Standing on the eastern edge of the Himalayas, the Kingdom of Bhutan has been described as the last Shangri-la. Its relative seclusion and natural beauty make it one of the world’s most desirable places for tourists to visit. But Bhutan is a low-income country facing many of the same problems and challenges confronting other developing countries: unemployment, inadequate social services, and the erosion of traditional values.

Despite being famous for Gross National Happiness, a holistic development philosophy which gained traction in some countries, Bhutan continues to face many challenges. About 12% of its population live below the poverty line and many youths are seeking greener pastures abroad. With rapid change taking place due to modernization and globalization, Bhutan has been experiencing serious tensions.

This reality has been foremost in the mind of KARMA PHUNTSHO, a Bhutanese thought leader who, as a former Buddhist monk, has a profound understanding of Bhutanese tradition. But PHUNTSHO—born in Bhutan in 1968—is also an Oxford-educated scholar who feels the need to bring Bhutan into the 21st century in a mindful and culturally sensitive way. His academic works in the field of Buddhism and Bhutan’s history and culture focus on reappropriating Bhutanese traditional knowledge and making them relevant to the present and future.

In addition to numerous academic publications on history, religion, and culture including his groundbreaking History of Bhutan, he regularly writes and speaks in mainstream national media as well as on social media on social and cultural issues. He is a leading member of the fledgling Bhutanese academic community and his village solidarity group. For the past twenty years, he has returned to his village in Central Bhutan annually to help put on the Yakchoe Festival, which is today attended by some 500 international tourists.

In 1999, PHUNTSHO founded the Loden Foundation, an educational charity “committed to promoting education, nurturing social entrepreneurship, and documenting Bhutan’s cultural heritage and traditions.” The works of Loden Foundation mirror PHUNTSHO’s own aspirations and interests as a scholar and changemaker. Loden literally means “possessing intelligence,” but it is grounded in the Buddhist belief that knowledge has no owner, and that empowerment through education is the greatest gift.

Begun as a scheme to support poor but deserving students in Bhutan, the foundation is registered as a civil society organization with partners in many countries. Until 2008, when the first staff was hired, the foundation was entirely operated by PHUNTSHO and other volunteers. Headquartered in the capital Thimphu, Loden Foundation has projects in all twenty administrative districts of Bhutan.

Loden’s accomplishments have been impressive and life-changing. In education, it has established five preschools, funded 219 students through school, awarded ninety-eight college scholarships, and held sixty-three Bhutan Dialogue Sessions for public education. In entrepreneurship, Loden has addressed the problem of youth unemployment in Bhutan by helping them to become social entrepreneurs through loans, mentorship, and capacity-building.

Veering away from traditional business approaches, Loden emphasizes social value over profit, and responsible and ethical business practices hoping to foster a caring economy and a culture of responsible production and intelligent consumption. The program has funded 295 entrepreneurs (ninety-seven of whom are women) creating 860 jobs, with 5,750 more aspiring entrepreneurs trained since 2008.

Acutely aware of the need to preserve and promote Bhutan’s rich cultural traditions, Loden has focused on documenting and digitizing its oral and written heritage. This has so far resulted in 3,348 hours of recordings of intangible culture, 4.55 million pages of digital texts from seventy-six libraries, 150,000 pictures of old art and artifacts, and sixty-one culture projects.

While these were achieved through collective effort, none would have been possible without the personal vision and dedication of PHUNTSHO, whose thoughts, words and actions guide these programs. Calling himself a “pracademic”—he practices what he preaches as an exemplar of humility, responsibility, and commitment, while nurturing young new leaders to take over from him.

As modern as his outlook is, his vision continues to be informed by his deep spirituality. “We really need to have this focus on the mind, the primary ingredient of happiness, because as soon as you start to think happiness is out there, then we will end up being more materialistic, just like others, and lose that traditional approach,” he says. “With so much distraction and confusion caused by the digital revolution, there is today even a greater need for such inward reflection and focus. That’s why Buddhist culture is so important for the future of Bhutan.” One of his current projects is establishing the Bodhitse Center for Study and Contemplation, using his own resources.

