MANILA, Philippines -- Many Filipinos consider Ramon Magsaysay to be one of the greatest presidents the country ever had. The third president of the Republic of the Philippines was the Filipino masses' champion, fighting for their rights in society. It was he who said: ''I believe that the President should set the example of a big heart, an honest mind, sound instincts, the virtue of healthy impatience and an abiding love for the common man.'' And that was exactly what Pres. Magsaysay did.
With the courage of his convictions, he did his best to improve the lives of his fellow Filipinos, approaching the task with selfless devotion. He cared for all people as individuals and believed in their dignity and importance.
It was a great and tragic loss, then, when he died in a plane crash at Mt. Manunggal, Cebu in 1957. Much loved and revered, over two million Filipinos came to bury their hero. That same year, the Ramon Magsaysay Award was created to honor Pres. Magsaysay and his memory, and perpetuate his good example of integrity in public service and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society.
The award is given to individuals - regardless of their race, nationality, creed or gender - who address issues of human development in Asia with courage and creativity, and in doing so, have made contributions that have transformed their societies for the better.
This year, five individuals and one organization have painted a portrait of remarkable change and achievement and deeply involved in harnessing technologies that empower their countrymen and create waves of progressive change in Asia.
Harish Hande: Solar Power for the Poor
How do you eliminate poverty and empower people using renewable energy, particularly solar energy, as a medium? Harish Hande, a young engineer from Bangalore, India, shows the way.
''If you look at India's population, half of the people don't have electricity. Some of them live in remote areas. There are an increasing number of people working in the evening. We started looking at some of the income generating activities that people do, and most of them require electricity. But at a given time, the power lines are cut,'' says Hande.
Hande started looking for an alternative. While he was still a graduate student in the US, he visited a friend in the Dominican Republic. This is where he saw a decentralized approach to the spread of solar applications using small-scale, stand-alone installations in reaching poor remote villages where the technology is most needed.
Upon returning to India, he decided to live with the villagers to understand their situation. Living in the village convinced him that, in diffusing technology, it is not the product that matters, but the social realities that the technology seeks to change.
Through his company, the Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO), which he established in Bangalore in 1995, Hande puts solar power technology into the hands of the poor, through social enterprise that brings customized, affordable and sustainable electricity to India's vast populace, while encouraging them to become asset creators.
Hande manages the business following a triple strategy - customized products, doorstep financing and doorstep service. He designs and installs solar technology applications based on each customer's specific needs, while giving them access to technology by connecting with credit institutions such as rural banks, cooperatives, and self-help groups for financing. More than just a technology provider, the company trains the customers in maintenance and provides personalized help through its wide network of service centers.
''The importance (lies not solely on) the technology. We also have to look at the financing aspect. Take for instance, in the Philippines. There are many street vendors who use kerosene for lighting their business but couldn't get financing. Imagine: here comes a social enterprising individual who will charge batteries using solar energy and deliver them to the street vendors. You create a job for the individual and provide an alternative for the street vendors. The vendor will stop paying for kerosene, cut his liabilities and earn more. He becomes more entrepreneurial,'' says Hande.
He adds: ''We always think of poor people as employees, but that shouldn't be the case. No country in the world could improve and sustain development if they always think this way. There is a perception that the poor cannot afford the best technology, and that they couldn't maintain and use it productively. This is what I want to change. Until the poor become asset creators, we are not empowering them.''
Koul Panha: An Engaging Democracy
Reeling from the trauma of decades of war and genocide, Cambodia is a country in desperate need of a stable political landscape. Removed from the clutches of the Khmer Rouge regime, the country sought to empower its people by adapting a multi-party liberal democracy. However, in order to lay the foundation of a democratic society, the country needed to establish a credible process for electing their leaders.
One man at the helm of this democratic revolution is Koul Panha. No stranger to the devastation brought on by civil unrest, Panha has dedicated himself to the pursuit of true democracy by establishing a free and fair electoral process.
