Asia’s smallest country and located in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives—made up of twenty-six atolls and almost 1,200 coral islands—often appears in tourist brochures and websites as a tropical island paradise, surrounded by aquamarine waters ideal for snorkeling and fishing. Its culture is deeply tied to the ocean, and it is home to a people proud to be Malvidian. Not surprisingly, tourism has become the country’s leading industry, overtaking fishing and boosting the Maldives’ Gross National Income to upper-middle-income levels by the late 2010s.

Behind this idyllic façade, however, lies a murkier and unpleasant truth. Rapid urbanization has led to ugly consequences. Plastic pollution has befouled the island chain’s crystalline waters, threatening the marine ecosystem, the economy, and the health of its residents. The threat exists on both land and sea. This waste is either burned or tossed into the ocean, producing harmful smoke and microplastics that damage and contaminate all forms of life ashore and underwater.

As a young girl growing up in the Maldives, Shaahina Ali was fortunate to have witnessed a far more benign and cared-for place to call home. “My memories of our beaches are of the finest white sand, full of natural shells, with many natural treasures for us to play with,” she recalls. “As a kid, I remember a fight we had for a plastic bottle find—it was so rare. Garbage or even fabric, tins, and plastic bags were not there. Plastic bags were treasured and reused, as they were not something available even in the shops.”

Today those treasures have become an environmental nightmare for Ali’s beloved Maldives. The lack of proper waste management has led to tons of waste, particularly plastic, being disposed of haphazardly. As a diver, photojournalist, and diving instructor herself, Ali often came literally face to face with the tides of trash clouding up the once-pristine waters of her islands, leaving behind swaths of dead fish and dying corals.

In 2015, deciding to fight back, Ali linked up with the NGO, Parley for the Oceans, to frame a comprehensive program to save the country’s waters from pollution and to turn plastic waste into a useful source of livelihood for the people. Today, as executive director of Parley Maldives, she oversees the implementation of their signature strategy: Avoid, Intercept, and Redesign (AIR) plastics for a better environment.

Working with volunteers and with local businesses and organizations, Parley undertakes massive cleanups, educational programs, and recycling ventures that have not only caught much of the physical waste but just as crucially intervened where it matters—in the minds of Maldivians and tourists who now recognize and avoid the problems plastic poses. With Ali, Parley has introduced plastic interception and collection sites in island communities and over seventy schools, leading over 700 collaborative cleanups along affected coastlines.

Ali is aware that much more has to be done both in and out of the water to ensure a cleaner and safer future for her country. She has worked with the government to address climate change, which to her, is Nature’s way of talking to us. “We can’t afford to address just one problem. We’ve got to take care of everything because everything is connected to the sea.” She has chosen to see the unusual characteristics of her country as an opportunity for change rather than a hindrance: “We are the perfect country to educate and showcase climate change and resilience as our country is made up of only 1% land; the other 99% is covered by sea.”

Ali saw crises where others saw coastline—mounting waste, and plastic quietly invading paradise. Quiet and unassuming, she sparked a marine movement rooted in community, science, and resolve. With every campaign, cleanup, and policy shift, she proved that protecting nature is not just environmental, especially with rising seas globally—it is existential.

“I go there to clean up with hope—hope that my grandchildren will see whales in the ocean in their lifetime as I did growing up.” It is a vision that drives Ali’s optimism and her passion for the seas. Asia’s smallest country may yet be its biggest anti-pollution champion.

In electing Shaahina Ali to receive the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes her unwavering commitment to protecting the marine ecosystem of the Maldives with passion, vision, and inclusivity, ensuring that her work will be carried on by another generation of Maldivians in search of effective local solutions to global problems.

Thank you so much for this prestigious Award.

Being recognized for the work we have dedicated most of our lives truly encourages us to continue with even more hope and positivity.

I am deeply grateful to be listed among 356 amazing Ramon Magsaysay Awardees who continue to do good and make a difference in a world that needs it more now than ever.

I have always loved the ocean. Diving for me, has always been my passion.  Meeting the incredible life that thrives beneath the surface of our oceans,  or just drifting weightless in the blue is simply magical.  I was happy and content just being there. But one dive changed everything for me.

In 1998, the Maldives lost over 90 percent of the first 5 meters of its  reefs to El Niño. Witnessing this for the first time as it happened did not worry me in the beginning—I was fascinated.  The reefs tops were like a winter wonderland. A few months after the event I saw a lot of algae and the reef had no color and the fish slowly disappeared.  This was climate change that we were then talking and hearing about.  It was happening and many of us did not even realize it—let alone see it.  I did not understand it. 

Then  I had the opportunity to volunteer with the Marine Research Centre as a diver on a reef monitoring trip to evaluate the status of our coral reefs. This experience—working closely with a team of marine biologists—became a turning point in my life.

A simple explanation from the science world in a way I understand, made me realize that corals, or rather the tiny polyps that build them, cannot survive even with a small change in ocean temperature. That lesson changed the way I saw the ocean forever. I began to understand how these tiny organisms that creates something so complex and beautiful was so fragile and vulnerable and could so easily become victims of climate change— it happened and was going to happen more frequently if we do not do something.  It was happening and was going to happen without many of us ever realizing the deep, symbiotic connection between the ocean and all life, including our own.   

How the impact on corals from raising ocean temperature and pollution and other factors could tumble the whole structure that builds the Maldives, that sustains  us and that provide our food in just a few days was a lot for a younger me. It was a moment.

It was that  moment that made me very determined to actually focus more in inspiring  a generation of young Maldivians who would rise to work together and do everything possible to protect our home and our oceans. We had a number of  dive professionals we trained in our dive school to volunteers with us in taking teachers, students and many communities to see what a reef is and how amazing and beautiful it is.  Many for the first time, and once you see that magical world, it becomes easier for them to understand its symbiotic connection and  fragility.

This Award reminds me that every small effort matters.  My hope is to inspire more people to connect more deeply with nature—not just through pictures or words, but through real exposure, emotions and conscious actions.  I hope that we can help us live in balance and give other life forms an equal chance to exist.

This recognition is not mine alone. It belongs to the communities that I work with.  My amazing team in Parley Maldives , who work tirelessly to protect our oceans;  to Parley Global team  who have always been there for us—for the Maldives; to all individuals who truly believe in the work we do; to all NGO’s and collaborators who supports us in many ways than one; and to my friends, who have joined and participated in my beliefs even if it was inconvenient.

I will not be who I am without my family who have always loved, supported and encouraged me to be me.  To my husband and partner who has given more than 34 years of his life in the Maldives, being my partner and  training many outstanding local diving professionals—thank you.

Finally, I want to express my heartfelt appreciation to the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation team, for their kindness and warm hospitality.  My companions and I feel so loved and spoilt.  Thank you for everything.

Thank you once again for this great honor, and for believing in the work we do.

I dedicate this Award to all Maldivians who are, right now, feeling hopeless about what is happening in our ocean space. We need to stay unwavering in our belief and our purpose, picking our battles and moving  forward with more conviction than ever.  Ocean is our life—for the oceans.