In electing KARMA PHUNTSHO to receive the 2024 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes his invaluable and enduring contributions towards harmonizing the richness of his country’s past with the diverse predicaments and prospects of its present, inspiring young Bhutanese to be proud of their heritage and confident in their future. Beyond his immediate horizon, his work engages all peoples and cultures around the world facing the same challenges, reminding them to look back even as they move forward.

The Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, my fellow Ramon Magsaysay Awardees, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Kuzuzangpola. I bring you greetings from the King and people of Bhutan, (prayer flags from Bhutan to highlight the backdrop you have chosen for this year.)

I am deeply humbled to be one of the recipients of Ramon Magsaysay Award this year and to be the first one from Bhutan. Yes, I have done voluntary charity work for 25 years, but I did not even dream of receiving such an honor.

Bhutan is a small country, with a population of about 770,000 people. So, in numbers what we do is tiny compared to the great works carried out by other Magsaysay Laureates in bigger countries. Thus, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my fellow Magsaysay Laureates both past and present, and sincerest gratitude to the Foundation for the recognition of their works.

What Bhutan lacks in numbers and size, we try to make up in inner spirit and sense. Bhutan was one of the last nations to start the process of modernization. It has seen its first streets and cars only some sixty years ago. Yet Bhutan has been bold in charting a new trajectory of development and human progress by balancing tradition with modernity, economic development with environment conservation, and material comfort with spiritual wellbeing. It pursues a holistic goal of Gross National Happiness.

Bhutan may not be the happiest place on earth, as some travel publicity material may have you believe. It has only last year graduated from Least Developed Country category and is grappling with its share of problems. But it is the first carbon negative country with a constitutional commitment to keep 60% of the country under forest cover for perpetuity. We have made serious efforts to pursue human wellbeing in its totality.

In this regard, I see this award as token of recognition of Bhutan’s pursuit of holistic development under the visionary leadership of Their Majesties. I take this also as an appreciation of work of the civil society organizations in Bhutan. More specifically, I would like to dedicate this to hundreds of friends who have joined me in the non-profit projects I have been involved in, the primary one being the Loden Foundation and its three programmes of supporting education, its social ‘Buddhist’ entrepreneurship programme to promote an intelligent business culture of responsible production and mindful consumption, and its culture programme to preserve and promote Bhutan’s traditional practice of wisdom and compassion.

I am joined here by my colleague Sangay Tshering, once a beneficiary of Loden and now the President of Loden in Bhutan, Kinley our communications officer, and Anne and Gerard Tardy, active members and supporters of Loden and friends from France.

Friends, humanity today is going the most alarming pace of change. Our species, homo sapiens, has been around for over 300,000 years but the industrial revolution in the last 300 years has fundamentally changed human existence.

Today, the digital revolution, which is only about 30 years old, is again transforming our way of life. We talk about advances in artificial intelligence, but human intelligence remains fickle and confused as never before. We face multiple challenges of climate change, war, rising inequality, rampant stress and restlessness.

The primary cause of today’s problems is not out there in nature or the material world but here in us—in human greed, hatred and ignorance. The solution to these problems also primarily lies in the human mind, in our understanding of the interdependence and interconnectedness, in empathy and compassion, in courage and resilience, in acumen and wisdom, and in selfless service and greatness of spirit—the ideals and values Ramon Magsaysay Award celebrates.

Through my work in culture and efforts to make our cultural values and practices relevant to our present time, I have come to believe that our ancient wisdom traditions have much to offer us today as they did in the past. Looking back can help us find a new and better way forward. A person who does not remember where he came from will never reach his destination, as those of you familiar with the Filipino proverb would know.

Let me conclude with a prayer that epitomizes the highest human ideal and is fitting for the occasion.

“As long as space exists
So long as sentient beings remain,
May I too remain
To dispel the misery of the world.”

