In addition to the Blood:Water Leadership Award, our Africa Partnerships team is also celebrating local leaders within the communities our partners serve. Blood:Water’s new Community Hero Award for Distinguished Service seeks to honor the exceptional service an individual provides their community. Nominees were submitted by our partners and the winner was chosen by the public through anonymous online voting. 

We are excited to announce that this year’s Community Hero Award winner is Elizabeth Akinyi Obiero, leader of our partner Lwala Community Alliance’s HIV, Water Sanitation and Hygiene Integrated Program (HAWI)!

Elizabeth has been a team member at LCA for the past nine years, and in that time has been a key player in a number of significant changes within the LCA community. One of these enormous accomplishments is the near elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV in their service areas, exceeding UNAIDS global targets. 

Another significant change that occurred in large part due to Elizabeth’s commitment is the championing of WASH compliance throughout the households LCA serves. Because of the work she has done in her nine years there, the county of North Kamagambo – a population of 30,000 – has recently been declared open defecation free, meaning every household has access to sanitary restroom facilities.  

Our Africa Programs team had this to say about Elizabeth: “[She] has not only focused on addressing the challenges of HIV and clean water, but has managed to transform these challenges into a tool for community building. Her passion and dedication for the community are unmatched and this is why LCA chose her as their nominee for the Community Hero Award.”

As this year’s winner, Elizabeth will receive a plaque and a gift in honor of her continued leadership in her community, which will be presented upon Blood:Water’s next visit to Lwala Community Alliance in Kenya.

Thank you to all who voted this year and please join us in celebrating Elizabeth and all the stupendous work she is doing on behalf of LCA!