Ramon Magsaysay Awards 2021: Filipino Fisher Roberto Ballon And Four Others To Receive Recognition

Steven Muncy, a sixty-four-year-old American, was raised by a humble family grounded in the principles of Christianity. In 1980, he enlisted in a Baptist journeyman social ministry program that made him a volunteer at the Philippine Refugee Processing Center in Morong, Bataan, a transit centre for Indochinese refugees of the Vietnam War.

Seeing the dire lack of psychosocial services in the camp, he formed a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Community Mental Health Services. In 1989-1993, the NGO was also tasked by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to do similar work in the Vietnamese refugee camps in Hong Kong.

Renamed Community and Family Service International (CFSI) in 1989, the group defined itself as a humanitarian organisation committed to “the lives, wellbeing, and dignity of people uprooted by persecution, armed conflict, disasters, and other exceptionally difficult circumstances.” Based in the Philippines, it would soon serve for varying lengths of time in 10 Asian countries.

Bangladeshi scientist Firdausi Qadri specialises in immunology and infectious disease research. Born to a middle-class family that encouraged women to pursue education and a career, Qadi immediately decided to pursue medical research, earning herself a degree in biochemistry and 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, an international health research institute based in Dhaka. Qadi is also focused on communicable diseases, immunology, vaccine development, and clinical trials. She is passionate about training and inspiring young scientists by putting them in contact with well-known scientists in other countries.

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. 

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Sixty-four-year-old Muhamad Amjad Saqib understands that the fight against poverty is not an easy task especially in Pakistan where about 50 million are still below the national poverty line. 

Saqib has worked as a consultant on social development for Pakistan’s government and international development organizations. In 2001, Saqib invited a group of friends (all successful professionals and businessmen) to present to them his plan for a first-of-its-kind interest-free microfinance program. With much enthusiasm, his friends pledged their support, and funds were raised to capitalise on the project. Two years later, Akhuwat was formed and its first branch opened in Lahore.

The most interesting aspect of Akhuwat is its concept and philosophy. Akhuwat, which means "brotherhood or sisterhood," is an approach to poverty alleviation that Saqib introduced based on the values of the Islamic tradition of Mawakhat. 

The tradition believes in Prophet Mohammed's teaching that "if one has a loaf of bread, half of it rightly belongs to a  person who has none." Related to this is the idea that charging interest (riba) on a loan is un-Islamic, hence the practice of the “benevolent loan” which, Saqib reminds us, was already there in early human societies. “We just institutionalized it."

Akhuwat uses places of worship for loan disbursements, saving on costs and instilling the sense of trust, responsibility and community that a mosque, church, or temple creates. It also promotes volunteerism among staff and clients; aims at transforming borrowers into donors; and fosters diversity and, inclusion, serving all—irrespective of religion, caste, colour, and gender.

In the digital age where there is a proliferation of fake news, news agencies such as Watchdoc Media Mandiri or Wartchdoc (from “watchdog” + “documentary”) takes journalism and public service to another level. 

One of Watchdoc's advocacy is to create public awareness of such issues as human rights, social justice, and the environment. The private audiovisual production company was incorporated in 2011 by two remarkable individuals, Dandhy Laksono and Andhy Panca Kurniawan, both with journalism backgrounds and a passion for social causes. Disenchanted with mainstream broadcast TV—the concentration of media ownership, the premium on ratings, advertising, and revenues, the merchandising of entertainment and news—Laksono and Kurniawan yearned for an independent, people-based, and socially responsible media.

Through its YouTube channel and other platforms, Watchdoc was able to produce over 150 film titles that average 200,000 viewers per video. Eight of its documentaries have each attracted more than one million views. One of them, called Sexy Killers, a documentary on the coal mining industry’s links with Indonesia’s political establishment, is a viral hit, getting 36 million views as of July 2021.

This year’s Magsaysay Award winners will each receive a certificate, a medallion bearing the likeness of the late President, and a cash prize. Should the pandemic circumstances improve, they will be formally conferred the Magsaysay Award during formal Presentation Ceremonies to be held on Tuesday, November 30, 2021, at the Ramon Magsaysay Center in Manila.