Gethsie Shanmugam, an 82-year-old Sri Lankan teacher who counseled war widows and orphans to overcome their nightmares are among the six winners of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awards, the Hindu reported today.
Ramon Magsaysay Awards, which is regarded as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize, was named after the Philippine President who died in a 1957 plane crash.
Ms. Shanmugam and the other five recipients had been named on Thursday and the awards are to be presented to them in Manila on August 31.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation said Ms. Shanmugam, a teacher and psychological counselor, won for braving bombings and threats of arrests in conflict zones to counsel war widows, orphans and children traumatized by three decades of brutal civil war.