Lasting for two decades from 1955 to 1975, the war in Vietnam left a deep and horrific trauma, with more than three million deaths—two out of every three of them civilians—officially reported by the Vietnamese government. But these deaths were hardly the end of Vietnam’s ordeal. Half a century later, even newborn babies continue to suffer from its lingering effects, paying a heavy price for a conflict they merely inherited.

That lethal legacy literally remains in Vietnam’s war-ravaged soil and its environment—people who went through the war, not only the Vietnamese but the Americans as well who fought in that war. The culprit is tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD), one of the most toxic and poisonous chemicals known, and a component of “Agent Orange,” extensively used during the war by the Americans to clear the forest cover and expose their enemy, as well as to destroy the crops that sustained them. Between 1962 and 1971, about twenty million gallons of dioxin-imbued herbicides were sprayed from the air, in Vietnam, by American planes.

Not only did Agent Orange kill every plant that it touched within two days; its dioxin leached into surrounding waters, and into the fish and ducks that were staples of the Vietnamese diet. Soon, after the war, physicians reported a troubling increase in the incidence of miscarriages, skin diseases, cancers, birth defects, and congenital malformations among the people.

What took just seconds to deploy has damaged four generations of victims. The exact numbers remain elusive, but it is estimated that 4.8 million Vietnamese were exposed to dioxin, out of whom about three million became victims, including thousands of children in the second, third, and even fourth generations.

The suffering continues, and so does the war on the side of Vietnamese and other researchers who have taken up the fight against the devastating effects of Agent Orange. In Vietnam, that battle has been led by NGUYEN THI NGOC PHUONG (born 1944), the former director of Tu Du Hospital, the country’s largest obstetric hospital.

PHUONG came of age and became a doctor over the course of the war. At its peak, in 1968, she recalls that “When I was an intern, I delivered for the first time in my life, a severely deformed baby—it had no brain and limbs. It was horrible for me, I was nauseous, vomiting and shaking. And how was the scared young mother? She was in shock when she saw her baby. Since then, every day or two, I have witnessed such birth defects and mother’s sufferings. But, for many years, I didn’t know what caused these tragic events.”

That terrible mystery led her to undertake her life’s great mission: to find out the truth about Agent Orange, to seek justice for its victims, and to assist the afflicted in all ways possible. Prompted by a paper on the use of herbicides in Vietnam, PHUONG and her associates established that people in areas sprayed with Agent Orange suffered from birth defects three times more than in other places. She published her research and joined the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA). With over 4,000 members, VAVA seeks accountability for the damage done by Agent Orange and brings relief to its victims.

For PHUONG, the battle has not only been in the laboratory but also on the international stage. She has taken up the cause of Agent Orange victims with the American Public Health Association, among other forums, and supported legal action to seek compensation from chemical companies. She is widely respected wherever she goes, recognized for her sincerity and humanity, beyond political considerations.

At the same time, she has remained the ‘baby doctor’ she always was, a pioneer of in vitro fertilization in Vietnam, bringing joy and hope to thousands of Vietnamese families who call her “Dr. Fairy.” She has also served in the National Assembly, championing legislation on family planning and reproductive health.

In electing NGUYEN THI NGOC PHUONG to receive the 2024 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees honors not only a woman and physician of extraordinary dedication and talent, but also the spirit of public service and the message of hope she continues to propagate among her people. At the same time, her work serves as a dire warning for the world to avoid war at all costs as its tragic repercussions can reach far into the future. She offers proof that it can never be too late to right the wrongs of war, and gain justice and relief for its hapless victims.

Honored guests, ladies and gentlemen:

It is with deepest and sincerest gratitude that I accept the 2024 Ramon Magsaysay Award. I extend my heartfelt thanks to the Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for electing me to receive this recognition.

Being chosen for the Ramon Magsaysay Award is not just my honor; it belongs to all of my colleagues and the peoples of Vietnam who have selflessly dedicated our lives to this cause.

Our journey began in 1976 at Tu Du Hospital, where my colleagues and I conducted a retrospective study followed by numerous surveys and case-control studies on Agent Orange / Dioxin in provinces across Southern Vietnam.

