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Wawira Njiru Wins 2026 Diane von Furstenberg (DVF) Leadership Award
Wawira Njiru
Kenyan social innovator and founder of Food4Education, Wawira Njiru, received the Leadership Award at the 2026 DVF Awards ceremony held in Venice, Italy. The DVF Awards were founded in 2010 by Diane von Furstenberg and the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation to recognise, support and amplify the voices of extraordinary women who are dedicated to improving the lives of other women. These are women who have demonstrated the courage to fight, the strength to survive and the leadership to inspire.
Wawira, the only African honoree in this year’s class, was recognised alongside actor and activist Jane Fonda, Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario and author, advocate and survivor Gisèle Pelicot.
Wawira Njiru with fellow 2026 DVF Award honourees, including Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Amor Mottley, Jane Fonda, Lynsey Addario and Gisèle Pelicot, alongside Diane von Furstenberg at the 17th Annual DVF Awards in Venice, Italy.
Wawira founded Food4Education in 2012 to feed 25 children, so hunger would not prevent them from learning. Fourteen years later, Food4Education serves more than 660,000 meals every school day and is on track to serve one million meals daily by 2027. Beyond this, Food4Education has created more than 6,000 jobs across Kenya, most of them held by women, demonstrating how school feeding can function as economic infrastructure: creating jobs, supporting farmers’ livelihoods, strengthening local markets and investing in the human capital that will shape Africa’s future.
“The world looks at African children and often sees need. Rarely as potential. I see something else,” Wawira told guests gathered at Teatro Carlo Goldoni. “[They are] the greatest concentration of builders, innovators, scientists, artists and leaders the world has ever known.”
The DVF Awards have recognised women from more than 30 countries for leadership across issues including climate, human trafficking, gender equality and violence prevention. Each honoree receives a grant from the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation to further the work of their nonprofit organisation.
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