The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Tuesday announced the 2022 winners of its Goalkeepers Global Goals Awards – Radhika Batra, Zahra Joya, Vanessa Nakate and Ursula von der Leyen.

The winners were announced at the Goalkeepers Awards Ceremony in New York, which was attended by global leaders, influencers, and changemakers.

The event was hosted by Tumelo Mothotoane, senior anchor at South African news broadcaster eNCA.

Von der Leyen is the president of the European Commission (EC).

Batra is a co-founder of the non-profit organization Every Infant Matters, which provides last-mile health solutions to disadvantaged children in India.

Joya is a journalist from Afghanistan who founded and self-funded Rukhshana Media, an online news agency focused exclusively on covering issues that affect the women of Afghanistan.

Nakate is a climate justice activist from Uganda and founder of the Africa-based Rise Up Movement and the Green Schools Project.

Every year, the foundation recognized the work of four remarkable changemakers to advance progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their communities and around the world.

The awards were presented by Malala Fund co-founder and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai; and entertainer and founder of Unicorn Island, Lilly Singh.

The ceremony featured special performances by George the Poet and Grammy-nominated singer and performer, Somi.

“While the world is far from being on track to reach the Global Goals by 2030, there is still cause for optimism. We’ve seen how human ingenuity and innovation can lead to game-changing breakthroughs and progress toward our shared goals, and that’s exactly what we see in this year’s Goalkeepers Global Goals Award winners,” said Blessing Omakwu, head of Goalkeepers.

“Each show us how women are leading the way in coming up with the innovative solutions to move the numbers in the right direction, so that more people can lead healthy and productive lives.”

The 2022 Global Goalkeeper Award, which was presented by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, recognizes a leader who has driven progress on a global scale toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

This year’s award was presented to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, who has shown determination in leading both the EU and global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, from crisis management to long-term recovery efforts.

A champion of global health and equitable access, von der Leyen was instrumental in the creation of ACT-A, a global collaboration to accelerate development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.

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She led the efforts of the European Union to support lower-income countries in responding to and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, including a commitment of €1 billion from the EU to boost manufacturing capacity in Africa in order to increase access to vaccines, medicines, and health technologies.

In June 2020, at the Global Vaccine Summit, von der Leyen also announced a new European Commission’s contribution of €300 million to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. This is more than the sum of all previous EU contributions to Gavi.

The 2022 Campaign Award, which was presented by Malala Yousafzai, celebrates a campaign that has raised awareness or built a community by inspiring action and creating change. This year’s award was presented to Vanessa Nakate of Uganda for her work to highlight the disproportionate impacts of climate change, bringing much-needed attention to the inequalities that it exacerbates, especially for women and girls in Africa. Nakate is the founder of the Rise Up Climate Movement, which amplifies the voices of activists from Africa and across the world. She is also the founder of the Green Schools Project, which addresses energy poverty in rural schools in Uganda using economical and sustainable solutions to equip 24,000 schools with solar panels and eco stoves. Nakate is progressing SDG 4: Education, SDG 5: Gender Equality, SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, and SDG 13: Climate Action.

The 2022 Changemaker Award, which was presented by Angelina Jolie, celebrates an individual who has inspired change using personal experience or from a position of leadership. This year’s award was presented to Zahra Joya of Afghanistan for her work to ensure women’s stories in her home country are reported on and reach the attention of the wider public.

Joya is the founder of Rukhshana Media, an online news agency focused exclusively on covering issues that affect the women of Afghanistan—the first national news organization of its kind.

The 2022 Progress Award, which was presented by Lilly Singh, celebrates an individual who supports progress via a science, technology, digital, or business initiative.

This year’s award was presented to Dr. Radhika Batra of India for her work to tackle health inequalities by providing last-mile health solutions to disadvantaged children.

Batra founded Every Infant Matters when she was working as a resident doctor in a hospital in the slums of New Delhi.

Since launching in 2017, the organization has saved 74,173 children from blindness; given prenatal vitamins to more than 40,000 disadvantaged women; and provided education to prevent gender inequality and the stigma of TB, HIV/AIDS, and blindness to more than 65,000 families.

The Star