Kenyan social entrepreneur Wawira Njiru receives the German-African Prize

From 25 children to 600,000

Kenyan social entrepreneur Wawira Njiru, 35, has been awarded the German-African Prize for the work of her organization Food4Education (F4E), which feeds more than 600,000 schoolchildren in Kenya every day. This is reported by Deutsche Welle. The journey began with a modest fundraiser for lunches for 25 children: at the time, 21-year-old Njiru was studying nutrition science in Adelaide, Australia, and, having learned that her fellow students were willing to donate small amounts, she organized the first collection. 'My dream back then was to feed 100 children every day,' she recalled.

How the meal system works

Today Food4Education covers 19,000 schools across the country, and the organization employs 6,000 people, more than 70% of whom are women; Njiru herself explains this by saying that many men were not ready to work under the leadership of a young woman. Funding comes from donations, government funds, and a small parental contribution — in some cases 5 Kenyan shillings, or about 3 US cents. Payment goes through the 'Tap-to-Eat' system: each child has a wristband that records parents' payments and the number of meals actually served, and if a child does not pick up lunch, the team finds out the reason. About 80% of the food is purchased from smallholder farmers, giving them a stable market. 'For a long time, school meals were seen as charity. We have proven that this is economic infrastructure,' Njiru said.

Impact and recognition

According to data cited by DW, children in participating schools skip classes less often and perform better. Rafaera Kanya, head teacher of a primary school in Nairobi, noted: 'When your stomach is empty, you cannot understand anything in class.' Student Jane Nyambura said that shared meals reduce inequality between children from families of different means. The prize is awarded by the non-partisan German-Africa Foundation (DAS), which since 1993 has honored people from African countries whose ideas offer solutions to global problems; in recent years, the award has gone to laureates from Zimbabwe, Cameroon, and Sierra Leone. The prize is to be presented to Njiru by German Minister for Economic Development Reem Alabali Radovan on Wednesday evening. The entrepreneur's next goal is to increase daily coverage to 1 million schoolchildren.