Technology that helps grow food in challenging climates without soil. A toilet that requires no water, sewer, or plumbing. A sanitary pad made from agricultural waste that can help girls stay in school. Three innovations, three innovators, and one shared goal: developing practical solutions to challenges affecting communities around the world.
Now in its 12th year, the Global Citizen Waislitz Awards are recognizing three exceptional individuals working to end extreme poverty.
The Global Citizen Waislitz Awards are presented by the Waislitz Foundation and Global Citizen, and include $300,000 in cash prizes annually - a $100,000 grand prize and two additional $100,000 prizes. The three winners will also receive networking support, which will help them accelerate and scale the impact that they are already having through their organizations.
The Waislitz Foundation invests in ideas, locally and globally, that aim to unlock people's potential and deliver measurable impact.
Let's meet this year's winners!
GRAND PRIZE
Smart Israel, Founder/CEO, Smartel
Smart Israel is a Nigerian innovator and entrepreneur. Growing up in Nigeria's Middle Belt, he saw how resource-related conflict, displacement, and climate change contributed to hunger and malnutrition in his community. Inspired by those experiences, he founded Smartel, a climate-tech enterprise that helps communities affected by climate-related challenges grow food without soil in almost any environment using AI-enabled, solar-powered hydroponic systems. Smartel has deployed over 3,000 systems, helping thousands of farmers and families access nutritious food through climate-smart growing systems. Winning the Global Citizen Waislitz Award will help Smartel reach 5,000 more households with affordable, climate-smart food production and expand its community hydroponic hub model.
DISRUPTOR AWARD
Diana Yousef, Founder/ CEO, change:WATER Labs
While working for NASA, Diana Yousef recognized a sanitation challenge that also affects billions of people worldwide: safely managing human waste where conventional sewer infrastructure is unavailable. No other invention has saved more lives than the flush toilet. Billions of people worldwide still lack access to safely managed sanitation services. Yousef and her change:WATER Labs team developed the "iThrone," a waterless, sewerless toilet that rapidly shrinks waste by evaporating its water content, with the goal of making safe sanitation more affordable and easier to deploy in places without conventional sewer infrastructure. According to change:WATER Labs, iThrone toilets have expanded access to sanitation for more than 20,000 people in Uganda, Panama, and the US. Winning this Award will help scale iThrone distribution to millions more by next year, amplifying our mission to make safe, sustainable sanitation possible for everyone, everywhere.
PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD
Oghenekevwe William Emadago, Founder/COO, Girlified
Oghenekevwe William Emadago is an O'Shaughnessy Fellow, PhD researcher, and co-founder of Girlified. Growing up in Northern Nigeria, he saw firsthand how a lack of access to affordable sanitary pads could affect girls' ability to attend school. He knew no girl should have to choose between her education and her period. This led him to co-found Girlified, which transforms agricultural waste into affordable and accessible sanitary pads designed to improve access to menstrual products while reducing reliance on conventional plastic-based materials. According to Girlified, the organization has produced more than 2.8 million pads and reached more than 70,000 women and girls since 2021. Winning the Global Citizen Waislitz Award will support Girlified's plans to expand its work, with the goal of reaching 10 million women and girls annually by 2030.
You can learn more about the Waislitz Foundation at WaislitzFoundation.org. Stay tuned for next year's Global Citizen Waislitz Awards by signing up to join our movement on our homepage here.