Timorese Receives 2018 Ramon Magsaysay Award

Philippine Ambassador to Dili Abdulaid K. Muin (leftmost), and Timorese Ambassador to the Philippines Jose Piedade (rightmost) with Maria Lourdes Martins Cruz (second from left). (Dili PE photo)

MANILA 10 September 2018 – The Philippine Embassy in Dili said Timorese national Maria Lourdes Martins Cruz was among the recipients of the 2018 Ramon Magsaysay Award during the presentations ceremonies conducted at the Cultural Center of the Philippines on 31 August 2018.

Mana Lu, as Ms. Martins Cruz is affectionately known in her native Timor-Leste, was recognized for her efforts to give the poor in what was then known as East Timor access to health care, education, and livelihood during the tumultuous times of Indonesian occupation up to period of transition to independence.

She was among the six awardees of the so-called “Nobel Prize of Asia” for 2018 along with other recipients from Cambodia, Philippines, India, and Vietnam. Philippine Ambassador to Dili Abdulaid K. Muin, and Timorese Ambassador to the Philippines Jose Piedade, graced the awarding ceremony in support of Mana Lu.

In 1989, Mana Lu was a young nun fresh from her catechetic studies in Yogyakarta, Indonesia when she decided to establish an organization called Instituto Seculare Maun Alin Iha Kristo (ISMAIK) to help the victims of the bloody struggle for Independence being waged by Timorese resistance fighters against Indonesia.

When the Timorese people voted to be independent from Indonesia in 1999, ISMAIK worked to provide health care, education, farming, and livelihood for the Timorese people from both sides of the political divide during the transition period.

Today, Mana Lu and ISMAIK works together with the Timorese Government and the Timorese Catholic Church in continuously providing assistance to Timorese people in need.

Mana Lu is famous in Timor-Leste for establishing the Bairo Pite Clinic in Dili, which, despite having encountered financial difficulties lately, is Timor-Leste’s biggest free private clinic. This clinic is Timor-Leste’s largest provider of services and treatment for tuberculosis patients. END

For more information, visit www.dilipe.dfa.gov.ph or https://www.facebook.com/Philippine-Embassy-in-Dili-Timor-Leste-397812407262952/

Philippine Ambassador to Timor-Leste Abdulaid K. Muin and Maria Lourdes Martins Cruz (Dili PE photo)

Mana Lu's Ramon Magsaysay Award (Dili PE photo)