The Crossbill News Desk
The Indian non-profit organisation Foundation to Educate Girls Globally, better known as Educate Girls, has been named one of the recipients of the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Award, Asia’s most prestigious honour.
Founded in 2007 by Safeena Husain, the organisation is the first Indian non-profit to receive the award, joining an illustrious list of Indian laureates that includes filmmaker Satyajit Ray, activist Bezwada Wilson, and journalist Ravish Kumar.
Reacting to the announcement, Husain described the honour as a landmark achievement.
“Being the first Indian nonprofit to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award is a historic moment for Educate Girls and for the country. This 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,” she said.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award, established nearly seven decades ago in memory of the former Filipino president, is widely regarded as Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
In its citation, the Award Foundation commended Educate Girls “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.”
It further praised the organisation’s innovative approach of mobilising entire communities to identify, enrol, and support out-of-school girls, ensuring that those in India’s most marginalised and rural areas are given the opportunity to learn, thrive, and overcome cycles of gender inequality. Working closely with government systems, Educate Girls deploys local volunteers known as Team Balika, who go door-to-door persuading families to send their daughters to school.
The organisation is guided by the belief that educating girls creates a ripple effect that benefits families, communities, and societies at large.
Husain emphasised this mission, saying, “As we work to reach 10 million learners in the next decade and share this blueprint beyond India, we carry forward a simple truth that when one girl is educated, she takes others with her, multiplying change across families, generations, and nations.”
This year’s other awardees include Shaahina Ali of the Maldives, recognised for her campaign against plastic pollution and protection of fragile marine ecosystems, and Father Flaviano Antonio L. Villanueva from the Philippines, who has been honoured for his work in restoring dignity to thousands of poor and homeless people in Metropolitan Manila.
The 2025 awardees will receive their medallions and certificates at a ceremony in Manila, Philippines, on November 7.
Founded in 2007 by Safeena Husain, the organisation is the first Indian non-profit to receive the award, joining an illustrious list of Indian laureates that includes filmmaker Satyajit Ray, activist Bezwada Wilson, and journalist Ravish Kumar.
Reacting to the announcement, Husain described the honour as a landmark achievement.
“Being the first Indian nonprofit to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award is a historic moment for Educate Girls and for the country. This 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,” she said.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award, established nearly seven decades ago in memory of the former Filipino president, is widely regarded as Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
In its citation, the Award Foundation commended Educate Girls “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.”
It further praised the organisation’s innovative approach of mobilising entire communities to identify, enrol, and support out-of-school girls, ensuring that those in India’s most marginalised and rural areas are given the opportunity to learn, thrive, and overcome cycles of gender inequality. Working closely with government systems, Educate Girls deploys local volunteers known as Team Balika, who go door-to-door persuading families to send their daughters to school.
The organisation is guided by the belief that educating girls creates a ripple effect that benefits families, communities, and societies at large.
Husain emphasised this mission, saying, “As we work to reach 10 million learners in the next decade and share this blueprint beyond India, we carry forward a simple truth that when one girl is educated, she takes others with her, multiplying change across families, generations, and nations.”
This year’s other awardees include Shaahina Ali of the Maldives, recognised for her campaign against plastic pollution and protection of fragile marine ecosystems, and Father Flaviano Antonio L. Villanueva from the Philippines, who has been honoured for his work in restoring dignity to thousands of poor and homeless people in Metropolitan Manila.
The 2025 awardees will receive their medallions and certificates at a ceremony in Manila, Philippines, on November 7.
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