Panha has held the post of executive director for Cambodia's COMFREL (Committee for Free and Fair Elections) since 1998 and has been instrumental in safeguarding the integrity of their nation's elections. ''We focus on free and fair climate for the Cambodian elections. We also make sure that the election results are meaningful to the people, especially to the voters. We try to activate the citizens of Cambodia to participate by informing them about the importance of the election and its processes,'' Panha shared.
With Panha spearheading the cause, COMFREL has become Cambodia's leading independent organization on electoral issues. The organization is responsible for deploying over 50,000 election volunteers and rallying more than 150,000 citizens to campaign for responsible voting and electoral reforms. ''In a fragile democracy like Cambodia, I still believe that our engagement is not just to encourage people to participate but to advocate and aggressively campaign for fair and meaningful elections,'' Panha explains.
In 2003, COMFREL went beyond elections when it established the Parliamentary Watch. With the use of all available media, the organization monitors the performance of elected officials in both the local and national levels.
This engineer has earned the distinction of being one of this year's Ramon Magsaysay awardees for his efforts in bringing true democracy to a country trying to revive itself from the dregs of war. ''I'm very proud and I feel that this gives me a new source of energy to work harder. This strengthens the courage of my colleagues to obtain the final goal of a free democratic society in Cambodia,'' Panha said.
Tri Mumpuni: Economic Empowerment Through Hydroelectricity
Turning Indonesia's vast reserves of sustainable energy into power, and at the same time releasing the dormant economic might of its rural population is the challenge that drives the life of Tri Mumpuni.
Born in Semarang, Central Java - her father an economist, her mother a social worker - Mumpuni developed a social conscience early in life. After earning a degree in social economics, she immersed herself in rural development work.
But she found her true calling when she married Iskandar Kuntoadji, an engineer who designed the technology behind People-Centered Business and Economic Institute (with the Indonesian acronym IBEKA short for Institut Bisnis dan Ekonomi Kerakyatan), a non-government organization committed to develop micro hydropower systems for impoverished rural communities.
''Our work is to send micro hydroelectricity, electricity made by the movement of water, to rural areas not just to provide electricity but also to provide economic empowerment for the poor,'' said Mumpuni.
From its base in Subang, West Java, IBEKA has built 60 micro hydropower plants with capacities ranging from five kilowatts to 250 kilowatts, providing electricity to half a million people in rural Indonesia.
According to Mumpuni, there are still 1.8 billion people in the Pacific Region who do not have access to electricity. She has worked with a lot of countries including the Philippines. She's been to far flung baranggays of Davao, Iloilo, Aklan, up to Kalinga.
''The Philippines and Indonesia have a similar problem in the electricity sector, but we also have the same abundance in rivers which means a lot of resources for sustainable hydro energy,'' shared Mumpuni.
She continued: ''I spent three years here in the Philippines to give trainings and transfer the technology to the local community and I'm glad to say that a lot of rural villages from the abovementioned provinces now enjoy electricity.''
Mumpuni said she is so pleased to be among the Ramon Magsaysay awardees because this recognition will help her, her husband, and IBEKA to win more trust from the people. ''Trust is very important in my work,'' she said. ''We have to create trust among the community so they will have confidence in us and in our technology.''
''People can trust you because you have competency, integrity, and familiarity. But once you have self-interest, people will not trust you anymore. If you want to work with the local community, remove your self-interest,'' she added.
Nileema Mishra: Breaking the Poverty Mindset
While girls her age dream about a prince charming and the royal wedding, the young Nileema Mishra vowed not to marry so that she could devote her whole life helping the poor. Some just laugh it off and thought it to be merely a young girl's quixotic dream. But Nileema's concern is real and serious, having seen this crippling poverty in her village.
She has witnessed tragedy upon tragedy and observed the plight of the widows and elderly people. These scenes had created a deep impact on her. Born into a middle-class family in the village of Bahadarpur in Maharashtra, she could have gone on to live a comfortable life; but she chose a life devoted to the upliftment of the less fortunate.