Poverty and the suffering that comes with it are difficult enough. But for billions of people around the world—and certainly millions in the Philippines—being poor has not only meant material privations, but also the loss of pride and dignity, access to justice, social services, and too often, the loss of hope and a sense of being human.

For one Manila-based, religious-missionary priest of the Societas Verbi Divini (SVD), helping the poor involves much more than providing food, clothing, and shelter. It means recognizing their human dignity—even through such simple means as giving them a bath, a surprisingly restorative and quintessentially Christian gesture. That respect extends to the departed whose families are too poor to give them a proper burial.

Flaviano Antonio L. Villanueva or simply “Father Flavie” belongs to that breed of socially committed clergy for whom godliness is to be found not in the halls of influence and wealth but in the streets, among the poorest and the most forgotten. Nursing the physically and spiritually afflicted back into the mainstream of society has become his life’s work.

In 2015, he founded the Arnold Janssen Kalinga Center in Manila to provide “dignified care and service” to indigent and powerless citizens, serving thousands of marginalized Filipinos. These beneficiaries are people of all ages and backgrounds, including those who may have engaged in drugs and petty crimes. He believes they deserve a second chance at leading decent lives, regardless of their past. Kalinga works to recreate the poor’s self-image, reclaim their self-respect, and restore their self-worth.

In a remarkable twist of fate, their redemption and renewal are Villanueva’s own, for he himself was once a self-confessed drug user since age 14 until he turned around in 1995, volunteering as a lay missionary in Bicol. In 1998 he entered the seminary and was ordained a priest in 2006. Today, Villanueva draws on that incredible transformation to prove that even the most wayward and destitute can find redemption and renewal.

Villanueva also led the effort to locate the bodies of victims of the government’s “war on drugs” where thousands of Filipinos were summarily executed. Adding more pain to this injustice was the inability of the dead’s impoverished families to secure permanent graves for them. Addressing their plight, Villanueva mobilized resources to provide funds for the exhumation of the bodies for their cremation and inurnment, and relocation to a proper resting place. Dambana ng Paghilom (Shrine of Healing) is the first memorial columbarium in the country for victims of the drug war, where both the living and wounded souls can find respite and healing. Villanueva’s Paghilom program has not only brought comfort to widows and orphans, but has also allowed them to continue leading productive lives. “I felt a strong affinity with the widows,” Villanueva says. “They had lost their family’s breadwinner, and were desperate. The Center’s Paghilom program welcomed them, providing dignified, holistic care encompassing emotional and spiritual restoration.”

Expectedly, Villanueva’s prophetic and activist ministry attracted critical attention from authorities, and in 2020, he and ten other citizens, including another Catholic priest, were accused of sedition—a charge that was dropped in 2023, although the death threats never stopped. These experiences left Villanueva even more resolved to seek justice for the poor. Here again, he emphasizes that justice extends beyond the legal realm. “Justice can take many forms—among them, the recovery of one’s self-confidence, and forgiving oneself.”

Beyond preaching, Villanueva employed his management skills to undertake a needs analysis of his constituency—and he realized that the poor needed not just food but dignity. Following the late Pope Francis’ example, he initiated showers for the homeless as both a literal and symbolic act of cleansing, to prepare them for a fresh start in life. He had them pledge that “As I have been cared for, so shall I care for others with joy,” expanding the circle of Christian charity even further.

When lives were reduced to statistics, he stepped up, with his heart on his sleeve, offering not merely shelter and food to the marginalized but a sense of worth, and human connection long denied. With deep compassion and quiet defiance, he created spaces to rebuild what were unjustly erased by healing the broken, leading home the abandoned, and rekindling hope when it seemed all but lost.

In electing Fr. Flaviano Antonio L. Villanueva to receive the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes his lifelong mission to uphold the dignity of the poor and the oppressed, daily proving with unwavering faith that by serving the least of their brethren, all are restored.

Good evening.

To the Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, to my fellow awardees, to my SVD family, and to everyone who believes that faith and justice can walk hand in hand—maraming salamat po.

When I first learned of this award, I simply grew quiet—and I realized, this honor was never about me, but about the many lives and hands that gave it meaning: the homeless man and woman who asked not for food but for dignity, the mother who searched for her son taken by violence, and the volunteers who show up each day with open hearts.

This honor belongs to them.

And so tonight, I receive this Award not as a prize, but as a voice for those who are often silenced.

For the countless voiceless victims of the war on drugs—at least eighty of whom are here with us today.

For the thousands of homeless still wandering the streets, seeking not only a meal, but a little mercy—those whose karitons have been kicked aside by power, and crushed under indifference.

And I receive it, too, for the countless defenders of human and environmental rights, who keep speaking the truth, even when truth demands everything of them.

Because when injustice persists, silence wounds the soul.

To stop the bleeding we need to start the healing.

To start the healing, we should continue asking the difficult questions:

• How many were truly killed?
• How come the perpetrators and killers are still at large?
• Who are the real people responsible of having blood in their hands?

I STRONGLY propose and support the creation of an EJK TRUTH COMMISSION.

Ano na ba ang ating sigaw?

Sobra na. Tama na. Ikulong na!

But behind these cries is not anger alone—it is love, wounded yet still alive. Behind this work is a story—one I proudly tell.

There was a time when I, too, was lost—a young man once touched by darkness, until mercy found me.

That encounter with mercy changed everything.

It restored in me the will to live, the courage to love again. From my own brokenness, I learned that healing is never one-sided—for in redeeming others, I, too, am redeemed.

Out of that grace was born a calling—and from that calling, the Arnold Janssen Kalinga Center—where maligo becomes a sacrament, a meal becomes communion, and every act of care becomes a prayer.

In each bath becomes a sacrament, each shared meal becomes a communion, we reclaim not just the body, but the dignity that poverty tries to steal.

Ang Kalinga—hindi lang ito pangalan ng proyekto.

It stands for Kain, Aral, Ligo, ng Ayos— Eat, Learn, Bathe, to Live Anew.

Simple words that remind us: the Gospel is not only preached from pulpits, but lived out in basins of water, shared rice, and listening hearts.

It is here where the poor re-create their self-image, reclaim their self-respect, and restore their self-worth.

Through the years, I have walked with the forgotten—the homeless, the addicted, the families left behind by the drug war. I have seen mothers carry grief heavier than any cross, and yet whisper, “Salamat pa rin, Panginoon.”

I have witnessed how forgiveness can bloom where fear once ruled, and how God hides in those the world refuses to see.

Through Paghilom, we have seen how healing begins where justice once failed—among widows, orphans, and those told they no longer matter. When mercy embraces their sorrow, it becomes the justice that restores what violence has taken.

There were times when truth became dangerous, when mercy was mistaken for rebellion, and compassion was branded as defiance. But each time, I remembered what I tell our volunteers: “Hindi tayo tinawag para maging ligtas; tinawag tayo para maging tapat.”

We are not called to be safe—we are called to be faithful.

And when you walk with the wounded, you let their pain touch your own. But in those wounds, we meet Christ again—not in statues, but in the living, the broken, the brave.

And so I have learned that greatness of spirit is not about power or prestige, but about choosing—again and again—faith over despair, compassion over indifference, truth over fear, and always, Christ above all else.

