MANILA, Philippines — Pediatrician and children’s rights advocate Bernadette Madrid has been named as one of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay awardees for her work on “creating safe spaces for abused children nationwide.”
Madrid was among the four awardees of what is considered “Asia’s premier prize and highest honor” and often likened to the Nobel Prize named on Wednesday. It aims to “honor greatness of spirit shown in service to the peoples of Asia.”
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She joins Cambodian psychiatrist and mental health advocate Sotheara Chim, Japanese opthalmologist and humanitarian Tadashi Hattori, and Indonesia-based French environmental activist Gary Bencheghib.
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Life’s work
Madrid has led the Philippine General Hospital’s Child Protection Unit (PGH-CPU), said to be the first emergency unit for abused children in the country, for over two decades.
“She has been at the forefront in providing medical, legal, and psychosocial care to children and women who are victims of abuse,” Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation Chairman Aurelio Montinola III said during the virtual awarding ceremony on Wednesday.
“We are honoring her for her admirable commitment in championing the rights of the most vulnerable and for her transformative work in integrating child protection into the health infrastructure in the Philippines.”
The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund has noted that 80% of Filipino children has experienced violence or abuse at home, in school and their communities, or online. The RMAF noted Madrid has “devoted her career to ensuring that the problem is ‘seen’ and fully addressed.”
The PGH-CPU also later became a central agency for a child protection units across the country through the Child Protection Network Foundation, Inc. (CPN), where Madrid has designed programs and worked with other stakeholders as its designated executive director.
Giving back
Madrid studied medicine and pediatrics at the University of the Philippine (UP) Manila. She did her post-residency fellowship in ambulatory pediatrics at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York.
The center’s Child Abuse Program was what exposed Madrid to the problem of violence against children. She went back to Manila in hopes of setting up a similar program at the PGH, but it did not bear fruit due to lack of support.
Madrid went back to her home province of Iloilo to pursue private practice until she headed back to Manila in 1996 to lead the emergency unit for abused children in PGH. The unit has since served 27,639 children as of end-2021.
Called a “one-stop health facility,” the PGH-CPU provides a program with medical, legal, social, and medical health services for abused kids and their families. It is said to be “the best medical system for abused children in Southeast Asia.”
Meanwhile, Madrid also oversees the programs over at the Network of Women and Child Protection Units (WCPUs), which was formed in partnership with UP Manila, PGH-CPU, CPN, the Department of Health, local government units and the private sector.
Madrid plays a vital role in helping coordinate WCPU’s staff of 237 physicians, 199 social workers, and 85 police officers. They offer programs in medical and psychosocial care, child safety and legal protection, among others.
“It is multidisciplinary work that calls for Madrid to be all at once a doctor, educator, researcher, social leader, organizer, and advocate,” the RMAF said.
The network has 123 WCPUs across 61 provinces and 10 cities. It has so far provided services to 119,965 children and teenagers as well as 30,912 women.
“I feel that I was prepared to do this work. I was given the talent to do this and it has developed as I worked,” Madrid was quoted as saying.
Aside from the 2022 Ramon Magsaysay Award, Madrid was also named the Most Outstanding Pediatrician of the Year 2021 by the Philippine Pediatric Society, Inc. and she also received the Outstanding Service Award on Child Protective Services 2012 from the National Children’s Advocacy Center USA.
She and the three other awardees for this year join a roster of over 340 individuals and organizations who have been recognized by the RMAF over the past six decades for their “selfless service” in their communities at home and abroad.
They will each get a certificate a medallion with an embossed image of Ramon Magsaysay. The foundation will have an in-person awarding ceremony in Manila on November. — with reports from Agence France-Presse