The results were both staggering and horrifying: we have established the causal effects of Agent Orange/Dioxin on birth defects in children of exposed mothers or fathers, as well as various types of cancers observed in people living in the sprayed areas during wartime.

Since 2004, alongside my dedicated and passionate colleagues in VAVA (Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange), we have been raising global awareness about the dangerous effects of Agent Orange, especially the dioxin contaminant, on reproductive health and its carcinogenic impact—effects that are still being felt four generations after the end of the war.

We have also been helping victims by demanding accountability for these horrors and by bringing them much-needed justice, including testifying before the U.S. House of Representatives on the long-term consequences of Agent Orange / Dioxin.

We hope that through our efforts, the quality of life of the millions of victims will improve; and their physical, emotional and spiritual wounds be healed. That we as a country will heal.

The Ramon Magsaysay Award will greatly encourage VAVA members and myself to continue our work, supporting and advocating for the Agent Orange/Dioxin victims as they face life’s profound challenges with remarkable resilience.

This prestigious recognition sends a strong and resounding message to the global community that we need international understanding not warfare; we need conflict resolutions and not weapons of mass destruction; we need peace.

I dedicate Ramon Magsaysay Award to the millions of victims of Agent Orange.

Thank you.

As the world’s largest archipelago, Indonesia is blessed with abundant natural resources and biodiversity, but it has also come under severe pressure from human growth and exploitation. This is no more apparent than in Sumatra Island’s Leuser Ecosystem, a 2.6-million-hectare expanse in Aceh province where some of the world’s most highly endangered species have managed to survive.

However, despite being named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004 and a protected National Strategic Area in 2008, the Leuser Ecosystem has continued to be ravaged by deforestation, infrastructure, commercialization, and weak law enforcement. Worse, the Leuser Ecosystem Management Authority or Badan Pengelola Kawasan Ekosistem Leuser (BPKEL), which had been fighting the ecosystem’s destructive intruders in court, was abolished by the Aceh government in 2013.

Instead of giving up, some BPKEL ex-employees got together to form a new organization called the Forest Nature and Environment of Aceh Foundation or Yayasan Hutan Alam dan Lingkungan Aceh (HAkA), dedicated to protecting, preserving, and restoring the Leuser Ecosystem.

Leading HAkA from the beginning was a young woman named FARWIZA FARHAN who saw in the Leuser Ecosystem an opportunity not only to save preserve nature at its best but also to engage local communities in securing their own future. Born in Aceh in 1986, FARHAN as a young girl had fallen in love with its natural beauty, leading her to dream of becoming a marine biologist and working in conservation. Pursuing her education overseas and returning as an adult with a master’s degree in environmental management, she was stunned and saddened to see how her beloved forests had been ravaged by commercial exploitation.

Taking it personally, she joined BPKEL. When it was shut down, she founded HAkA. Instead of depending solely on the government, HAkA believed in the power of local people, especially women, to safeguard the ecosystem through a vigorous advocacy campaign, forest monitoring, and community empowerment.

Since its establishment, among other successes, HAkA helped to achieve a court verdict that led to USD 26 million in fines against a palm oil company that burned forests in the Leuser Ecosystem, and stopped a hydroelectric dam that would have threatened the elephant’s habitat. The money was used by the government to rehabilitate the damaged areas.

But an equally important albeit less visible victory has been HAkA’s mobilization of Aceh’s citizens in protecting their environment. HAkA has done this, first, by informing the people about the Leuser Ecosystem and its importance, and also by including the ecosystem in the curricula of local schools and universities. HAkA has employed a geographic information system and other forest monitoring tools to assist local governments, communities, and universities in monitoring Aceh’s forest areas in real time. Looking to the future, HAkA also promoted community-based sustainable forest management to ensure improved management of forests.

HAkA’s programs for and with women are particularly effective and encouraging. Women are given paralegal and citizen-journalism training, engaged in micro-entrepreneurship, and organized into women-led ranger groups that patrol forest areas to monitor poaching and illegal logging. The women are supported by men who are similarly trained.

