Applications for the 2024 Global Citizen Prize: Cisco Youth Leadership Award are open from Nov. 1, 2023, until Dec. 15, 2023, at 5 p.m. PT. Find out more and apply here.
The judging has come to an end, all the votes have been counted, and Global Citizen can officially announce that this year’s winner of the Global Citizen Prize: Cisco Youth Leadership Award is Christelle Kwizera from Rwanda.
The young Rwandan, founder of Water Access Rwanda, is an engineer and entrepreneur who has developed a sustainable way to provide struggling communities in Africa with clean water.
All three of the remarkable finalists for the award have dedicated their skills, resources, and time to making the world a better place by working towards achieving the United Nations’ Global Goals and standing up for those who are vulnerable. You can read more about the other finalists — Suhani Jalota in India and Ryan Gersava in the Philippines — and their incredible work here.
Kwizera was revealed as the winner of the award at the Global Citizen Prize ceremony, which is being broadcast and streamed globally from Dec. 19 — and you can find out how to watch wherever you are, here. Although this year’s ceremony was hosted virtually, it was an incredible affair that celebrated world leaders, business leaders, activists, musicians and artists, young people, and philanthropists from around the globe.
During the broadcast Kwizera was surprised with a call from singer-songwriter, Nick Jonas, who shared the news with the young entrepreneur that she had won this year’s Cisco Youth Leadership Award.
“The work we do, keeping the water running for hundreds of thousands — we’re going to scale to millions.” @Cisco Youth Leadership Award winner Christelle Kwizera is inspirational. Learn about her and her organization, @WaterRwanda, in this interview with @NickJonas for #GCPrize. pic.twitter.com/TANOpTW59w
— Global Citizen (@GlblCtzn) December 20, 2020
Kwizera was evidently jubilant and shared with Jonas that she was “super super surprised”. She then called in her “work family” to meet Jonas and be part of the exciting moment.
“The work we do, keeping water running for hundreds of thousands, we’re going to scale to millions because we’re tackling a challenge that affects 400 million people across Africa and over 2 billion worldwide,” she told Jonas.
“In 10 years — this prize being a huge catalyst for this — in 10 years we’re going to be servicing 30 million and more; we’re going to create over 13,000 jobs because when we give water, we also create jobs," Kwizera continued.
As the winner of this year’s award, Kwizera will receive $250,000 to put towards her social enterprise, Water Access Rwanda.
When she was just 20, Kwizera founded Water Access Rwanda in response to the dangerous conditions that Rwandans would face when collecting water from rivers and dams, including crocodile attacks and disease-ridden water.
The social enterprise aims to eliminate water scarcity and provide communities with safe and easily accessible water. Today they successfully supply over 70,000 people in and around Rwanda with clean water daily.
She told Global Citizen that the work Water Access Rwanda does now, however, is just the beginning.
“Our ambition is much bigger because, as I like to say, the crisis is way bigger than what we’re doing,” she said.
Learn more about Christelle’s incredible work to end Africa’s water crisis here, and learn more about the Cisco Youth Leadership Award here.
Applications are now open for the 2022 Global Citizen Prize: Cisco Youth Leadership Award. Find out more and apply here.