• An Indian non-profit working for education of out-of-school girls in remote villages is among the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees.

• The Foundation to Educate Girls Globally, widely known as ‘Educate Girls’, has made history as the first Indian organisation to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award.

• The other two winners include Shaahina Ali from the Maldives for her environmental work and Flaviano Antonio L. Villanueva from the Philippines.

• The Ramon Magsaysay Award, recognises greatness of spirit shown in selfless service to the peoples of Asia.

• The 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees will each receive a medallion bearing the likeness of President Ramon Magsaysay, a certificate inscribed with their citation, and a cash prize.

• The 67th Ramon Magsaysay Award presentation ceremonies will be held on November 7 at the Metropolitan Theatre in Manila.

• Previous winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Award from India include social worker Mother Teresa (1962), politician Jayaprakash Narayan (1965), filmmaker Satyajit Ray (1967), journalist Ravish Kumar (2019), environmental activist Sonam Wangchuk (2018), politician Arvind Kejriwal (2006), RTI activist Aruna Roy (2000), former IPS officer Kiran Bedi (1994) and journalist Arun Shourie (1982).

Ramon Magsaysay Award

• The Ramon Magsaysay Award is regarded as the Asian version of the Nobel Prize.

• Established in 1957, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is Asia’s highest honour.

• It recognises the greatness of spirit shown in selfless service to the people of Asia.

• Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay was the seventh President of the Philippines. 

• It celebrates the memory and leadership example of the President after whom the award is named, and is given every year to individuals or organisations.

• The Award was conceived to honor the greatness of spirit shown in service to the peoples of Asia — regardless of race, gender, or religion.

• The awardees are annually selected by the RMAF board of trustees.

• In over six decades, the Award has been bestowed on 353 outstanding individuals and organisations whose selfless service has offered successful solutions to some of the most intractable problems of human development.

• Since its establishment in 1957, the Ramon Magsaysay Awards have only been disrupted three times due to the 1970 financial crisis, the 1990 earthquake in Luzon, and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

This year’s winners:

1) Foundation to Educate Girls Globally (Educate Girls)

• ‘Educate Girls’ founded by Safeena Husain has been named for Asia’s premier prize and highest honour for 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.

• Educate Girls was founded in 2007 by Safeena Husain, a graduate of the London School of Economics, then working in San Francisco, who decided to return home to India to take on the challenge of female illiteracy.

• 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.

• In 2015, it launched the world’s first Development Impact Bond (DIB) in education, aimed at tying financial aid to outcomes. 

• It started with 50 pilot village schools reaching over 30,000 villages across India’s most under-served regions, involving over two million girls, with a retention rate of over 90 per cent.

• Educate Girls also launched Pragati, an open-schooling programme that allows young women aged 15-29 to complete their education and avail themselves of lifelong opportunities with the initial cohort having 300 learners that has grown to over 31,500.

2) Shaahina Ali 

Shaahina Ali from the Maldives was being recognised for 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.

3) Flaviano Antonio L. Villanueva 

Flaviano Antonio L. Villanueva from the Philippines, a priest, is being recognised for 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. He also protested the government crackdown on drug users and helped provide proper funerals to those killed during the government action.