‘Educate Girls’ first Indian NGO to win Ramon Magsaysay Award 2025

The Foundation to Educate Girls Globally, widely known as, ‘Educate Girls’ has become the first Indian organisation to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award 2025. The non-profit organisation has been recognised 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 RMA Foundation (RMAF) said.

“This is a historic moment for India, and it places the global spotlight on a people-powered movement that began with a single girl in a remote village in the country,” said the founder Safeena Husain.

The award honours dedicated Team Balika volunteers, valued partners, passionate gender champions, and supporters, and acknowledges the millions of girls who reclaimed their right to education, she said. "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," Husain added.

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Educate Girls’ journey

Starting from Rajasthan in 2007, the organisation identified the most needy communities in terms of girls’ education, brought illiterate girls or those out-of-school to classes, and helped them to complete their higher education and gain employment, as per RMAF. From 50 village schools in the beginning, the foundation reached more than 30,000 underprivileged villages, involving over two million girls.

Local volunteers, organised into Team Balika (Team for the Girl Child) went door-to-door to identify out-of-school girls, address parents’ concerns, and help with documentation.

Educate Girls also launched Pragati, an open-school that allows young women aged 15-29 to complete their education and avail themselves of lifelong opportunities. With the first cohort of 300, the number of learners has grown to over 31,500.

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“Educate Girls entered communities where girls and women were expected to stay in the shadows—and made them visible. By working within the system, they were able to change it, transforming schools into spaces of possibility. They challenged tradition, shifted mindsets, and showed that education is not a privilege, but a right that reshapes and rebuilds lives. It is enabling the women of India to take their rightful place in their own country, and the world,” the foundation said.

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.