Shakti Samuha bags Magsaysay Award

KATHMANDU, JUL 25 -
Shakti Samuha, a non-government organisation established and run by survivors of human trafficking in Nepal, has been named among the five winners of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2013. The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation based in Manila, Philippines, selected the NGO for its contribution to rooting out human trafficking and improving the lives of trafficking survivors.

The foundation on Wednesday sent an official letter to Shakti Samuha, mentioning the honour that carries a purse of $ 50,000 and certificates and a medallion. Established in 1957, the award is Asia’s highest honour and is widely regarded as the region’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

A press statement released by the foundation said Shakti Samuha (Power Group) has been recognised for “transforming their lives in service to other human trafficking survivors, their passionate dedication towards rooting out a pernicious social evil in Nepal, and the radiant example they have shown the world in reclaiming the human dignity that is the birthright of all abused women and children everywhere.”

“We are elated. This has encouraged us to work effortlessly to transform the lives of hundreds of young and poor girls and women who are abused every year either in brothels or households,” Sunita Danuwar, the Shakti Samuha president said here.

Shakti Samuha has now become the first organisation and the fifth winner from Nepal of the award. The award was earlier conferred on four Nepali individuals—Mahesh Chandra Regmi, Bharat Dutta Koirala, Sanduk Ruit and Mahabir Pun in 1977, 2002, 2006 and 2007 respectively.

Formally established in 2000 by a group of Nepali girls and women rescued from Indian brothels the same year, the organisation has been working in four priority areas—protection, prevention, capacity building and advocacy for the rights of the victims and in improving the living conditions of the trafficking survivors, said Danuwar, who herself was rescued from India.

This is not the first time that the organisation’s work has been recognised. Charimaya Tamang, a founding member and a trafficking survivor representing the Samuha, was awarded with the Hero Acting to End the Modern Day Slavery Award by the US government in 2011. Tamang has already received a national honour. Similarly, the Trafficking in Persons Report made public by the US government the same year recognised the NGO as the world’s first organisation established and run by survivors of human trafficking. “We plan to use the prize money for the betterment of lives of the survivors by providing them better education, trainings, capacity building programmes and employment opportunities,” Danuwar said.

The other winners of the award include three individuals and two organisations from Afghanistan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal and the Philippines. The winners will be given the award in the Philippines on August 31.

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