MANILA — The Ramon Magsaysay Award, considered Asia's Nobel Prize, honored 4 winners this year: a psychiatrist treating victims of the Khmer Rouge, an environmentalist cleaning up rivers, a doctor helping domestic abuse survivors, and an ophthalmologist providing free eye surgeries.

The winners on Tuesday shared with the media what inspired them to pursue their advocacies.

Among them is Filipino doctor Bernadette Madrid, who received the award for setting up child protection centers across the Philippines to help domestic abuse victims.

The 64-year-old Madrid recalled the first case she handled in her advocacy was a girl found in Parañaque.

“I still remember the first case, and I still need to take a deep breath, because it was a really severe case... A man was walking somewhere in Parañaque... and then he saw a naked child among the bushes, and the child cannot talk," Madrid said.

"The child had cigarette burns, the child was raped, the child was malnourished. So many wounds in her body," continued the pediatrician and executive director of the Child Protection Network Foundation Inc.

It "took months" for the girl to recover, she said.

"She was placed in a foster family who loved her, and when they came and visit she was already talking. She was happy and long-term she got adopted in the United States so in fact her foster mother described her as a loving child," Madrid said.

She reminded the youth that they “deserved to be loved”.

“Every child deserves to be loved. If anyone hurts them they should tell somebody they trust, and they should tell and tell until something is done they should not suffer in silence,” she said.

HEALING 'BROKEN COURAGE'

The winners also included Sotheara Chhim, 54, a psychiatrist and survivor of the murderous Khmer Rouge regime that killed nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population through starvation, overwork and mass executions in the 1970s.

He was cited for devoting his life to helping people who suffered under the Khmer Rouge, with a focus on treating "baksbat" -- or "broken courage" -- a syndrome seen in Cambodia that is similar to post-traumatic stress disorder.

“When the Khmer Rouge collapsed, there were only 40 Cambodian doctors who survived the genocide. And all of them were sick and traumatized, so it is impossible for people to get help, and treatment. My mother said, ‘You must study medicine.' I never want to study medicine, I want to be an architect. [But] I followed her," Chhim said.

“When I graduated as a medical doctor, I go to the province and I see many people who became... suicidal in hospitals. We didn’t know what was the condition so we refer them to a traditional healer. They might be possessed by the ghost or spirit,” he added.

But later on, when a western university visited Cambodia and he took part in its program, he discovered how dire the mental health situation was.

“I know a lot of people in Cambodia have mental health problems and there was no mental health service available for them at that time that's why I chose to work in the field of mental health,” Chhim said.

The Magsaysay Award organizers praised "his calm courage in surmounting deep trauma to become his people's healer".

He also testified as an expert witness before a United Nations-backed tribunal trying senior Khmer Rouge leaders.

Chhim said receiving the annual award was "a great honor for me and for Cambodians, and it acknowledges the work that myself and the organization in Cambodia have done for the people."

"Before I was not hopeful about what I do. I was a bit disappointed about choosing a career as a psychiatrist," Chhim said.

"Now I think any career is important and we need to do our best.. to contribute to the healing …everyone has different expertise and every expertise is important," he added.

SAVING RIVERS, RESTORING EYESIGHT

Meanwhile, Gary Bencheghib was given the award for his efforts to clean up Indonesia's polluted waterways.

Bencheghib, 27, and his brother have built kayaks made of plastic bottles and bamboo to pick up trash in the Citarum river, one of the most polluted in the world.

His advocacy started when he scaled up his filmmaking efforts after studying filmmaking in the US.

"[We] decided to use filmmaking as a way to, bring plastic pollution to front page news. But very quickly, it felt like we weren't really making impact on the ground and so we sort of shifted our gears towards expeditions going down some of the world rivers like, the Mississippi River in the US," Bencheghib said.

"And very quickly realized that we needed to have our hands fully in action, actually cleaning rivers and developing simple technologies to stop the endless flow plastic," added this year's youngest Ramon Magsaysay awardee.

He later co-founded a non-government organization called Sungai Watch in Bali, Indonesia to increase awareness of plastic pollution.

“We've been lucky in that, people have always been supportive,” he said.

Lastly, Japanese ophthalmologist Tadashi Hattori, 58, was honored for providing free eye surgeries in Vietnam, where such specialists and facilities are limited.

His generosity, the Magsaysay Award foundation said, was "the embodiment of individual social responsibility".

He was not able to attend the press day organized by the organization.

The award established in 1957 and named after former President Ramon Magsaysay, who died in a plane crash, honors those who have performed "selfless service to the peoples of Asia".

An in-person ceremony honoring the winners will be held in Manila in November.

— With a report from Agence France-Presse

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