Because hope is what the poor have taught me. They have shown me that dignity can rise even from the streets, that kindness is stronger than cruelty, and that love—when lived—is the only revolution that lasts.

A special message to the young who are listening: You may not all wear collars or habits, but each of you carries a calling.

Look around you—someone’s hunger, someone’s grief, someone’s silence—that is your altar.

You do not need permission to be kind; only the courage to begin.

Hindi tayo tinawag upang mamuno, kundi upang makibahagi.

We are not called to rule, but to accompany.

I dedicate this Award to those whose names may never appear on plaques or in the news—the families of the slain, the poor who still dream, the volunteers who choose compassion over comfort, and my fellow missionaries who believe that the Church must carry the scent of its people.

And to those who still doubt that goodness can win—look again. Every act of care, every moment of courage, is proof that light still breaks through.

Dilexi Te —“I have loved you.”

These are not just words from Scripture; they are the heartbeat of our vocation.

It is love that moves the hands that wash tired feet, love that opens the arms that keep embracing the rejected, and love that strengthens the hearts that keep believing that mercy will always be stronger than fear.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award is not an ending, but a sending—not a medal to display, but a mission to renew.

A call to keep washing the tired feet of our nation, to keep rekindling hope where it was buried, so that by serving the least of our brethren—we may all be restored.

Muli, Maraming  maraming salamat po.

Maglakad po tayo sa liwanag—magkasama!

India is one of the world’s largest and most powerful countries, in terms of its population, economy, and political importance. Since its independence in the past century, it has achieved massive strides in its technological and economic growth. It is now the world’s fourth-largest economy on the strength of its exports, services sector, and domestic consumption.

India’s story shows both challenges and hope. The visible signs of India’s new affluence belie many profound inequalities in its society—notably in incomes and educational opportunities. Despite the overall surge in growth, equality remains out of reach for many rural and tribal girls, who have been the most neglected for lack of adequate education. In Rajasthan, India’s largest state, girls have the highest illiteracy rate.

This disparity has had a deep detrimental impact on Indian society, where illiterate girls are forced to marry early, have children, and work—while culturally privileged males go to school. Given their limited horizons, only a lifetime of penury and servitude awaits most of these women.

In 2005, a young graduate of the London School of Economics then working in San Francisco, United States of America, decided to return home to India to take on this challenge. After two years of studying the problem, Safeena Husain established the Foundation to Educate Girls Globally (FEGG) or “Educate Girls,” a non-profit organization dedicated to mobilizing community and government resources for girls’ education in rural and educationally disadvantaged areas of India.

Starting out in Rajasthan, Educate Girls identified the neediest communities in terms of girls’ education, brought unschooled or out-of-school girls into the classroom, and worked to keep them there until they were able to acquire credentials for higher education and gainful employment. 2015 was a year of innovative collaborations. It launched the world’s first Development Impact Bond (DIB) in education, aimed at tying financial aid to achieved outcomes.

The results were dramatic. What began with fifty pilot village schools reached over 30,000 villages across India’s most underserved regions, involving over two million girls, with a retention rate of over 90%. Organized into Team Balika (Team for the Girl Child), local volunteers went door-to-door to identify out-of-school girls, address parents’ concerns, and help with documentation. At the end of the DIB project in 2018, Educate Girls had surpassed its total learning targets by 160% and its total enrollment target by 116%.

Beyond enrolling young girls, Educate Girls also launched Pragati, an open-schooling program that allows young women aged 15-29 to complete their education and avail themselves of lifelong opportunities. Its initial cohort of 300 learners has grown to over 31,500 learners.

Through its programs, it waged war on two fronts: the societal and systemic. Societal barriers kept girls at home, performing domestic chores as sisters, wives, and mothers. Systemic barriers limited the funds and resources required to improve girls’ access to education. Hovering above these was the patriarchal mindset—that needed to be challenged and proven wrong.

“Girls’ education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet to solve some of the world’s most difficult problems,” says Husain. “It is one of the best investments a country can make, impacting nine of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, including health, nutrition, and employment.

“Educate Girls remains committed to breaking the cycle of illiteracy and poverty for girls. By scaling our programs, deepening government partnerships, and embedding community-led solutions, we strive to create a brighter, more equitable future—one girl at a time,” she adds.

Educate Girls entered communities where girls and women were expected to stay in the shadows—and made them visible. By working within the system, they were able to change it, transforming schools into spaces of possibility. They challenged tradition, shifted mindsets, and showed that education is not a privilege, but a right that reshapes and rebuilds lives. It is enabling the women of India to take their rightful place in their own country, and the world.

In electing the Foundation to Educate Girls Globally to receive the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes its commitment to addressing cultural stereotyping through the education of girls and young women, liberating them from the bondage of illiteracy and infusing them with skills, courage, and agency to achieve their full human potential.

(Delivered by Safeena Husain, founder of the Foundation to Educate Girls Globally)

I started Educate Girls in my home with a computer screen in front of me and my infant daughter on my lap. Eighteen years later, to be the first Indian organization to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award is historic, humbling and completely unbelievable. 

While I planted the seed for this organization, it has been nurtured over the last decades by many, many hands.

This win is dedicated to the hard work of the Educate Girls’ current and past team members, and especially our field coordinators, who go door to door to find every single girl who is not going to school. They do it when it rains or even when the temperature hits 45 degrees centigrade. They climb mountains and cross rivers just to make sure every single home is visited and no girl is left behind. It is because of their hard work that this mission has expanded from just a few villages when we began to more than 30,000 today.

This win is dedicated to the 55,000 youth, our Team Balika volunteers, who have worked with us since inception to bring over 2 million girls back to school. They inspire us daily with their motto, “Mera Gaon, Meri Samasya, aur Main hi Samadhan,” which means “My village, my problem, and I am the solution.”

This win is dedicated to over 3,000 Preraks, our mentors, who work with adolescent girls and young women who cannot go back to formal school. They help them learn in village-based learning camps, sometimes set up in their own homes to ensure that girls can complete their secondary education. They go above and beyond the call of duty to support girls, sometimes babysitting their children, or even grazing their goats so that girls don’t miss their exams. Their hard work has ensured that over 30,000 girls are getting a second chance at education and a second chance at a future.

This win is dedicated to parents, community members, teachers, headmasters and countless others who stand up for our girls and provide day-to-day support for our programs and for our team members.

This win is dedicated to our Board, our supporters, our partners in the government and civil society. Thank you for placing your trust and faith in us. Your support provides us with the much-needed fuel to propel this mission forward.

This win is for our girls who inspire us daily with their courage, grit and resilience. For girls who cook, clean, tend to cattle, look after siblings and then study late into the night to build a brighter future for themselves, their families and their country. This award sheds light on their struggles and the numerous challenges they face.

Over the years, we have met hundreds of out-of-school girls, called “Antimbala,” or “the last girl.” They were named Antimbala because everyone hoped that they would be the last girls to be born.

So, today, in honor of Antimbala, we at Educate Girls pledge to 10X10. We commit to reaching 10 million learners over the next 10 years, working to ensure that no girl is denied a quality education.

