JICA-run youth volunteer program wins Asia’s Nobel Prize

The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) just announced the recipients of its prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, and Japan International Cooperation Agency’s (JICA) youth volunteer program is one of the six awardees.

 

THE RAMON MAGSAYSAY AWARD will be given to six awardees this year, including JICA’s youth volunteer program, the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers. Photo grabbed from Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation official page

 

Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) will be honored this year for their “idealism and spirit of service in advancing the lives of communities other than their own,” according to the citation by the RMAF.

Established in 1965, JOCV is a JICA-run program that aims to provide technical assistance in developing countries. Volunteers between the ages of 20 and 39 spend 2 years with communities, living and working with them through cooperation activities.

 

JOCV’S WORK. Volunteers have helped in the Philippines through housing projects, medical missions, technical and vocational education, and livelihood assistance. (Photos grabbed from JICA website)

 

JOCVs help communities by improving their livelihood, upgrading and expanding their basic social services (education, health, and social support), as well as promoting investments through technical and vocational education.

JOCV will be one of six Ramon Magsaysay Awardees, along with the following:

● India’s Bezwada Wilson, national convenor of the Safai Karmachari Andolan, a national movement committed to the total eradication of manual scavenging in India

● The Philippines’ own Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, who fearlessly took on the country’s corrupt officials in court

● Indonesia’s Dompet Dhuafa, a charity organization that looked to improve on Indonesia’s “zakat” (charity) tax system

● India’s Thodur Madabusi Krishna, for his work on social inclusiveness through art; and

● Laos’ Vientiane Rescue volunteers, whose heroic effort in saving the lives of people in Laos at the risk of their own lives

The Ramon Magsaysay Award is Asia’s premier prize and its highest honor, often dubbed as “Asia’s Nobel Prize.” It was created in 1957 after the death of former President Ramon Magsaysay, a man whose ideals of service were recognized all over Asia.

 

Source: Kyodo News via ABS-CBN News, Japan Times, Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation website