Inside the 2023 Ramon Magsaysay Awards Ceremonies

Former senator and son of the late President Magsaysay, Ramon B Magsaysay, Jr, presented the luminaries with their medals and certificates. 

Korvi Rakshand for accessible education

Rakshand’s non-profit organisation, JAAGO Foundation, started with a small classroom of 17 children and has since grown into one of the largest educational platforms in Bangladesh. JAAGO’s impact proves that distance should not be a barrier when it comes to providing quality education, with the inclusion of a digital school program that can reach pupils from even the most remote areas of his country

In his speech, Rakshand emphatically states that Children are a nation’s future and youth is the power.

Miriam Coronel-Ferrer for her commitment to harnessing non-violent strategies in peace-building

In 2012, under President Benigno Aquino III, Coronel-Ferrer was tasked with ending decades of armed conflict between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). She became the first female chief negotiator to sign a final peace accord with a rebel group.

Coronel-Ferrer comments on the global issues of today, from Russia’s siege on Ukraine to the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip. In her speech, she relays her advocacy of providing lasting peace in the face of conflict:

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 finding resolutions to these nightmares, to affirm that might is not right.

Read more: In conversation with Miriam Coronel-Ferrer on her pursuit of lasting peace

Eugenio Lemos for environmental and indigenous advocacy 

As a young boy, Lemos was a firsthand witness to the devastations caused by war and famine during the Indonesian invasion of Timor-Leste. Years later, he founded Permkultura Timor-Lorosa'e (Permatil), which is dedicated to helping youths acquire skills to rehabilitate environments.

The impact we can create together will restore local environments, offer sustainable livelihoods, and multiply and spread far and wide—increasing the well-being of our communities, entire countries, and the planet, now and into the future.

Ravi Kannan R for pushing the boundaries of accessible treatment for cancer

Under the leadership of surgical oncologist Ravi Kannan R, the Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (CCHRC) in the North Eastern region of India became a full-fledged place for every necessary care, rising from a compliance rate to treatment of 28 per cent to a massive improvement of 70-percent. Kannan's vision ensures that all patients should have access to equitable and affordable healthcare.

May everyone be happy, free of disease, see goodness and auspiciousness in all things, and may none be distressed. May everyone be at peace. Let us each continue to make efforts, both big and small, to harness the goodness around us to better the conditions of everyone in need with faith that we can make a difference together.

Congratulatory remarks were delivered by the Venerable Pomnyum Sunim of South Korea, whose work in applying Buddhist teachings to help alleviate poverty and environmental degradation earned him a 2002 Magsaysay Award. Winners of the 2021 Ramon Magsaysay Awards, who received their awards online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were honoured alongside other past living luminaries, including Dr Bernadette J Madrid.

Chairman of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation Aurelio Luis Montinola III reflects on the importance of such a distinction: The award celebrates the women, men and organisations that have passionately worked on preserving and cherishing our planet and inhabitants on all fronts.

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