NGO Educating Girls Wins Ramon Magsaysay Award
Educate Girls, an Indian non-profit organization working to educate unprivileged girls, has bagged the Ramon Magasaysay Award 2025 for its groundbreaking service towards women’s empowerment. The other winners are Shaahina Ali of the Maldives and Flaviano Antonio L. Villaneuva of the Philippines.
Announcing the award for Educate Girls, also known as Foundation to Educate Girls globally, the Ramon Magasaysay Award Foundation said that it was “an Indian organisation whose groundbreaking work in addressing gender injustice in education in India’s most rural and remote areas creates a ripple effect that uplifts families, communities and entire societies”.
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Starting 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 enrolled till they get sufficient credentials for higher education and employment.
Safeena Husain, the founder of the NGO ‘Educate Girls’ called the moment historic for any Indian NGO getting the Ramon Magasaysay Award for the first time. She said that the recognition places a global spotlight on India’s people-powered movement for girls’ education, one that began with a single girl in the remotest village and grew to reshape entire communities, challenging traditions and shifting mindsets.
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The CEO of the Educate Girls Gayatri Nair Lobo said that the moment is historic and thrilling. She said that the award belongs specially to the girls who work tirelessly to get education along with the team across the country – preraks, team balika, goverment, donors and partners.
The Raman Magasaysay Award was started in 1958 to celebrate ‘greatness of spirit and transformative leadership in Asia’. Since, 1958, over 300 achievers and organizations from Asia have received this award.
