Indian among six Magsaysay winners
26 July 2012 1:48 AM GMT
An Indian grassroot activist whose pioneering community initiatives in Tamil Nadu empowered thousands of rural women to form micro enterprises and break the poverty spiral, is among this year’s six winners of the prestigious Magsaysay award.
Kulandei Francis, 65, whose Integrated Village Development Project in Krishnagiri has helped changed the lives of many in Tamil Nadu villages was adjudged the winner, along with other activists from Taiwan, the Philippines, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
Francis is being recognised for ‘his visionary zeal, his profound faith in community energies, and his sustained programmes in pursuing the holistic economic empowerment of thousands of women and their families in rural India,’ said a statement from the Magsaysay Foundation.
Both Francis’s wife and daughter play prominent roles in running his organisation.
Kulandei Francis, 65, whose Integrated Village Development Project in Krishnagiri has helped changed the lives of many in Tamil Nadu villages was adjudged the winner, along with other activists from Taiwan, the Philippines, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
Francis is being recognised for ‘his visionary zeal, his profound faith in community energies, and his sustained programmes in pursuing the holistic economic empowerment of thousands of women and their families in rural India,’ said a statement from the Magsaysay Foundation.
Both Francis’s wife and daughter play prominent roles in running his organisation.
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