Cambodian, Japanese among winners of Magsaysay Awards

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A psychiatrist who helped fellow Cambodians recover from trauma resulting from the Khmer Rouge’s genocidal rule and a Japanese ophthalmologist who led an effort to treat thousands of Vietnamese villagers were among those selected for this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awards, regarded as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize.

The other winners were a Filipina pediatrician who has provided medical, legal and social help to thousands of abused children and their families, and a Frenchman who battles plastic pollution in Indonesian rivers.

The annual awards, announced Wednesday, are named after a Philippine president who died in a 1957 plane crash, and honor “greatness of spirit in selfless service to the peoples of Asia.” They are to be presented in Manila on Nov. 30.

The winners “have all challenged the invisible societal lines that cause separation and have drawn innovative and inspiring ones that build connections,” said Aurelio Montinola III, chairperson of the award foundation.

Cambodian Sotheara Chhim, 54, has led the treatment of thousands of traumatized survivors of the Khmer Rouge's brutal rule and other patients in his country since becoming executive director of its Transcultural Psychosocial Organization in 2002, the foundation said.

As a child, he was forced to work in Khmer Rouge camps for more than three years until their rule ended in 1979. He became one of Cambodia’s first psychiatrists after years of war and devoted his life to treating people, especially in rural communities, where he said “the mental health worker should be.”

Japanese ophthalmologist Tadashi Hattori, 58, was awarded the prize for training local doctors who have treated thousands of Vietnamese. He decided to become a doctor at age 15 when he witnessed the rude...