Because when a girl is educated, magic happens! Education opens up opportunities, opportunities give her choices, and choices give her a voice and agency to help her reach her full potential.

Also, we only have to do it once. Because when she is educated, she is twice as likely to educate her children and break the cycle of illiteracy and poverty forever.

Finally, I want to thank my husband and my children for making my mission their mission and for standing behind me all these years. I want to thank my father, who is watching from above, and my mother, who is here today. Nothing can happen without the blessings of our elders.

Our deepest gratitude to the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for this incredible recognition. You have energized us and given us a tailwind to help carry our mission forward, in India and beyond.

I am Safeena Husain, and I Educate Girls

Thank you.

 

 

For many developing countries around the world, universal health coverage (UHC) remains an elusive dream. Poor people living in the countryside are often the most affected, with little or no access to the most basic health services.

For Thailand—now an upper middle-income economy—this is no longer true. UHC was finally implemented in 2002, and it has since been hailed as a system that offers largely free medical care to Thai citizens.

But UHC and other landmark achievements in Thai healthcare did not happen overnight. Rather, they were the result of decades of struggle waged by progressive, visionary, and dedicated Thai physicians in both professional and political arenas to secure adequate and affordable healthcare for their people, especially the rural poor.

Those doctors bonded together in what has since been called the RURAL DOCTORS MOVEMENT (RDM)—a combination of the Rural Doctor Society (RDS) and the Rural Doctor Foundation (RDF). While many doctors belong to both, the RDS is an informal and more flexible organization, and the RDF is a formal NGO comprising doctors working in public hospitals.

The emergence of the RDM reflects the changes and the needs in Thai society, particularly since the 1960s when, as in other developing countries, many Thai medical professionals left for greener pastures in the United States. The resulting brain drain forced the government in 1967 to impose compulsory service for medical professionals in the rural areas in return for their subsidized education. This exposed them to the harsh realities of life in the countryside, making them acutely aware of the need for corrective policies.

At the same time, in the early 1970s, a pro-democracy movement swept Thailand, advocating for greater freedom and socio-economic justice. Many idealistic young doctors joined this movement, seeing in it an opportunity to redress the inequities they saw in Thai society. They organized medical teams for the student protesters, and in 1974, students were sent to the countryside to study poverty and inadequate healthcare.

Their experience and awakening are best expressed by former president of RDS, Vichai Chokevivat, who recalls that “When I was a rural doctor, I saw many people taken ill and becoming almost penniless. They had to sell their farmland or even their daughter to get enough money to pay for their medical treatment. It was such a painful and bitter experience that we dreamt of providing free medical care to the sick.”

In 1978, following the brutal suppression of the student movement, many medical students sought refuge in rural areas, strengthening their ties to their host communities. To be able to continue to operate under the new regime, the Rural Doctor Federation became the RDS. Later still, in 1982, many of the same doctors behind the RDS organized and registered RDF as a formal umbrella for their programs.

Some prominent RDS leaders—among them Chokevivat, Choochai Supawongse, Kriengsak Vacharanukulkieti, Supat Hasuwannakit, and the late Sanguan Nitayarumphong—had activist backgrounds, and the RDS continued to fight for greater civil liberties and against corruption in the 1990s. However, it never lost sight of its main goals: to support medical and public health services in rural areas, disseminate medical and public health information, and boost the morale and spirit of rural doctors.

Through their influence in health governance, RDS doctors continue to advocate for policy reforms. Through the more formal RDF, progressive healthcare programs are implemented more effectively utilizing official channels. The RDF also networks with other NGOs such as those for nurses and pharmacists as well as the World Health Organization and other international agencies.

The impact of the movement on Thai society is clear, palpable, and enduring. Thailand’s rural doctors have demonstrated how vital adequate and affordable healthcare is to social justice, how necessary democracy is in creating the best environment for positive social change, and how the spirit of volunteerism can achieve superlative results.

In electing the RURAL DOCTORS MOVEMENT to receive the 2024 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes their historic and continuing contribution to their people’s health—and perhaps just as importantly, to their recognition and fulfillment as citizens with basic rights. By championing the rural poor, the movement made sure to leave no one behind as the nation marches forward to greater economic prosperity and modernization.

As far as we know, in the 66 years history, the Ramon Magsaysay Award have always been given to individuals or organizations. It is our great honor to be the first movement to receive this recognition.

The Thai Rural Doctors Movement emerged alongside the Democracy Movement of students and citizens in the mid-1960s. During that period, Thailand faced a severe shortage of doctors in rural areas, exacerbated by the brain drain to the United States. Thus, the Ministry of Public Health had to implement a compulsory policy for medical students to work in rural areas for three years after graduation.

This policy made newly graduated doctors face hardships in the rural hospitals. They have begun to unite their efforts to support each other and to provide better healthcare for rural people in the scarcity of resources and disparity in the country. The “Rural Doctor Federation” was established in 1976 for these reasons and re-named as the “Rural Doctor Society” in 1978. Three years later, the “Rural Doctor Foundation” was founded to be the official organization of our movement. This is the beginning of our movement to reform Thailand’s healthcare system.

After the victory of students and citizens in the democracy movement in October 1973 against the military government, we saw the opportunity to improve our society and we pushed one of the articles into the constitution that emphasized the importance of public health, mandating that “the state provide free healthcare to the poor and requiring the state to offer free services for the control and prevention of dangerous communicable diseases.” This provision has remained in every subsequent Thai constitution, despite several coups de’tat.

This provision and the development of the health infrastructure were the crucial foundations that enabled us to establish the Universal Health Coverage system successfully in 2002.

Though the accessibility to health facilities has been improved, we still saw many patients hesitated to get the treatment because they have no money to pay out of pocket. Some of the patients when they have a serious health condition, they ask the doctor to send them back home even though they should be transferred to get better medical treatment. So, the universal health coverage program was our holy grail as it will bring people to the equity of healthcare.

To achieve this, we did the research, set the agenda, and communicated the suffering of sick people to society. We campaigned and created policy advocacy strategies. And when there was the election in 2001. The window of opportunity was opened for us, and the Thai-Rak-Thai party got interested in this policy and put it into their campaign. After the Thai-Rak-Thai government was formed. The universal health coverage policy was implemented.

But the task of our movement was not yet finished. We continue working hard to decrease the resistance, improve the benefit packages, cooperate with health professionals, raise their spirit to work in the underserved areas, and most importantly, be the watchdog for corruption.

Recently, when COVID-19 struck Bangkok, we set up “the Rural Doctors Rescue Bangkok operation” to screen and give treatment in the capital. Our mobilization of rural doctors has helped many urban poor through that hard period.

Our spirit of contributing to the equity of society aligns with the ideology of the late President Ramon Magsaysay, who believed that “those who have less in life should have more in law.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, Working for the people to reduce inequality is a never-ending mission. Receiving the Ramon Magsaysay Award confirms that the Thai Rural Doctors Movement are on the right path and serves as a significant encouragement for us to continue forward. We believe that universal health coverage is crucial, and we would like to see every country make a strong effort to achieve universal health coverage in the near future.

Thank you very much.

