The International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame Board of Directors bestowed the 2025 Outstanding Organization Award to the Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE), during its Formal Induction Ceremony in Oklahoma, USA, on 8 November 2025.
This prestigious award recognised ASPBAE’s decades of collective action for transformative education and lifelong learning across the Asia-Pacific and beyond.
Accepting the award in Oklahoma, USA, ASPBAE President, Mr. Peter Clinton Isaac Foaese, shared these inspiring words:
“On behalf of the Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE), it is my honour to accept this prestigious Hall of Fame award, recognizing ASPBAE’s 61 years of empowering work, particularly in securing the right of all to basic, youth and adult education of good quality.
In this current context — where we are witnessing heightened risks of conflicts and emergencies, threats to human rights and fundamental freedoms, diminished funding for education and development in favour of increased defence spending, and the rapid changes brought about by technology and artificial intelligence in all spheres of life — ASPBAE’s empowering work for transformative education and lifelong learning is needed now more than ever. It ensures a strong civil society voice and movement that continues to contribute to poverty eradication, social justice, gender equality, sustainable development, and lasting peace.
ASPBAE humbly dedicates this award to its ever-supportive members, partners, friends, Executive Council and Staff led by Secretary General Helen Dabu, for their tireless work and commitment to ASPBAE’s mission. We are proud to count within our ASPBAE members, leaders and partners Hall of Fame inductees themselves, who have continued to inspire our education movement in the Asia Pacific region and beyond, fostering inter-generational dialogues and amplifying the voices of the people from the grassroots at all levels and in all areas of ASPBAE’s work.
We sincerely thank the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame Award Committee for this honour and recognition.”
To celebrate this milestone, ASPBAE held a Solidarity Dinner on 25 November 2025 with representatives of its members, partners, Executive Council (EC) and staff who attended the Think Tank Meeting and Strategising for Education Stakeholders on “Transforming Youth and Adult Learning and Education (ALE) in the Era of Digitalisation, Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence” in Vientiane, Laos on 24-26 November 2025.
The ASPBAE Secretary-General (SG), Helen Dabu, complemented the insights and reflections offered by the ASPBAE President on receiving this award on behalf of ASPBAE by highlighting that this recognition is only possible through the enduring support and commitment of ASPBAE members, partners, the previous and current ASPBAE leadership – EC representatives and SGs – and the competent support of its staff, past and present.
ASPBAE will continue to champion the spirit of this award — inspiring and empowering the next generation of leaders and movements for education and lifelong learning around the world.
Several ASPBAE leaders have been inducted into the Hall of Fame: Maria Lourdes Almazan-Khan, Jose Roberto Guevara, Nani Zulminarni, Sandra Lee Morrison and Timote Vaioleti.
For more information about the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame (IACEHOF), please check their website: https://halloffame.outreach.ou.edu.