In a society where women have traditionally been relegated to secondary roles, none of these would have been possible without the energetic, courageous, and visionary leadership of FARHAN. A young Muslim, she has defied conventions to serve as an inspiration and a model for a new generation of Indonesian women coming into their own and taking charge of their lives and future. As HAkA’s chairperson, FARHAN has not led from the top, but rather from below, encouraging decentralization to promote sustainability and resiliency within the organization and develop the next ranks of environmental champions. She often works in the background and with local actors, but she also liaises with government officials, donors, and academics—anyone whom she can bring into the fold of HAkA’s concerns for Aceh’s environment and its people.

For her efforts, FARHAN has been recognized by many international institutions. Her greatest reward, however, has been to see HAkA’s initiatives bear fruit, not only in a resurgent forest and environment but also in the change of values and attitudes among the people she and HAkA have reached: “Throughout my training, we were taught that the local members of the community are often the perpetrators of illegal logging, of poaching, of destructions in wildlife habitats,” she observes. “But then, when you spend more time with them, you will realize that they are also the best protectors of wildlife. They are also dealing with the pressure of losing their lands and their rights as much as the animals are losing their habitats.” With foresight and tenacity, FARHAN is a prime exemplar of what can be done against all odds: “I can’t stop global temperature from changing, but if it’s the forest, there’s a bit more that I can do than surrendering to global challenges.”

In electing FARWIZA FARHAN to receive the 2024 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, the board of trustees recognizes her profound understanding of the vital connection between nature and humanity, her commitment to social justice and responsible citizenship through her work with forest communities, and her promotion of greater awareness of the need to protect the beating heart and lungs of her country’s and Asia’s rich but endangered natural resources.

The Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, my fellow Ramon Magsaysay Awardees, members of the diplomatic corps, fellow activists, esteemed guests, ladies and gentlemen:

While I am humbled and honored to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, the truth is, more than feeling humility and honor, I am in disbelief.
I could not believe that I am entrusted with this recognition – an Award that I would not even dare imagine.

I would like to thank the Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for your trust, your support, but more so, the risk in bestowing me this Award.

Although it is my name inscribed on the medallion, this recognition and this achievement is not mine and will never be mine alone. The conservation work in the Leuser Ecosystem is being done by an entire community of dedicated and passionate individuals – from my colleagues at Yayasan HAkA, my co-founder, Badrul Irfan, our partners in the villages and at the government level, and in civil society as well as our donors and long-term supporters. This Award is theirs, and I stand before you to represent all of the people who are united in environmental protection.

Today, as we celebrate the good work that is being collectively done in the Leuser Ecosystem, the forest in Singkil Peatswamp located at its southwest corner continues to be decimated. This is proof that our work is far from over.

I am grateful that while there is so much more to be done, there are many people willing to collaborate with us. Together with Dhandy Laksono, my fellow Indonesians who received this same Award in 2021, we are launching a film called 17 Sweet Letters, a chronicle that poses the question: how well conserved are conservation areas in Indonesia?

As we roll out the promotion for this documentary, the authorities are already using tactics of intimidation to prevent its release and wide circulation. But it takes more than brute force to slow down a bunch of stubborn fighters like us. Bang Badrul, Rubama, Lukman, Irham, Fahmi, Agung dan Ikhsan, kegigihan dan ketangguhan kalian menjadi pilar kekuatan kerja-kerja kolektif kita. Your grit and determination have become the pillar of our collective work. I am grateful that we continue to find many stubborn fighters to be our allies. I hope you will join us in ensuring that the destruction of Singkil Peat Swamp is discussed in as many parts of Asia as possible.

In closing, please allow me to express my deepest love and gratitude to my parents, Dr. Ahmad Farhan Hamid and Ms. Ferry Soraya, the people who have raised me to be the person I am, and never give up on me when everything seems dark and impossible. Please stand up so others could see you too. Finally, no words could describe my gratitude to Prio Sambodho, the man who choose to marry this stubborn fighter and continue to support me in the work that I do.

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.