2025 Segal Awards winners
The Segal Family Foundation has announced the winners of its 2025 Segal Awards, a set of annual honors that spotlight African leaders advancing locally driven solutions to pressing social challenges.
The five recipients will be celebrated later this month at the foundation’s Celebration of African Visionaries in New York City.
The awards, now a fixture in the foundation’s calendar, reflect a growing recognition that durable change on the continent is often led by people working directly within their communities.
This year’s honorees come from Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda, representing a wide spectrum of initiatives from healthcare and education to justice and technology.
Awards with a Purpose
Since their introduction, the Segal Awards have been used to highlight leadership that blends creativity, resilience, and accountability to community needs.
They are not tied to project funding but rather to visibility—amplifying leaders whose work may otherwise remain under the radar of international development circles.
The categories—such as Fighting for Fairness, Angel for Africa, and Grassroots Champion—are designed to capture the distinctive ways in which individuals push for change.
Past winners have gone on to influence policy, attract new partners, and replicate their models in other parts of the continent.
The awards recipients for 2025 are;
Championing Justice in Kenya
One of this year’s recipients is Jackie Odhiambo, founder of Nyanam International in Kenya.
Her recognition falls under the Fighting for Fairness Award, a category named in honor of the foundation’s late founder Barry Segal.
Odhiambo’s organization works with widows in Kisumu and surrounding areas, a group often pushed to the margins through social stigma.
By training them as community leaders, Nyanam aims to restore dignity and give women the tools to participate in decisions affecting their lives.
Her inclusion underscores the growing prominence of gender justice within grassroots development.
Bridging the Digital Divide in Malawi
In Malawi, James Gondwe and his team at Ulalo have been honored with the Angel for Africa Award.
Ulalo’s mission is to provide rural communities with access to technology, which Gondwe sees as a key driver of innovation and economic participation.
For Gondwe, the recognition signals not just a personal achievement but a validation of community-centered approaches.
Ulalo’s work illustrates how expanding digital access in remote areas can enable new opportunities in education, agriculture, and local entrepreneurship.
Mental Health Advocacy in Tanzania
Another award highlights a sector that has historically received limited attention: mental health.
Dr. Juliana Busasi, a Tanzanian physician, has been named Rising Star for her work with TAHMEF.
Her organization provides digital healthcare services with a strong focus on youth mental health, an issue that is only beginning to enter mainstream policy discussions across the region.
By leveraging technology, TAHMEF is attempting to fill a gap in both access and awareness, particularly for young people who might otherwise go without support.
Education and Livelihoods in the DRC
The Grassroots Champion Award this year goes to Naum Butoto, who leads UGEAFI in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Operating in the conflict-affected regions of Itombwe and Fizi, UGEAFI runs programs that combine schooling with vocational training and community service.
A hallmark of the initiative is its village school model, where students not only study but also gain work experience as health workers and mobilizers.
In an environment where both education and healthcare systems are fragile, UGEAFI’s integrated approach is seen as a lifeline for many families.
Innovation in Maternal and Child Health
Completing the list of honorees is Tracy Ahumuza from Uganda, who founded the ATTA Breastmilk Community.
Her recognition as Systems Innovator reflects an unusual but vital area of health: connecting donor mothers with fragile babies in need of breastmilk.
The organization ensures medical testing, safe delivery logistics, and follow-up care, while also offering mental health support to mothers and families.
Born out of personal loss, the initiative shows how lived experience can drive systemic change in maternal and child health.
A Platform for African Visionaries
The Segal Awards are not financial grants, but they serve as a platform to draw attention to models that might otherwise be overlooked.
For the foundation, the awards are a way of reinforcing its long-standing belief that African leaders are best placed to determine solutions to African challenges.
By hosting the Celebration of African Visionaries in New York, the foundation also provides a stage where global philanthropy, policymakers, and the private sector can encounter grassroots leaders directly.
For the awardees, it is an opportunity to expand networks and elevate issues often confined to local debates.
As the five leaders prepare to be recognized this month, the Segal Awards highlight a common theme across their work: the conviction that change is most powerful when it is rooted in community realities, not external prescriptions.
From Kisumu to Blantyre, Dar es Salaam to Bukavu and Kampala, these are voices shaping the future of the continent—one community at a time.
