Manila, Philippines — July 10, 2026 — Dr. Anton Mari Lim, President and Co-Founder of the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation, has been named a finalist for the 2026 Global Citizen Waislitz Awards, one of the world’s most distinguished honors recognizing individuals whose work is ending extreme poverty through innovative, scalable solutions.
Now in its twelfth year, the Global Citizen Waislitz Awards are annual cash prizes totaling $300,000 USD, presented by the Waislitz Foundation and Global Citizen. The Awards confer three prizes of $100,000 each: the Global Citizen Waislitz Prize (awarded based on excellence across all five evaluation criteria), the Disruptor Award (awarded for measurable, innovative impact that disrupts systems enabling extreme poverty), and the Global Citizens’ Choice Award (selected with input from the global community through online voting).
The Waislitz Foundation, headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, exists to create positive social impact locally and globally through innovative projects that empower individuals to meet their full potential and make a measurable difference to the world. The Foundation’s commitment to identifying and amplifying changemakers has made the Waislitz Awards a globally recognized platform for spotlighting proven, high-impact work in poverty alleviation.
“Ending extreme poverty is not a choice, it’s an obligation. My hope is that it will inspire many thousands of people around the world to do what they can to improve the living standards of those in dire need,” said Alex Waislitz, Chairman and Founder of the Waislitz Foundation.
Finalists are evaluated against five rigorous criteria:
- Global Citizenship — How the applicant embodies and exemplifies the values and practices of a Global Citizen
- Proof of Concept — Demonstrated impact over at least 1–2 years toward ending extreme poverty
- Disruption — Innovative, measurable impact that disrupts systems that allow extreme poverty to persist
- Scalability — How the award would enable or support scaling or improving the applicant’s work
- Adaptability — Evidence of the applicant’s ability to adapt and evolve to changing conditions
The public voting period for the Global Citizens’ Choice Award opens Friday, July 10 at 10:00 AM EDT and closes Wednesday, July 15 at 11:59 PM EDT. Winners will be selected by the Waislitz Foundation, taking into account both public vote results and the five evaluation criteria.
Dr. Anton Mari Lim’s inclusion as a finalist recognizes his transformative work in breaking the cycle of poverty through education. A veterinarian by training, Dr. Lim turned his diagnostic skills toward community development after witnessing children in Zamboanga City swimming to school just to receive an education. In 2010, he and friends built one yellow boat; today, that effort has grown into a fleet of more than 5,300+ yellow school buses on water, serving remote and coastal communities across the Philippines and inspiring similar initiatives abroad, including in Indonesia.
The work Dr. Lim and his co-founders have led through the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation would not be possible without the Hope Paddlers, our network of volunteers who are at the heart of our mission; this honor belongs to them just as much as it does to Dr. Anton Lim.
Since 2010, the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation has provided 5,300+ boats, constructed 13 school buildings, 5 dormitories, 2 bridges, 24 starter classrooms, 65 educational hubs, 4 Teach Anywhere chapters, and 3 community learning centers across 128 adopted communities and 215 public schools nationwide.
“Hope is something we build, plank by plank, because all it takes to change the world is for one person to care,” said Dr. Anton Mari Lim.
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About the Global Citizen Waislitz Awards
Celebrating its twelfth year, the Global Citizen Waislitz Awards are annual cash prizes totaling $300,000 that recognize the excellence of individuals in their work to end extreme poverty. The awards are presented by the Waislitz Foundation and Global Citizen. The Waislitz Foundation exists to create a positive social impact locally and globally through innovative projects that empower individuals to meet their full potential and make a measurable difference to the world.
