Indian non-profit Educate Girls receives Magsaysay Award, dedicates honour to 55,000 volunteers

Indian non-profit Educate Girls has received the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award and dedicated the honour to thousands of field coordinators, volunteers and youth mentors who have helped bring millions of girls in the country back to school.

The award was publicly announced on August 31, and the formal ceremony took place on Friday (November 8, 2025) at the Metropolitan Theatre in the Philippines’ capital city.

Founded in 2007, Educate Girls works across more than 30,000 villages in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar to break cycles of poverty and illiteracy.

Also read | “We have brought over two million girls back into school”: Safeena Husain on her Ramon Magsaysay Award-winning organisation Educate Girls 

With support from over 55,000 community-based volunteers, the non-profit has brought more than two million girls back to school and supported over 2.4 million children through remedial learning programmes.

While accepting the award, Founder Safeena Husain said, “This award is for our girls, who inspire us with their courage, grit, and resilience. Girls who manage household responsibilities and study late into the night to build brighter futures for themselves, their families, and their country.

“Through this recognition, we honour the parents, teachers, community members, and 55,000 Team Balika volunteers who stand alongside our girls every day. Their dedication shows that when communities come together to educate girls, every girl has opportunity, choice, voice, and agency.”

CEO Gayatri Nair Lobo said the honour is a reminder of the incredible power of people coming together, united by one purpose to educate girls.

“It honours our collective efforts, innovative programs, and the government’s impactful initiatives. More importantly, it fuels our ambition for the next milestone: 10X10 — reaching 10 million learners by 2035. Millions of girls around the world are still waiting for their chance to learn, and we are determined not to let them wait any longer,” she said.

While presenting the honour, the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation cited Educate Girls’ “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”.

A 25-member Educate Girls team, including field coordinators, volunteers and first-generation learners, travelled to the Philippines capital for the award ceremony.

Considered the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Award recognises transformative leadership and “greatness of spirit”. Awardees are selected annually through a confidential global nomination process and rigorous evaluation.