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Nigerian, 2 others win 2023 Waislitz Global Citizen Awards
Oluwafunke Adeoye, Nigerian human rights lawyer and two Kenyan citizens have won the 2023 Waislitz Global Citizen Awards.
The award is aimed at inspiring people working within their communities to overcome challenges like air and water pollution, period poverty, unstable infrastructure and gender disparities in education.
It is also to drive the mission to end extreme poverty and improve the living conditions of people globally.
Adeoye founded the Hope Behind Bars Africa, after some personal encounters with the justice system including that of her father’s arrest and detention for a crime he reportedly did not commit.
The organisation closes the justice gap by providing free legal services and direct support to low-income incarcerated individuals while promoting criminal justice reforms through research, evidence-based advocacy, and technology.
Over 7,000 incarcerated individuals have benefitted from their interventions.
With the award, Adeoye plans to fully launch Justicepadi, a tech platform that will revolutionise legal aid in West Africa and also expand her work for climate justice.
“It is crucial for people to understand that behind the labels of “convicts” or “prisoners”, there are human beings with stories, hopes, and dreams.
“By offering legal aid, we strive to ensure that every person, regardless of their circumstances, has access to fair representation and a chance to rebuild their lives”, Adeoye said.
The others are; Peter Njeri and Esther Kimani, both Kenya citizens, were named as the 2023 Waislitz Global Citizen Award winner and the Waislitz Global Citizen Disruptor Award winner.
The Waislitz Global Citizen Awards are annual cash prizes totaling $250,000 that recogniae the excellence of individuals in their work to end extreme poverty and its systemic causes.
The grand prize is $100,000, with two additional prizes of $75,000 each.
“When we first conceived these awards almost 10 years ago, we wanted to shine a light on those heroes working at grassroots levels to end global poverty. We also wanted to encourage others to do the same.
“The awards have grown in stature and participation rates every year and I am proud that we’ve been able to assist so many outstanding and inspirational young champions from around the world to advance their efforts in the fight against global poverty.
“This year’s winners are no exception and I wholeheartedly congratulate them all”, Alex Waislitz, Chairman and Founder of the Waislitz Foundation said.
Peter Njeri, who grew up in Soweto, Nairobi, and saw his family suffer first-hand from the effects of indoor air pollution, set out to solve this problem.
He produced a technology that turns plastic waste into clean energy and co-founded Mega Gas Alternative Energy— a clean-tech startup on a mission to provide access to clean and affordable cooking energy for low-income families all while protecting the environment.
Today, over 10,050 families in Kenya use his technology. The Waislitz Global Citizen Award will enable him to serve an extra 5,400 families each month.
Esther Kimani is the 27-year-old CEO of FarmerLine, a climate agritech trailblazer disrupting Africa’s agricultural sector.
With delayed detection of crop pests and disease destroying over 47 per cent crop yield every farming season, Kimani developed the first-ever solar-powered AI-based crop pests and diseases detection device.
Its vision is to end hunger and extreme poverty for a million marginalised smallholder farmers.
Her inspiration comes from experiencing farm losses from pests and diseases firsthand as she grew up farming on the slopes of the Aberdare mountains in Kenya.
Kimani’s technology has so far impacted over 60,000 farmers in Kenya.
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Anambra State Sector Command, has confirmed the death of a woman in an accident at Okpoko Market on the Asaba-Onitsha Road.
The Sector Commander, Mr Adeoye Irelewuyi, who confirmed the accident to journalists in Awka on Thursday, said that the woman was hit while she was crossing the road.
He said that the accident, which occurred on Wednesday, involved a commercial tow truck with registration number XA550BMA.
“Eyewitness report reaching us indicates that the truck was towing a vehicle in an uncontrollable speed along the axis.
“The vehicle that was being towed got detached from the tow truck.
“It hit and killed a female adult, who was said to be crossing the road, while the tow truck continued its movement.
“FRSC rescue team came to the scene and took the woman to Toronto Hospital, Onitsha, where she was confirmed dead and her body deposited at the hospital’s mortuary,” he said.
While sympathising with the family of the dead, the sector commander urged motorists, especially tow truck drivers, to exercise a high level of professionalism.
He also urged the drivers to always use standard equipment and avoid speeding.
The Chairman, Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Lagos State Chapter, Mr Mojeed Iyiola, said the state government’s maize palliative to members of the association made a positive impact on the sector.
Iyiola said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.
“We received about 150,000 tons of maize in February from the Lagos State government as palliative to cushion the effect of high feed prices.
“The major benefit of the palliative is that it actually cushioned the cost of production for most poultry farmers in the state.
“The palliative was beneficial as it made the cost of some poultry produce, especially eggs to drop,” Iyiola said.
He noted that prior to the palliative, a crate of egg was sold between N3,500 and N3,700 at the farm gate, but after the palliative, it now sells between N3,200 and N3,400.
According to the PAN chair, retailers and middlemen who sell from N3,800 to N4,200 do that for their personal gain.
“We have urged our members to sell their eggs at reasonable prices following the receipt of the palliative from the government.
“We appreciate the Lagos State government for the palliative but we also urge the federal government to do likewise, to further reduce the cost of production in the sector.
“This will consequently lead to drop in the prices of all poultry produce across board,” he said.
He said the palliative was shared among financial members of the association at no extra cost.
“As an association we shared the grains equally across PAN’s eight zones in the state equally. We also mandated each zone not the sell even a grain of the maize.
“We, however, considered new poultry farmers who wanted to the join the association as beneficiaries of the palliative,” said Iyiola.
He noted that through the palliative, more poultry farmers were recruited into the association.
“The maize was shared only to poultry farmers and not feed millers, it is the major component of poultry feed formulation,” he said.
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