Kenyan women never cease to amaze for their commitment, social vocation, passion and the example they set for their colleagues around the world.
We recently broke the news of the Best Nurse of the Year award given to Anna Duba, an employee of Marsabit Hospital in Samburu, and now Wawira Njiru, Kenyan nutritionist founder and director of "Kenya's Food for Education," a nonprofit organization that donates meals to children in schools across Kenya has earned the equally prestigious "Icon Award 2022" from "The World's 50 Best Restaurants." which celebrates the most iconic person capable of making an outstanding contribution to the world of food, deserving international recognition for using their work as a way to raise awareness and lead the industry toward positive change.
The Kenyan grandwoman will be the guest of honor at the World's 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony in London on July 18.
Wavira to date has delivered more than 7 million meals, feeding 40,000 students a day (in addition to more than 2 million meals distributed to families in isolation during the pandemic), helping to improve not only the population's nutrition level but also school attendance, and boosting the local economy by sourcing produce from the country's farmers, and has a plan to get to providing adequate daily nutrition to 1 million students a year within the next five.
"I am honored and thrilled to receive this year's Icon Award from The World's 50 Best Restaurants," said Njiru, "Everywhere in the world for hungry children it is not possible to learn or grow, and the meals provided at school are critical to children's development and education. The situation is also more exacerbated because of the pandemic triggered by Covid-19, which has made school meals essential for recovery. I would like to thank the entire Food for Education team, with whom I want to share this award, for the tireless work they do every day in providing lunchtime meals. Every day we work to ensure that more and more children attending school have access to nutritious meals. I am grateful to receive this award, which recognizes the important work we are doing to end food shortages in schools."
Food for Education uses "Tap2Eat," a digital mobile platform where parents can pay for lunches provided via smartphone. The amount is then credited to a virtual wallet connected to a smart bracelet equipped with near field communication (NFC) technology, which allows two devices to connect to each other through a wireless system, and which students can wear and use, accurately counting each money transfer. Wawira Njiru's goal is to expand the program to more regions of Kenya and beyond.