Making history as the first Indian organization to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Foundation to Educate Girls Globally (widely known as Educate Girls) has been named a 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee 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.”
The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation celebrates Educate Girls’ groundbreaking work in mobilizing entire communities to identify, enroll, and support out-of-school girls, ensuring that girls and women in India’s most marginalized and rural areas are given the chance to learn, thrive, and break the cycle of gender inequality.
Founded in 2007, Educate Girls was established on the belief that empowering girls through education creates a ripple effect that uplifts families, communities, and entire societies. Working in partnership with government systems, the organization mobilizes local volunteers known as Team Balika, who go door-to- door to identify out-of-school girls and bring them into classrooms. This community-driven approach has proven effective in breaking social barriers and shifting mindsets about the value of educating girls.
Over the years, Educate Girls has reached millions of children across multiple states in India, focusing not only on enrollment but also on retention and improved learning outcomes. Through remedial learning initiatives, parental engagement, and capacity building for teachers, the foundation has created sustainable models for change in underserved areas.
Reflecting on being a recipient of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award, representing Educate Girls, Founder Safeena Husain shares, “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. This Award honors our dedicated Team Balika volunteers, valued partners, passionate gender champions, and supporters, and acknowledges the millions of girls who reclaimed their right to education. 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.”
Completing the roster of the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees are Shaahina Ali from the Maldives and Fr. Flaviano Antonio L. Villanueva from the Philippines. Ali is being recognized for her fight against plastic pollution and safeguarding fragile marine ecosystems in the Maldives. Fr. Villanueva will receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award for his work in restoring dignity to thousands of poor and homeless in Metropolitan Manila.
The 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees will formally receive their medallions and certificates during the 67th Ramon Magsaysay Awards Presentation Ceremonies on 7 November 2025 at the Metropolitan Theatre in Manila, Philippines. The event will be livestreamed on the Foundation’s official Facebook page and YouTube channel.
For more information on the 67th Ramon Magsaysay Awards and the 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees, visit www.rmaward.asia and the Ramon Magsaysay Award’s official social media accounts.
 has been named a 2025 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee 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.”){kind=link}