Five years after finishing her studies in 1995, Nileema returned to her village to organize Bhagini Nivedita Gramin Vigyan Niketan (BNGVN), or the Sister Nivedita Rura Science Center, which she named after an Anglo-Irish missionary who devoted her life to helping Indian women of all castes.
Inspired by Gandhi's vision of a self-sufficient, prosperous village, Nileema decided that her group would not work out of the grants from donors, or compete for government projects. Instead, they will help people identify their problems and find solutions themselves.
Nileema believes that the community problems must be addressed from within the village itself. ''People know the problems. They know the solutions. But they are faced with limitations that hinder them from solving the problems. We only need to listen to people and help them to implement the solutions for what they are asking themselves,'' says Nileema.
One of the main problems in the village was the lack of money. They saw money as a tool, an instrument to alleviate poverty. But giving it to them in a silver platter was not the answer.
Nileema started a self-help group, composed of 14 women, who were trained in production, marketing, accounting and computer literacy. They were taught about microcredit and other income-generating activities such as food production and export-quality quilt-making.
Little by little, changes in the mindset of the women became more visible. Inspired by Nileema, they went on to build a warehouse so they could procure supplies in bulk at better prices, as well as formed an association that now has outlets for their products in four districts of the state.
However, women villagers were just half of the community. The other half, the men, also had their own problems. Due to extreme economic distress, a shocking wave of suicides among the farmers struck Maharashtra.
Nileema knew they had to raise their work to the level of the village itself. They thought of creating a village revolving fund that provided loans for farm inputs and other emergency needs. But there was no money to start with.
In a truly altruistic act, Nileema sold her maternal ancestor's jewels just to raise the revolving funds. They were able to sell it for rupees three lakh. It was an emotional moment, nonetheless.
But, in Nileema's eyes, selling the jewelry was worth it when she saw the critical change in the villagers' sense of themselves, their newfound confidence awakening to the thought that they need not despair. ''Don't despair, we shall find a way,'' Nileema says to the villagers. And they did.
Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc. (Aidfi)
For the past 15 years, Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc. (AIDFI), a small, low-profile, non-profit organization in Negros Occidental has been addressing poverty, and empowering communities through low-cost and largely abandoned technologies that help elevate the lives of the poor.
''We work closely with upland communities,'' said Auke Idzenga, a Dutch marine engineer and one of the founders of AIDFI. ''We have two main programs - small scale technologies that address the basic needs of the people and our flagship program called the ram pump.''
The ram pump is a largely abandoned technology redesigned by AIDFI. It uses the natural kinetic energy of flowing water from rivers or springs to push water uphill without the use of gas or electricity.
''The ram pump is designed for upland communities who have to go down mountains to fetch water and they can only fetch so much. But when we pump water automatically, we can increase their water reserves 10 times, with a volume of 1,500 to 72,000 liters per day,'' Idzenga said.
Partnering with other organizations and local governments, it does not only introduce machinery, but a whole 'social package' which includes community consultation, training of village technicians, transfer ownership of water system to the community, and the organization of local water associations to manage water generation and distribution system.
''This technology has a big impact on these people because they now have access to clean, cheap, free flowing water for their household and livelihood,'' Idzenga elaborated.
Since reinventing the technology, AIDFI has fabricated, installed and transferred 227 ram pumps that benefit 184 upland communities in Negros Occidental and other provinces across the country. It has also brought the ram pump to help waterless upland communities in Afghanistan, Colombia, Malaysia, Japan and Nepal.
The organization has won several awards for the ram pump but according to Idzenga, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is the biggest recognition given to them, something they never expected.
He explained, ''This award is very prestigious and we want to use it to show more of our work. We are basically a low-profile organization, we just work hard in the communities, but I think it's time we go out in public and share these small technologies that can also help the basic needs of the people.''
