For an ordinary American citizen, doing extraordinary work to transform the lives of millions in Southeast Asia affected by war and natural disasters is a lifelong commitment.
Humanitarian Dr. Steven Muncy, 64, was among five recipients of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award. Dubbed Asia’s Nobel Prize, it was established in 1958 in memory of the third president of the Philippines. Each year it honors individuals and organizations in Asia who transform lives and societies by manifesting selfless service.
The award panel recognized “his lifelong dedication to humanitarian work, refugee assistance and peace building, and his unstinting pursuit of dignity, peace and harmony for people in exceptionally difficult circumstances in Asia.”
It also said Muncy’s “unshakable belief in the goodness of man that inspires in others the desire to serve” made him exceptional among candidates for the award.
The founder of Community and Family Services International (CFSI) has been on this mission for more than four decades, living outside his own country and often working in a difficult environment.
Muncy hailed the prize as incredible encouragement for humanitarian workers from CFSI, especially on the 40th anniversary of the organization.
I am so grateful for the opportunities that have allowed me to help a little
“We will use this platform to promote peace and human rights as well as to do more and better with refugees and displaced persons in Southeast Asia,” he said, pledging to continue to rebuild lives over the next 40 years and beyond.
“I am so grateful for the opportunities that have allowed me to help a little; grateful for the people who have been involved in this organization; grateful for the blessings I have received from the community.”
In 1981, Muncy founded NGO Community Mental Health Services following the dire lack of psycho-social services in the Philippine Refugee Processing Center in Morong, Bataan, where he worked as a volunteer under a Baptist journeyman social ministry program.
He received support from the Norwegian government and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to address the needs of his program and was also tasked by the latter to do similar work in Vietnamese refugee camps in Hong Kong.
Thank you. You are now signed up to Daily newsletter
In 1989, it was renamed CFSI and defined itself as a humanitarian organization committed to “the lives, well-being and dignity of people uprooted by persecution, armed conflict, disasters and other exceptionally difficult circumstances.”
It has since worked closely with the international community as well as national and local actors responsible for uprooted persons in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Timor-Leste, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
At present, CFSI is carrying out activities in the Philippines, Myanmar and Vietnam.
In the Philippines, it is responding to the humanitarian disaster of the Battle of Marawi in 2017 and it is implementing the Marawi Recovery Project, aimed at providing livelihoods and other assistance to some 40,000 people.
In Myanmar’s Rakhine state, CFSI has helped hundreds of thousands by providing literacy and reproductive health training for women and girls
It also helped with the transition of some 900 former child soldiers, assisting their families to get them back to school and lead peaceful, productive lives.
In Myanmar’s Rakhine state, CFSI has helped hundreds of thousands by providing literacy and reproductive health training for women and girls and working with communities to build water and sanitation facilities.
It also initiated a program that has enabled more than 300 individuals from the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar and Indonesia to get advanced university degrees in social work.
Murcy was honored as a doctor of humanities, honoris causa, by the University of the Cordillera, Baguio, in 2017 and received an alumni achievement recognition award from the National Catholic School of Social Service at the Catholic University of America, Washington DC, in 2011
Credit: Source link