Despite being initially looked down upon as “mere entertainment,” animation has come into its own as an art form, indeed among the most popular in the world today. By producing the illusion of motion, early animators brought wonder and delight to audiences wherever it was introduced. It offered a visual alternative—but also a recognizable analogue—to everyday reality, enabling critical comparisons in an often comic way. Over time, animation did more than entertain. It became a useful and effective medium for education.

Today, with the help of artificial intelligence, digital animation has pushed the boundaries of the possible in both positive and negative directions, further blurring the line between illusion and reality. Beyond topics and themes of interest to children, animation now tackles mature and complex subjects, from war and psychosocial trauma to climate change and sustainable development.

For some, animation is a technique, another way of presenting things by cleverly combining art and engineering. For a dedicated few, it is a passion and a way of life, a means of exploring the truth through the magic of visual fiction.

Among  those  few,  one  name  stands  out:  that  of  MIYAZAKI  HAYAO (born 1941), the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, today one of the industry’s foremost exponents of animated films made expressly for children but with a much broader appeal.

Founded in 1985, Studio Ghibli has produced many of the world’s most memorable and beloved animated feature films. These include such classics as My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008), and The Boy and the Heron (2023). More than being commercial successes—three Ghibli productions are among Japan’s ten top-grossing films—these are works that display a deep understanding of the human condition, engaging their viewers to reflect on their own situation and exercise their humanity.

That could be said of most notable films, except that MIYAZAKI and Studio Ghibli have set the bar higher by aiming for a segment of the audience that could be the most difficult to engage and please: children. Ghibli films have a devoted adult following, but MIYAZAKI has never lost his original and main focus. For him, children comprise a clear and critical audience capable of imbibing complex issues if their imaginations can be suitably provoked and directed.

“I think it is vain to think that we can confront problems of the adult world through animated films,” he says. “That is not to say that films aimed at children are easier; they can be even more difficult because they deal with origins and fundamentals. But I think these are concepts that are especially suited to animation. I want to depict the reality of present-day children in Japan—including their desire—and make films that will inspire heartfelt enjoyment. This is something fundamental, something we should never forget.”

Reflecting his respect for his young audience, MIYAZAKI does not simplify his plots or stories. He tackles complicated issues, using his art to make them comprehensible to children, whether it be about protecting the environment, advocating for peace, or championing the rights and roles of women in society. Some of these subjects can be sensitive and controversial in the context of traditional Japanese society, but MIYAZAKI handles them as a good teacher would—connecting with the young, opening their minds, raising fundamental questions, and inviting them to map the way forward. He educates by entertaining.

As the animator John Lasseter observed in 2014, “Miyazaki has directed eleven feature films [twelve in 2023], more than any other animation director in history. Not only did he write as well as direct those movies, he also drew all of the storyboards, every single drawing for each film himself. And every film he has created is a masterpiece. Each film is full of ideas, images, and emotions that are so immensely creative that it’s hard to conceive that one man thought of them all. Every time I watch a MIYAZAKI movie, I learn something new about the craft of filmmaking.”

But beyond his craft, it is MIYAZAKI’s humanity that has engaged many millions of viewers around the world—his sense of what connects us to nature and to one another. And Studio Ghibli practices what it preaches, as MIYAZAKI has sought to share his success with other workers in the industry, advocating for better working conditions.

In electing MIYAZAKI HAYAO to receive the 2024 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees hails a gifted and exemplary artist who has demonstrated, in his work and outlook, a lifelong commitment to the use of art, specifically animation, to illuminate the human condition, especially lauding his devotion to children as the torchbearers of the imagination, to whom he has passed the light and spark of his own.

Honored guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.

My name is Yoda Kenichi, Vice President for Events and Exhibitions for Studio Ghibli. It is my honor to represent our co-founder Miyazaki Hayao, at the 66th Ramon Magsaysay Awards.

Please allow me to read a letter that Miyazaki-san has written for this occasion.

Letter from Hayao Miyazaki

I first heard of the Ramon Magsaysay Award when I was a child.

I think it was in the school playground, and my teacher told me that such an award had been created.

The name made an impression, so it has remained in my mind ever since.

Being honored with this award made me think of the Philippines once again.

In 2016, the former Emperor and Empress visited Manila, which was the setting of urban warfare during World War II, to pay their respects to thousands who have lost their lives.

The Japanese did a lot of terrible things back then.

They killed many civilians.

The Japanese people must not forget this.

It will always remain.

With such history, I solemnly accept the Ramon Magsaysay Award from the Philippines.

Thank you very much.

In a world torn and threatened by wars, the work of advancing and sustaining peace is an urgent imperative. It is also extremely difficult. The issues are complex and often intractable. But through time, conscientious peace-makers have forged and collected the vital tools of conflict resolution and peacebuilding.

Women, in their gendered roles of settling disputes, healing, and nurturing, have risen to the task in many conflict-ridden communities. However, they have typically been left out of the decision-making processes that are crucial in ending wars and transforming the polity.

This is changing, albeit slowly. An exemplar in this shift is Miriam Coronel-Ferrer of the Philippines. Her impassioned engagement in political issues started in the late 1970s, when, as a student activist, she joined the resistance against martial rule. After the 1986 People Power Revolution that toppled the Marcos dictatorship, Coronel-Ferrer felt the need to find peaceful resolutions to the many armed conflicts that continued to divide the country.

With other women peacebuilders, Coronel-Ferrer initiated the drafting of the Philippines’ first National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security. The draft was eventually adopted by the government in 2010 as part of its commitment to the UN Security Council Resolution 1325. The landmark document urges all member states to ensure the protection of women’s rights during armed conflicts, mainstream the gender perspective in peace keeping and peace building, and advance the role of women as peacebuilders at all levels.

In the same year, she joined the government panel tasked to negotiate with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), subsequently becoming its chief negotiator in the latter part of 2012. In this role, she was consistently focused and determined, humble but tenacious, and empathetic and open to the position of others. Soon, she earned admiration and respect for her analytical command of the issues and skill as a negotiator.

In 2014, the Philippine government and MILF signed the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), ushering the transition process that created the new Bangsamoro entity with a more empowered autonomous government. As crucially, the agreement also provided a process for the decommissioning of weapons and combatants and the transformation of conflict-affected areas into peaceful civilian communities.

The CAB has been described by international observers as a model for the integration of gender-responsive provisions and the inclusive participation of women and civil society organizations. Coronel-Ferrer sees this achievement more modestly: “There is no perfect agreement, but we make it more imperfect by leaving women out of the process.”

Coronel-Ferrer’s long-standing peace advocacy has gone beyond the country’s borders. She has since been invited to be part of international teams looking into the conflict situations in East Timor and Cambodia. She had provided support work for the peace programs of the Carter Center in its work on Sudan and Syria. In 2018, she became a member of the United Nations Standby Team of Senior Mediation Advisers, the only one from Southeast Asia so far. In her three years with the UN, she was deployed to support the mediation and preventive diplomacy work of UN missions in places like Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq, the Maldives, and the ASEAN region.

