CFK Africa celebrated its 25th Anniversary Community Celebration on Saturday, August 8th at Silanga Grounds, in the heart of Kibera. During this milestone event, we celebrated 25 years of community collaboration and impact with the people who have walked with us, challenged us, partnered with us, and made a difference in big and small ways over the years.
We recognized outstanding champions with Impact, Leadership, and Sustainability awards—voted on by our community. We also honored recipients of two special CFK Board-directed awards: the Pheroze Nowrojee Social Justice Award and the inaugural Jackie Teen Mother Award. We are pleased to announce the full list of 2026 awardees below:
Board-Directed Awards
THE PHEROZE NOWROJEE SOCIAL JUSTICE AWARD
Named in honor of Pheroze Nowrojee, the bright legal mind and fierce defender of human dignity and justice in Kenya.
Ruth (Rehana) Mueni – Community Sports Leader and Advocate for Girls in Sports
Rehana Mueni is a community leader and long-time advocate for girls in sports, born and raised in Kibera. Her journey began at the age 12 when she joined CFK Africa’s first girls’ soccer team in 2002, becoming part of a movement that opened up opportunities for girls in the community. Today, Rehana serves as the Women’s Representative for the Football Kenya Federation (FKF), Nairobi West Branch, where she supports the coordination of women’s leagues at county and regional levels. Elected in 2024, she continues to stay grounded in her community, regularly engaging with teams like Kibera Soccer Women FC and supporting the growth of young players.
Beyond her formal role, Rehana remains actively involved in community work. She volunteers with CFK’s sports program, occasionally coaches, and supports the Girls Empowerment Program by working with adolescent girls on life skills, including confidence-building and preventing teenage pregnancy. Through her consistency and presence in the community, Rehana continues to create pathways for girls to participate, lead, and thrive, both on and off the field.
INAUGURAL JACKIE TEEN MOTHER LEADERSHIP AWARD
Named in honor of a woman whose journey from teen motherhood to champion of education embodies the resilience, courage, and leadership this award celebrates.
Siama Yusuf – Senior Program Officer, Girls Empowerment, CFK
Siama has been a driving force behind CFK’s girls’ empowerment programs for over two decades. As a participant in the first girls’ program cohort in 2006, she found the power of her voice and committed to serving her community. Today, Siama leads CFK’s girls’ initiatives. In 2008, she pioneered CFK’s safe spaces model for girls, establishing a peer-to-peer mentorship approach that now serves 1,100+ girls annually in slums in Kenya and has been adopted by organizations worldwide. She built a Girls Parliament that serves 72 girls annually and has elevated their voices to the United Nations. As a young mother herself, Siama understood the unique challenges faced by teen moms. In response, she founded the Funzo Project in 2018 that provides adolescent mothers with support, skills, and pathways to complete their high school education, cumulatively serving over 900 young mothers in their return to school.
Noting the immense lack of sexual and reproductive health education and access to menstrual hygiene products in slums, Siama developed a Menstrual Hygiene Lab at CFK’s HQ in Kibera in 2022 to provide critical resources for girls and their families, with 3,000+ visits to the lab annually, reducing period poverty in slums.
Siama is now spearheading a groundbreaking, life-saving model to address sexual and gender-based violence. This first-of-its-kind program engages male allies, particularly landlords, who manage and lease 10×10 shanty compounds in Kibera. In its first week of implementation, the program saved the life of a 4-year-old during a sexual assault by a family member. By equipping 100 landlords with tools for surveillance, prevention, and rapid response, Siama has transformed otherwise unassuming community members into critical partners in protecting women and girls. Throughout her work, Siama collaborates. She has built partnerships with over 65 community-based organizations serving girls, ensuring they have the resources and guidance needed to boldly face and overcome the unrelenting challenges of extreme poverty. Her leadership continues to move the needle on safety and opportunity for girls growing up in slums.
Community Awards
IMPACT AWARD: George Bahati — BSI Teacher, Child Protection & Safeguarding
George Bahati has demonstrated exceptional commitment to child protection and the safeguarding of vulnerable learners through the Best Schools Initiative. Working hand in hand with families, teachers, and relevant authorities, he has strengthened learner welfare in ways that reach beyond the classroom, ensuring that children at risk are identified, protected, and supported to stay in school. The measurable change is visible in the improved welfare of learners under his care and in the overwhelming support he has received from the community, whose confidence in his work is itself a powerful testimony to a transformative contribution. Because of his dedication, vulnerable children in Kibera’s schools are safer, better protected, and better positioned to learn, a lasting improvement in the lives of the learners and families he serves.
LEADERSHIP/LOCALIZATION AWARD: Creakids Sports Centre Kibera — Investing in Local Leadership
Creakids Sports Centre has united parents, teachers, coaches, local leaders, and youth groups around a shared vision: raising a generation of responsible, educated, and empowered young people in Kibera. Confronting school dropout, unemployment, crime, substance abuse, and gender inequality, Creakids has shown that sustainable development begins when local people solve local challenges with the strengths already in their community. The organization deliberately invests in local leadership rather than dependency; community members lead the coaching, mentorship, safeguarding, and dialogues, and young people who once came through the program now serve as volunteer coaches and role models for the next generation.
Today, Kibera’s community members are not beneficiaries but drivers of change, organizing their own leagues, mentorship sessions, and child protection activities. Creakids has made localization a reality rather than an aspiration.
SUSTAINABILITY AWARD: Denis Odhiambo — BSI Teacher Turned Master Trainer
In just one and a half years, Denis Odhiambo transitioned from classroom teacher to Master Trainer, and in doing so, built a model of sustainability through people. His work upskilling fellow teachers means the Best Schools Initiative’s impact no longer depends on any single individual: the teachers he has trained can now train others, creating a self-multiplying pipeline of skilled educators that will continue empowering classrooms for years to come, even without his direct involvement. His outstanding leadership in strengthening educational systems, mentoring teachers, promoting effective resource management, and institutionalizing best practices has embedded the initiative’s approach into the fabric of participating schools. Denis embodies the principle that the most sustainable investment is in local capacity, knowledge, once transferred, keeps serving future generations of teachers and learners.
RUNNERS UP
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- Job Munene (Impact) — Creator of sustainable digital jobs for TechCraft youth earning steady incomes
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- Joseph Odhiambo Orao (Impact) — Sports mentor whose 16 years of coaching have sent players to national and international levels
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- Marion Ndirangu (Leadership/Localization) — Parent engagement champion who built a thriving community support network in Kajiado
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- Ezekiel Rema (Leadership/Localization) — Nutrition champion who trained community members to lead the fight against malnutrition
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- David Omari (Sustainability) — Established the Angaza Parents Welfare Initiative (under LuxSit and Jim Rogers scholarship), a self-sustaining parents’network running strong since 2018
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- Kibera Pride Initiative Organization (Sustainability) — Over a decade of serving vulnerable children and building a resilient Kibera
Congratulations to all members of our community who are dedicated to leading change every day.