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5th RAMON MAGSAYSAY STUDENT ESSAY COMPETITION (RMSEC):
GRAND PRIZE WINNERS ARE KNOWN!
The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) in ceremonies held at the RM Center Thursday, June 26, 2008, announced as national winners of the year-long 5th cycle of the RMSEC: Ms. Kate Lynn Heceta of the O.B. Montessori for the high school level, and Mr. Oliver Lemuel Villegas of the University of the Philippines Mindanao for the college level. The two were selected from a roster of seven finalists which included:
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Over the past 50 years, Asia has produced many inspiring and successful leaders, including over 250 men and women who have been honored with the Ramon Magsaysay Award. In August this year, the collective, on-the-ground experiences of Magsaysay laureates, and leaders of business, civil society, media, academe, multilateral institutions, and development assistance organizations will expectedly yield powerful insights on the themes of poverty and inequality, environmental degradation, and social conflict in...
Changing Asia:
Forging Partnerships, Building Sustainability
An International Conference
Read more about the conference.
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 Please visit the RMAF Blog at
http://www.rmaf.org.ph/blog/
for new features and announcements about the Magsaysay Awardees, as well as updates on the Foundation's latest projects and activities.
We'll also post reflections from guest bloggers -- partners who have been touched and inspired by the Magsaysay laureates.
Of course, this blog is one way for the Foundation to interact with you, our visitors. So please leave your comments and share with us your own stories about Asia's heroes.
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Magsaysay laureates assert the need for new paradigms
to fight corruption, inequity, other social ills
As Asia continues to face challenges, changing leaders while retaining the same institutions and values does not effectively combat poverty, corruption and other social ills.
Thus asserted two Magsaysay awardees - former Thai senator Jon Ungphakorn, (Government Service, 2005), and Mr. Arvind Kejriwal of India, (Emergent Leadership, 2006) in a videoconferencing dialogue with youth leaders that launched the 50th year celebration of the Ramon Magsaysay Award. Attended by a cross-section of participants from civil society, youth organizations and the media, the event was held on March 4, 2008 at the Asian Institute of Management-World Bank Resource Development Center.
Jon Ungphakorn, noting the scale of injustice that Asians endure where governments neglect the interests of the poor, called on people to stand up for their rights. A civil society stalwart, Mr. Ungphakorn cited that a strong people's movement led to the successes of his work with NGOs in Thailand. At the AIDS-Access Foundation, he pioneered in giving confidential counseling to people with HIV-AIDS and their families. To erase the public stigma of AIDS, he asserted the right of every victim to effective and affordable treatment. As chair of his country's NGO Coalition on AIDS, he fostered an effective network for advocacy. During the first decade of the AIDS epidemic in Thailand, one million out of its 64 million people were infected. Thailand reduced this rate among HIV-AIDS infected people by as much as 80%.
Arvind Kejriwal, one of the youngest Magsaysay Laureates, was a senior tax officer in the Indian Revenue Service when he and other individuals founded Parivartan, a New Delhi-based citizen's movement against corruption that empowers ordinary citizens to fight for their rights. Together with other leaders, Mr. Kejriwal was instrumental in securing the passage of the Right to Information Act in 2005, a historic measure that requires transparency in government offices and has institutionalized accountability among public servants. He pointed out that a powerful provision of this law attaches a corresponding reduction in the salaries of public officials who fail to disclose requested information to the public.
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Celebrating 50 years of Greatness of Spirit
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