In 2020, Coronel-Ferrer co-founded the Southeast Asian Women Peace Mediators, a pioneering group of women engaged in convening safe spaces for dialogues and supporting mediation initiatives in countries like Myanmar and Afghanistan. Today, this is her main work. In addition, she also sits as member of the board of trustees or advisory bodies of several key conflict resolution initiatives such as the International Crisis Group, the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, the Harvard University-based Negotiations Strategies Institute, and the Peace Treaty Initiative.

“Conflicts,” she wisely observes, “are best resolved not through the annihilation of one party, but by the mutual transformation of all players towards a common vision and shared responsibilities and accountability.”

In electing Miriam Coronel-Ferrer to receive the 2023 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes her deep, unwavering belief in the transformative power of non-violent strategies in peace building, her cool intelligence and courage in surmounting difficulties to convey the truth that it is through inclusion rather than division that peace can be won and sustained, and her unstinting devotion to the agenda of harnessing the power of women in creating a just and peaceful world.

It has been 35 days since the outbreak of the most horrendous war yet of the 21st century running its course before our eyes in Israel and Palestine.

Over 20 months of bombardments have passed since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The year before that, the coup of Feb 2021 in Myanmar.

And long before these crises, in many parts of the world, occupiers lording it over other people, regimes using violence against their own.

More than 10,500 people have been killed in Gaza, 1,400 in Israel,—almost half, children. Hundreds of thousands have been forcibly displaced… In the West Bank, the killings are alarmingly spiking up.

In Ukraine, the death toll has reached 9,614 civilians with twice that number injured over the course of 19 months.

Since Myanmar plunged in a civil war with many fronts, an average of 130 civilians have reportedly been killed by junta airstrikes, shelling, gunfire, etc.

I thank the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation for giving me this platform to raise my voice of concern. To draw attention to the desperate need for us to wake up, and to push to find lasting solutions to these nightmares.

To affirm that, might is not right.

The Ramon Magsaysay Awards and its Transforming Leadership program, with its motto on the greatness of spirit, however, is not a platform of gloom. On the contrary, it is a platform to spread the message of hope….

Hope. A beautiful four-letter word pregnant with life’s meaning.

Hope that we find in the stories of efforts that have paved ways out of large-scale, longstanding political violence.

Through stories such as our Bangsamoro peace process. Not a perfect process nor agreement. A very slow one – 17 years of talks and by now 9.5 years of unfinished implementation.

Still, an example that bidding for peace through political negotiations can still produce comprehensive peace agreements, a scarcity nowadays.

An example that, through collaborative action and committed partnerships, a peace agreement can be sustained, and the governance infrastructure for meaningful autonomy, a reordering of the relationship between the national state and the substate created, not only to give life to the principles of the right to self-determination but also to engender more democratic, responsive, participatory politics within and among the Bangsamoro.

Of course, we know that this process will take time. It has to prevail over both conservative and extremist mindsets. It must consequently remove the guns from politics and everyday life. Most important, it has to tame the unruly behavior of the political class, and eventually produce transformative leadership in the next batches of leaders to come.

I thank the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation, its Board of Trustees (past and present), partners, and all those awardees who came before the four of us here because they are what this Foundation is all about.

I thank you for this encouragement to promote the stories of courageous women and men who never tired in building peace, every day, everywhere, for every person, one step at a time through peace and human rights education, mediation, humanitarian work, campaigns, and so on, in every imaginable and yet to be imagined ways. A good representation of them are here with us by the way, my fellow peace advocates.

I offer this recognition to them who keep the faith, the faith that it does happen that history, history will be written by the victors, where the victors are those from all sides who did not forsake our humanity but defended it.

Most important, I offer this to the many women in their communities, often ignored, often sidelined, but now empowered to believe in their own strength and capabilities, in no small way by being part of an evergrowing movement, a sisterhood of peacebuilders, mediators, negotiators, conflict preventers, and transformers.

I said it before and will say it again, sisterhood rocks.

It rocks for peace and justice.

Maraming salamat po.

Violence against children is a dark stain on our common humanity. It takes various forms that, for cultural, social, and economic reasons, are not always or fully recognized. Because the problem is often suppressed and unreported, a silent scourge that is not “seen,” it does not get the attention it demands. Child protection laws and safety nets are weak or non-existent; there is a lack of trained medical professionals and social workers; and dedicated health facilities and services are absent or inadequate.

In the Philippines, pediatrician BERNADETTE J. MADRID has devoted her career to ensuring that the problem is “seen” and fully addressed. Born to a family of professionals in Iloilo, Philippines, she studied medicine and pediatrics at the University of the Philippines Manila (UP Manila) and did a post-residency fellowship in ambulatory pediatrics at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. The center’s Child Abuse Program opened her eyes to a problem that she and fellow Filipino doctors did not quite discern, though this was very much a part of daily reality in her home country, with its conditions of poverty, child labor, trafficking, and violence.

Upon her return to the Philippines, she tried to establish a Child Abuse Program in the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila, the country’s premier public hospital, but the program was short-lived for lack of support. MADRID returned to Iloilo, started a private practice, and seemed headed for a quiet, provincial career until she was called back to Manila in 1996 to head an emergency unit for abused children in PGH, at the insistence of UP Manila and American child protection crusader David Bradley and the Advisory Board Foundation (now CityBridge Foundation). In 1997, MADRID assumed as head of the PGH Child Protection Unit (PGH-CPU), the first such facility in the country.  She would in the next twenty-five years pursue an active, multifaceted career that would put her at the helm of what has been praised as “the best medical system for abused children in Southeast Asia.”

A one-stop health facility, PGH-CPU provides a coordinated program of medical, legal, social, and mental health services for abused children and their families. As of 2021, it has served 27,639 children. It became the axis of a national network of child protection units when the Child Protection Network Foundation, Inc. (CPN), a partnership of civil society, academe, and government, was established in 2002. As CPN executive director, MADRID has designed programs and engaged with family courts, schools, hospitals, local government units, community organizations, and policymakers in advancing the cause of child protection.

In partnership with UP Manila, PGH-CPU, CPN, Department of Health, local government units, and the private sector, the Network of Women and Child Protection Units (WCPUs) was formed. The network now consists of 123 WCPUs in sixty-one provinces and ten cities, which have served 119,965 children and adolescents and 30,912 women. The network has a total staff of 237 physicians, 199 social workers, and eighty-five police officers. As head of CPN, MADRID oversees and coordinates the network’s five areas of work: medical and psychosocial care, child safety and legal protection, a national program for training in child protection, a national network of WCPUs, and research for a national database on child abuse. It is multidisciplinary work that calls for MADRID to be all at once a doctor, educator, researcher, social leader, organizer, and advocate. She has pursued it with humility and strength grounded in faith. She says: “I feel that I was prepared to do this work. I was given the talent to do this and it has developed as I worked. That’s why I’m happy. It has become, for me, work that is God’s work.”

In electing BERNADETTE J. MADRID to receive the 2022 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes her unassuming and steadfast commitment to a noble and demanding advocacy; her leadership in running a multisectoral, multidisciplinary effort in child protection that is admired in Asia; and her competence and compassion in devoting herself to seeing that every abused child lives in a healing, safe, and nurturing society.

