the challenge of disease and the challenge of poverty that degrade millions of our fellow members in the family of man. 

Of the 200 human beings that are born every minute, about half will be dead before they are a year old. Of those who survive, half will be dead before they reach 16 years of age. Many of the remainder will have a life expectancy of about 30 years. During this brief and wretched existence, they will be sick and hungry most of the time. Most of them will never learn to read and write. 

The challenge is clear — the opportunity is clear. Are we to say to them that modern man can do nothing to help them change their lot? If we do, we shame both them and ourselves. It does not have to be — and it will not be. 

Accompanying the Ramon Magsaysay Award is a wonderful grant of $10,000.00. Because the situation brought about by the civil war in Nigeria today represents the most urgent call upon relief organizations like CARE, the decision has been made to donate this grant toward the relief and rehabilitation of the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims of that conflict. 

We are often asked what CARE will do in the future — in which countries it will operate. These questions can only be answered by the need. We will help where required and requested, and within the budget provided by the individual donations of the American people. Perhaps no better answer can be given to CARE’s purpose than to quote the words of the late U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy who said: 

“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

The Ramon Magsaysay Award is without question the single most important honor that has come to CARE. We are proud and grateful for having been chosen to receive it. To the Foundation we, in turn, pledge that we will rededicate our efforts to the future service of men.

The problem of achieving peace amidst the tensions and dangers of a nuclear age occupies the mind of much of the human race, yet few within it discover a useful way to contribute. In reaffirming the essential community of interest of all ordinary people, regardless of creed or nationality, the PEACE CORPS Volunteers belong to that small but growing fraternity who by their individual efforts do make a difference.

Recognizing that the PEACE CORPS depends entirely upon the quality of its Volunteers, the screening process is rigorous. More than 70,000 Americans have volunteered. Less than 10 per cent have been accepted as trainees and of these some 16 per cent have been selected out during training. 

The first Asian contingent arrived in the Philippines on October 12, 1961. By mid-1963 some 1,400 Volunteers were serving in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Ceylon, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak and the Philippines. They represented a cross-section of urban and rural America. The youngest was 18 and the oldest a 76-year-old water supply engineer working in Pakistan. 

A few were married couples, but most were single men and women in the early summer of their lives, who had come to unknown countries to learn and share with unknown peoples their energy and technical skills. 

Tasks performed by Volunteers in Asia reflect the wide spectrum of middle-level, and sometimes advanced-level, skills requested by respective governments. Nurses, doctors, and laboratory technicians came to help staff district hospitals, rural clinics and leprosaria in Sarawak, Malaya and four other Asian countries. Mechanics have taught repair of vehicles in Afghanistan and of farm machinery in India. Instructors of vocational agriculture have been at work in Thailand. Mathematics teachers have been in Ceylon and athletic coaches in Indonesia. Engineers have built roads in North Borneo and schools in Nepal. 

In the Philippines, the 628 Volunteers were measured against the demanding earlier example of the “Thomasites” who arrived in 1901 to found the public school system. Crossing the Pacific after the Battle of Manila in a converted cattle ship, the transport “Thomas,” they journeyed often by carabao cart, banca and on foot to start the schools that became a mainstay of democracy in the Republic. The PEACE CORPS Volunteers, serving mostly as teachers aides in English to strengthen that public school system, are proving worthy successors to those intrepid pioneers. 

Far more consequential than these technical contributions are the difficult-to-measure achievements. By choosing as Volunteers to share the lot of their fellow workers in each country, economic and status barriers have been minimized. In the process of jointly tackling the problems that must be solved for progress, the Volunteers and their hosts discover the human interdependence and mutuality of satisfaction that must provide the personal basis for an enduring peace. 

In electing the UNITED STATES PEACE CORPS IN ASIA to receive the 1963 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, the Board of Trustees recognizes their voluntary service to the cause of peace and humanity in a direct and personal way. 

While the Award cites specifically the accomplishments of “persons in Asia,” the Board of Trustees also commends the PEACE CORPS Volunteers serving in the Near East, Africa and Latin America.

During his historic inauguration address President Kennedy said: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” 

Since then President Kennedy has said that the PEACE CORPS is the clearest fulfillment of his inaugural challenge. 

But, for Asia, President Kennedy’s statement should have a familiar ring. This was the great challenge which President Magsaysay made to your country during his presidency. 

And both Presidents Magsaysay and Kennedy echoed the words of Dr. Jose Rizal who once said: “. . . what do you do for the country that gave you your existence, that gives you your life and provides you with knowledge?” 

The patterns of history become strongly interwoven when we recall the words of the first PEACE CORPS Volunteer to die in Asia. Before his death he wrote a Filipino friend: “Try, before you die, to do one thing that is immortal.” 

In the work of the PEACE CORPS Volunteers in Asia, we see the bold ideas of great men transformed into the practical realities of voluntary service to the cause of peace and humanity in a direct and personal way. 

Events like these occur in history because a man like President Kennedy had confidence in the capacity for good in the people of the United States. President Magsaysay had the same confidence in the Filipino people. 

These men also had the courage to withstand the critics who distrust any new venture which relies on lofty and idealistic goals. The PEACE CORPS, too, faced these critics who labeled us the “Kiddie Corps” and the “Children’s Crusade.” But we had the people on our side and that turned the tide. 

President Magsaysay succeeded for many reasons, but one of the most important was because he refused to direct government from behind a large desk in a capital city and through subordinates more interested in their own advancement than in the goals of their government and the wishes of the people. We try to run the PEACE CORPS the same way. 

It was in this spirit that our Volunteers came to Asia not only to teach and help, but to learn and grow. 

We came to Asia because the Asians in 10 countries asked us to come. We have not asked for diplomatic immunities and privileges and would not accept them if they were offered. We work under Asian leadership and under Asian laws. We are participating in Asian plans, and not some imported idea which someone thinks is good for Asians. 

The Volunteers speak the Asian languages. They eat Asian foods. They live at Asian standards. They work with Asian counterparts. They participate by helping, not talking. And we learn by helping, not observing. 

In allowing us to participate in your struggles, you have helped us to realize that we in the United States were in danger of losing our way among the television sets and supermarkets of our affluent society. Just because those nearest to us were well cared for, we assumed that those far from us were too. We thought our struggle was over. 

Now many of us have come to realize that the American revolution is a continuing revolution. It will not be over until all peoples, everywhere, enjoy freedom and prosperity; not over until no child goes hungry; not over until each man has the right to practice the religion of his choice; not over until the last vestiges of colonialism and racial prejudice are gone; and not over until the peace that men like Rizal and Magsaysay glimpsed becomes a reality.