Studio Ghibli co-founder among other recipients of ‘Asian Nobel Prize’
PUBLISHED : 31 Aug 2024 at 14:10
The rural doctors’ movement in Thailand is among the five recipients of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, the organisation behind what is regarded as the Nobel Prize of Asia said on Saturday.
The board of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation said the doctors’ group was chosen in recognition of “their historic and continuing contribution to their people’s health — and perhaps just as importantly, to their recognition and fulfilment as citizens with basic rights”.
“By championing the rural poor, the movement made sure to leave no one behind as the nation marches forward to greater economic prosperity and modernisation,” the foundation said in a statement.
Also honoured were the award-winning Japanese anime filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki; Karma Phuntsho, the founder of an educational charity in Bhutan; and Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, a Vietnamese physician who dealt with the effects of a toxic chemical used by the United States during the Vietnam War.
Farwiza Farhan of Indonesia, who heads a foundation dedicated to protecting the Leuser Ecosystem on Sumatra, was chosen as this year’s Magsaysay laureate for Emergent Leadership for “her profound understanding of the vital connection between nature and humanity”, the foundation said.
The rural doctors’ movement, consisting of the Rural Doctor Society (RDS) and the Rural Doctor Foundation (RDF), emerged as a unified force of Thai doctors advocating for healthcare in rural areas. The RDS operates informally, while the RDF is a formal non-governmental organisation of doctors in public hospitals.
The movement arose from societal changes, including a brain drain of medical professionals to the United States in the 1960s, which led the government to require compulsory rural service for doctors. This, coupled with the pro-democracy movement of the early 1970s, inspired many doctors to address rural healthcare inequities and support student-led initiatives in impoverished areas.
RDS doctors advocate for policy reforms, while the RDF carries out progressive healthcare programmes through formal channels and collaborates with other NGOs and international agencies, “demonstrating the lasting impact of rural doctors on Thai society in promoting healthcare, social justice and democratic change”, the foundation said.
Members of the RDS sometimes find themselves at odds with politicians and health bureaucrats when they speak out, as demonstrated by the transfer of the RDS president from his job at a southern hospital last year.
Honoree Hayao Miyazaki is the 83-year-old co-founder of Studio Ghibli, whose works include the Oscar-winning films The Boy and the Heron and Spirited Away.
“[He] tackles complicated issues, using art to make them comprehensible to children,” the foundation said. “He educates by entertaining.”