Ms Wawira Njiru, a Kenyan food activist, has been granted a fellowship at the prestigious World Economic Forum(WEF).
This fellowship is in recognition of her known efforts of supplying affordable meals to children and thus keeping them in class.
Ms Njiru, founder of Food for Education, was picked for the fellowship as part of a group of 112 persons enrolled in a Forum of Young Global Leaders (YGL) program run by the WEF.
Fellowship class 2021
This class of 112 fellows is composed of men and women aged between 30- 40 and involved in fighting for equality, inclusivity in medical research and access to affordable, safe and nutritious food.
Ms Njiru said she was elated to be part of this fellowship program that she hopes will bring her cause to the world’s attention.
According to Ms Njiru, millions of school children worldwide go to school hungry.
She hopes that her Food for Education Non-profit making organization to deliver food to more than 30,000 school children per day.
Her organization aims to reach over a million needy school children with meals and ensure none goes to class on an empty belly.
Food for Education has a broad reach in public primary schools in Mombasa, Kiambu, and Nairobi.
Established nine years ago, this organization runs a central kitchen facility that has so far supplied food to some half a million school children across 25 schools in the three countries.
Using data and cutting edge technology, the organization receives cash payments from parents through wristbands won by their kids that is linked to mobile money platforms.
Kids save time wasted running home for lunch or feed on otherwise unhealthy and mostly unprocessed foods.
This school feeding program supports 33,000 children with all meals made from products sourced in the local market.
Ms Njiru is part of the WEF class that includes fellows from 56 countries, including some 11 African nations.
African fellows in the WEF program will also be granted access to benefits derived from the Aliko Dangote Fellowship- launched by the Nigerian Billionaire.
WEF will provide training covering five years, made up of coursework, expeditions, and collaborating on some developmental ideas with their peers’ network.
WEF aims to improve the status of young African leaders by boosting the quality of their non-profit undertakings.
According to Ms Mariah Levin, Head of the Forum of Young Global Leaders, the 2021 class is expected to be thoughtful and courageous, with leaders who will shape a more sustainable and inclusive post-pandemic era.
Ms Wawira, a Ford Foundation Global Fellow, was the youngest recipient of the University of South Australia’s alumni award 2017 and was also granted the 2018 Rainer Arnhold Fellow.
She has also won the Builders of Africa Award 2018 and the Global Citizen Youth Leadership Prize in 2018 by tech systems firm Cisco.
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