Indian, Bangladeshi among 6 winners of Magsaysay Awards

(July 27, 2012) A Bangladeshi lawyer who fought to keep old, rusty ships from being dumped in her homeland and an Indian who has organized rural women to break the shackles of poverty in their villages are among the six winners of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Awards announced on Thursday. The winners battled great odds to improve the plight of the poor in forest communities, farmlands and exploitative industries, the Manila-based foundation in charge of the awards said. Six outstanding individuals from Bangladesh, India, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines and Taiwan will receive the 2012 Ramon Magsaysay Award, regarded as the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize. The awards honouring people in Asia who have changed their societies for the better are named after a Philippine president who died in a plane crash in 1957. Each recipient will receive a certificate, a medal and a $50,000 prize at the awards ceremony in Manila on 31 August. Kulandei Francis, the winner from India, a former Holy Cross Catholic priest, organized poor women to create the Integrated Village Development Project in remote Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu state. The group organized savings and credit groups that received preferential treatment from banks. More than 150,000 poor members benefited from multimillion-dollar savings and loans that helped fund health, housing and sanitation projects, including a school for tribal children. Bangladeshi lawyer Syeda Rizwana Hasan waged court battles with her legal group to stop old ships decommissioned by wealthy nations from entering Bangladesh to be dismantled as scrap, unless they have been decontaminated at their origin. Thousands of poor workers, many of them children, work in dangerous conditions in the junk yards. ``Few cases of social inequity are as stark and dramatic'' as those handled by Hasan, the foundation said.
Other winners of this year’s Magsaysay Awards are:
Chen Shu-Chu, from Taiwan. She is being recognized for "the pure altruism of her personal giving, which reflects a deep, consistent, quiet compassion, and has transformed the lives of the numerous Taiwanese she has helped."
Romulo Davide, from the Philippines. He is being recognized for "his steadfast passion in placing the power and discipline of science in the hands of farmers in the Philippines, who have consequently multiplied their yields, created productive farming communities, and rediscovered the dignity of their labor."
Yang Saing Koma, from Cambodia. He is being recognized for "his creative fusion of practical science and collective will that has inspired and enabled vast numbers of farmers in Cambodia to become more empowered and productive contributors to their country's economic growth."
Ambrosius Ruwindrijarto, from Indonesia. He is being recognized for "his sustained advocacy for community-based natural resource management in Indonesia, leading bold campaigns to stop illegal forest exploitation, as well as fresh social enterprise initiatives that engage the forest communities as their full partners."