I am overwhelmed with gratitude to have been selected to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award.  Thank you all so much for being here to share this momentous occasion with me. I am so honored to have my work recognized by Asia’s most prestigious award!

I was asking “Why me?”  I found more reasons as to why I am undeserving of this Award.  It is like the violin player receiving recognition on behalf of the whole orchestra…I am just one violin player.  The other members of the orchestra are here tonight and I share this Award with each one of them.  It is a recognition of our work.  Please stand up and take a bow.

Women and Children Protection Units in every province is the core work of the Child Protection Network Foundation. This year, The Philippine General Hospital Child Protection Unit is celebrating its 25th anniversary.  In the last 25 years, I have learned that there are no quick fixes, that we cannot do this alone, that we need the system to work and that we need ordinary people to do their job with purpose, compassion, and skill.

Unfortunately, I also found out that ending violence against children will not happen on its own.  We need to fight for it. It needs planning, commitment, resources, persistence, and leadership.  With it comes accountability.

There is no other cause where everyone in the country has a responsibility – starting with parents, schools, and communities. Universal parenting programs, safe schools, access to justice seem like common sense but they are not.

When we meet with leaders, they say protecting children is a nice issue and we will get there after we have solved this crisis or that crisis.  But violence against children is a crisis!  Children are fast becoming an endangered species and with them goes our humanity.  We can prevent violence against children and most importantly we know how.  We are stewards of this world and particularly of the children.  We are stewards of their soul.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award has made me realize how much people care and that I am not alone.

Can we count on you?

If we can, please stand up.  Place your hands on your chest and repeat after me

“Ako Para sa Bata!”  I am for every child.

I am humbled and appreciative.

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.

For decades after Cambodia gained independence in 1953, the country was ravaged by foreign aggression and chronic civil war. The violence of war impoverished the population and exacted a terrible toll in human lives. It also destroyed and threatened the survival of the nation’s unique cultural and spiritual resource—its ancient shrines and monuments. The most renowned case was that of Angkor Wat, a 162.6-hectare temple complex that is the world’s largest religious monument, dating back to the 12th century, a symbol of Cambodian identity and a true world treasure. Unprotected and unpreserved because of the war, Angkor stood gravely endangered.

One Japanese scholar devoted fifty years of his life to help assure that Angkor Wat survives and remains a living monument for Cambodians. YOSHIAKI ISHIZAWA, an eminent scholar of Southeast Asian history and one-time president of Sophia University in Japan, began his involvement in conservation work when he first visited Angkor as a student in 1961. With the suspension of conservation efforts due to the fighting, nothing much could be done until the Khmer Rouge went out of power in 1979. War had decimated the pool of Cambodian conservationists, and ISHIZAWA, responding to urgent appeals, led an effort in Japan and Cambodia to save Angkor Wat.

Starting in 1980, ISHIZAWA worked side by side with Cambodians, networked with international experts and organizations, campaigned in the Japanese media to generate awareness and support, and devised programs for Angkor’s protection and conservation. These activities led to the launching in 1989 of the Sophia University Angkor International Mission, later known simply as the Sophia Mission, which under ISHIZAWA’s leadership, conducted research, training, and conservation work. Leading the Mission and collaborating with both Cambodian agencies and intergovernmental bodies, ISHIZAWA has been at the center of activities which also include technical studies, public heritage education, and restoration work, all aimed at the sustainable development of Angkor.

In its archaeological and preservation work, the Mission restored the Buddhist temple Banteay Kdei, excavated 274 statues of Buddha in 2001, and in 2007 completed major repairs on the western causeway that provides key access to Angkor Wat. But what has made ISHIZAWA’s work quite singular is his culturally-sensitive and long-term approach to the problem. A historian steeped in Khmer epigraphy and early Cambodian history, he does not favor quick, aggressive engineering interventions but views Angkor’s conservation as integral to the rebuilding of Cambodian culture itself. Hence, he has put the premium on appropriate technology, bringing Japanese stone masons to work with Cambodians so they can learn from each other. He has painstakingly trained Cambodians and supported them for studies in Japan; to date, eighteen Cambodian scholars have earned conservation-related graduate and postgraduate degrees in Sophia University. ISHIZAWA believes that Cambodians need to discover and create their own specific cultural preservation strategies and methods, different from those of foreign origin.

Under his leadership, the Mission has systematically raised awareness among Cambodian school children and villagers to take pride in their heritage and become its protectors and conservators. As part of this effort, the Sophia Mission established the Center for Education on Angkor Cultural Heritage; constructed the Preah Norodom Sihanouk Angkor Museum, and founded the Sophia Asia Center for Research and Human Development in Siem Reap, a training center and hostel for Cambodian and other scholars.

Despite threats to his safety and health, ISHIZAWA has been relentless in building local expertise and commitment to Angkor’s preservation. He quietly but adamantly insists, “The protection and restoration of the sites of Cambodia should be carried out by the Cambodians, for the Cambodians.”

In electing YOSHIAKI ISHIZAWA to receive the 2017 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes his selfless, steadfast service to the Cambodian people, his inspiring leadership in empowering Cambodians to be proud stewards of their heritage, and his wisdom in reminding us all that cultural monuments like the Angkor Wat are shared treasures whose preservation is thus, also our shared global responsibility.

It is with deep feelings of joy that I stand before you today to receive the world-renowned Ramon Magsaysay Award. I feel elated, humbled, and deeply moved by your kind decision to confer upon me such a magnificent honor.

In all sincerity, I declare that it was not my efforts alone, but rather, the efforts of numerous friends and colleagues as well that have served to earn for me this singular distinction. Hence, on behalf of my staff at the Sophia University Angkor International Mission, I accept this award with profound humility and gratitude.

The founding philosophy of Sophia University is “Men and Women for Others, with Others.” Spurred on by this motto, we have so far sought to diligently pursue our works of service for Cambodia, a nation whose people have undergone acute suffering and sorrow, owing to the civil war and political unrest that began in 1970. The situation in Cambodia was such that it could never be bypassed or ignored. During a period of 24 years, the Cambodians had lost virtually all they had, and every single day for them was marked by anguish and despair.

We of the Sophia Mission have pursued two distinct goals. One is the extending of humanitarian assistance to Cambodia through relief services for refugees, while the other is the revitalization of Cambodian culture through the restoration of Angkor Wat. Our reason for insisting on rescuing Angkor Wat is because this would signify a call to the people to return to the peace that once characterized the Angkor period, as well as a call for them to rebuild their nation once more.

This call of ours echoed far and wide. We even moved a step ahead, because this appeal for the restoration of Angkor Wat was also a plea for reconciliation between ethnic groups, and the revival of the nation’s culture. In fact, these two appeals are linked to the establishment of peace. In our training of human resources, our stress was on the fact that “the preservation and restoration of Cambodian cultural heritage should be carried out by the Cambodians, for the Cambodians.”

A key factor in our development of human resources lies in the fact that in 1996, we purchased land in Cambodia, and later erected over there a training center, namely the Sophia Asia Center for Research and Human Development. This enabled us to move closer to the sites, and it also signified our motivation with regard to the issue. We also launched a program whereby conservators acquired academic degrees. Here, selected individuals entered the Graduate School of Area Studies of Sophia University in order to obtain their required degrees, and, to date, 7 have acquired their doctorates and 11 have acquired their master’s. All of them have now returned to Cambodia, where they serve as senior officials for the government. This program was initiated in 1996, and it still continues.

