Educate Girls first Indian NGO to receive Ramon Magsaysay honour

An Indian non-profit working to improve access to education for girls in remote rural areas has been selected for the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the organisers announced on Sunday.

- MPOST BUREAU

The Foundation to Educate Girls Globally, better known as Educate Girls, has become the first Indian organisation to be honoured with what is often called the "Asian Nobel Prize". The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF), in its announcement, said the recognition was for the organisation's "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".

Founded in 2007 by Safeena Husain, a graduate of the London School of Economics, the group began operations in Rajasthan before expanding its work to some of India's most disadvantaged regions. Husain, who left her career in San Francisco to return to India, described the honour as a milestone.

"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," she said.