The 2020–2025 Luminary Honoree Awards

“Recognizing Leaders Who Championed Public Health After Crisis”

Godfrey Ssali
Founder & CEO, FAD Foundation

Dear Partner,
Warm greetings from the Friends of Africa Development Foundation (FAD FOUNDATION) Secretariat.
FAD Foundation warmly brings to you our 5-year culmination awards as an opportunity to recognize those champions that went far and beyond in their excellence with regard to leadership, management, quality, innovation, and ambitiousness across Africa and around the world. And through these awards, we seek to elevate your name, brand, gain unparalleled recognition, and unlock new networking opportunities through the 2020–2025 Luminary Honors Awards.

Organized by the Friends of Africa Development Foundation (FAD FOUNDATION) Secretariat in proud partnership with the Africa International Diaspora Group, these prestigious awards will culminate into the Africa Diaspora Annual Friendship Unity Dinner that will be held in South Africa in July 2026.

What began as a focused research study—the COVID National Status Assessment across African countries—soon evolved into a broader, cross-sectoral exploration of leadership and resilience. The scope expanded to include not only national government responses, but also the performance of leaders in institutional, corporate, and not-for-profit sectors. In addition, the project celebrated the unexpected yet powerful contributions of arts, music, film, and drama in maintaining social cohesion and morale during lockdowns. These creative industries became essential voices of hope, education, and cultural resilience throughout the pandemic era.

The 2021–2025 Luminary Honoree Awards project also recognized a wide range of sectors & leadership domains whose roles were very vital during the pandemic response:

• Heads of State, Parliaments, and Political Leaders – In their astute leadership and roles they provided decisive national leadership, passing emergency legislation, and designing bold public health strategies that safeguarded both lives and economies.
• Religious and Faith-Based Leaders – They wholeheartedly delivered and offered spiritual comfort, community guidance, and moral support while rapidly adapting worship and outreach to virtual platforms.
• Traditional Leaders and Monarchies – For mobilizing grassroots trust, preserving cultural continuity, and amplifying public health messages in local languages and customs. As a community binding force, they played trusted, unifying roles in communities by promoting health awareness and preserving cultural stability.
• Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Providers – For delivering urgently needed emotional care, crisis counseling, and trauma healing during extended periods of isolation and uncertainty. These offered critical emotional and psychological care during a time of widespread trauma and isolation.
• Community-Based Organizations and Volunteers – For rising as first responders at the grassroots level—distributing relief, caring for the vulnerable, and embodying the power of local solidarity. These mobilized local support, delivered aid, and protected vulnerable populations.
• Broadcasting Media and Independent Journalists – For fighting misinformation, ensuring public access to lifesaving information, and holding institutions accountable in a time of global fear and confusion. These ensured access to accurate information and combated misinformation that threatened public safety.
• Movies, Documentaries, Music, and Performing Arts – For sustaining morale, telling untold stories, and acting as cultural first responders. These creative voices helped people process trauma, preserve identity, and remain connected across digital and physical divides.
• Educational Innovators and Teachers – For reimagining learning through digital platforms, hybrid models, and community-based alternatives that kept education alive despite school closures. These maintained learning continuity through remote platforms and creative curriculum adaptations.
• Technology and Telecommunications Innovators – They enabled remote work, distance learning, telemedicine, civic coordination through robust digital infrastructure and global connection through digital infrastructure.
• Sanitation and Waste Management Workers – For maintaining vital public hygiene services under high-risk conditions, often with little recognition but tremendous societal impact. These continued essential services under hazardous conditions to uphold public hygiene.
• Delivery, Logistics, and Transportation Personnel – For ensuring the uninterrupted flow of essential goods, medical supplies, and food across regions, borders, and lockdown zones.
• Agricultural and Food Security Workers – For continuing to produce, harvest, and distribute food in the face of disrupted supply chains, ensuring communities never ran out of nourishment. These sustained national food supplies despite movement restrictions and supply chain disruptions. And we were all able to continue feeding amidst some shortages.
• Legal Aid and Human Rights Advocates – For safeguarding civil liberties, ensuring equitable access to justice, and protecting vulnerable populations amid emergency powers and lockdown-related injustices.

To the Honorees

You proved that true leadership is measured not in currency—but in courage.
That budgets are not line items, but lifelines.
That choosing life in the hardest moment can shape destinies for generations.

With deepest respect,

Godfrey Ssali
Founder & CEO
FAD Foundation