These, in brief, are some of our modest accomplishments. I express my sincere appreciation to all of you for your unstinted generosity, and thank you from the depths of my heart. May God bless you all.

Zakat (“charity”) is a cornerstone of the Islamic faith. It is the obligatory tax on an adult Muslim’s wealth, that is dedicated every year to helping the poor and needy. In Indonesia, with the largest Muslim population in the world, the potential of zakat for wealth distribution and social amelioration is huge. In 2015, the potential zakat collection was estimated at around three percent of Indonesia’s gross national product, or a total of at least USD28 billion. Yet, what was actually collected was only ten percent of this amount. The collection, management, and use of zakat have long been stymied by inefficiencies, corruption, and abuse. The government has worked to regulate zakat management but anxieties remain on questions of transparency, accountability, and effectiveness in serving the poor.

In 1993, Parni Hadi, editor-in-chief of the Indonesian newspaper Republika, started a modest zakat collection drive among the newspaper’s employees, that later expanded to include the paper’s readers and the general public. The results were so encouraging that Hadi and his colleagues formed DOMPET DHUAFA REPUBLIKA (DDR), or “Wallet of the Poor,” which was officially registered as a charity organization and zakat collector. With a strong sense of purpose, DDR sought to transform traditional zakat philanthropy for the poor from simple “charity” to “empowerment”—so that the poor could move from being dependent “recipients” of alms towards becoming wealth creators, and eventually “contributors” of alms themselves. So DDR moved zakat funds from customary practices of charitable giving to social development projects aimed at building self-reliant communities and capacitating the poor—Muslims and non-Muslims—through programs of economic assistance, health services, education and training, and diverse other activities.

Now independent of Republika and known simply as DD (short for “DOMPET DHUAFA”) the organization’s economic projects have included building public facilities, support for small and medium enterprises, farm production and marketing assistance, a bank providing preferential loans to the poor, and a training-and-support program that has upgraded the capacities of hundreds of microfinance groups in Indonesia. In the health sector, DD has established free clinics and a free, well-staffed, and well-equipped hospital for the poor that is the first of its kind in the country. In education, DD annually supports 400 poor university scholars; runs a free boarding high school for poor but deserving students; and operates a teacher training school, as well as a vocational and entrepreneurship center that trains a thousand people per year.

From the start, DD’s leaders have addressed the ills besetting the credibility and impact of the country’s zakat institutions: they scrupulously practice transparency and full accountability in their financial and governance systems, set and maintain professional standards in their zakat collection, and carefully target those in greatest need, and adopt marketing strategies that encourage and facilitate giving from Muslims within the country and elsewhere in the world. As a separate initiative DD has generously shared its expertise, training other zakat collection organizations to modernize their operations and professionalize the work of their zakat managers.

DOMPET DHUAFA has grown phenomenally to become the largest philanthropic organization in Indonesia today, in terms of donations received. In 2015, DD collected total donations equivalent to USD 20.2 million With offices in twelve Indonesian provinces and five foreign countries, DD’s 200 employees, and 10,000 volunteers have reached thirteen million beneficiaries as of 2015, of whom at least twenty percent have moved out of poverty. With the public trust it enjoys and its work in supporting other zakat organizations, DD continues to raise the level of zakat donations in Indonesia. But just as important, it has widened the space and opportunity for Indonesians, through zakat, to become “good Muslims.” It has created as well an inspiring model, for other nations and religions, of disciplined, sustainable faith-based development.

In electing DOMPET DHUAFA to receive the 2016 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes the organization and its leaders for redefining the landscape of zakat-based philanthropy in Indonesia, unleashing the potential of the Islamic faith to uplift, irrespective of their creed, the lives of millions.

We would like to convey our gratitude for the trust that Ramon Magsaysay Foundation has given to Dompet Dhuafa Republika in receiving this noble award, the Ramond Magsaysay Award 2016. I’m standing here today as the representative of Mr. Parni Hadi, our founder and chairman, who regrettably is unable to be present here this evening with us because he needs to have medical check-up as suggested by doctor.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have just obtained the information that Dompet Dhuafa Republika is chosen to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award last July. The news definitely overjoyed us and added to our bliss, since per July 2016 Dompet Dhuafa Republika has reached its 23 years of age working for the people of Indonesia and the World. On 2nd of July 1993, inspired by the struggle carried out by the Corps Dakwah Pedesaan who continuously made an effort to resolve social issues in the poor area of Gunung Kidul, the founder of Dompet Dhuafa, Mr Parni Hadi, who also publisher and editor in chief of Republika Daily Newspaper decided to establish a caring program for the poor. The program that materialized as a rubric in the Republika Daily Newspaper was named Dompet Dhuafa. It was in 1994 where DD was established as a foundation and officially named Dompet Dhuafa Republika, abbreviated as DDR or just DD. It is an independent foundation, separated from the Republika management and any other political organization. To all journalists in the Republika Daily Newspaper, the responsibility to take part in social mission was a form of implementation of the prophetic mission. This is called Prophetic Journalism.

Dompet Dhuafa in Indonesian literally means Wallet/Purse for the Poor. It also stands for Donation for Destitutes (Dhuafa). DD means Dignity and Devotion. We are trying to uplift the dignity of the Poor as an action of Devotion to Allah, God, the Almighty.
We present this award to DD- Destitutes and Donors as our thanks of honor. DD is a manifestation of Prophetic Journalism (Journalism of Love). DD is an organization of LOVE for all human beings and all creatures.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dompet Dhuafa Republika has a strong ideal to encourage Zakat, Infaq, Shodaqoh and Waqf as one of solutions to resolve poverty problems and other social issues in Indonesia as a country with the largest Moslem population in the world. Dompet Dhuafa Republika attempts to develop a more professional zakat management so it can give more significant effect to the welfare of the people.

Since the starting of our endeavors in 1993, until today there are 128,000 donors that support Dompet Dhuafa’s activities. Their supports have given benefits to almost 13,000,000 poor people through 522 services, empowerment and advocacy programs in the field of economy, education, health and social. Yayasan Dompet Dhuafa has also been supported by dedications and sincerities of 10,000 volunteers. Dompet Dhuafa has opened branches and representative offices in 17 provinces in Indonesia and also in 5 countries. With no State territorial boundaries, Dompet Dhuafa Republika has also deployed a range of programs in 31 countries including taking part in helping the disasters victims in Illigan and Tacloban Philippine. With remarkable collaboration from various parties, it is worthy to be conveyed that the achievements accomplished by Dompet Dhuafa Republika are the results of hard-work, caring-work and the work of a lot of people since this organization was found.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we dedicate this award to all the poor people who have the passions and work-ethos to rise despite the limitations. We also would like to present this award to donors both individuals and institutional who have earnestly lend a hand and move together to lift up the dignity of the poor. We also wish to dedicate this award to all actuators of zakat institutions and social organizations to continue strengthening their devotions in creating a better society.