Volunteer Impact Awards 2023

From preventing child marriages in Bangladesh, to safeguarding Afghan refugee children from child labour in Pakistan, to ensuring youth and people with disabilities are given seat at the table in reviewing the climate change act in Kenya - the awards celebrate the work of VSO volunteers in helping the lives of the most marginalised in society.

Our winners

• Health Award Winner: Jamal Hossain
• Education Award Winner: Salma Rehmat
• Livelihoods Award Winner: Alfonse Odipo
• Active Citizenship Award: Abdulahi Adebayo

Read more about all our winners

Missed the awards? Watch the recording now.

Fridah Okomo is a Youth and Climate Champion who's helping to strengthen community resilience by standing shoulder to shoulder with local communities. As a climate champion she has worked on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and advocacy actions and mentored national climate champions in Kenya. Additionally, through her campaigning and advocacy efforts, Fridah is playing a pivotal role in ensuring that climate change policies and legislation are on policymakers’ agendas in Kenya.

She has also served as a youth champion with Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CYFE)  to advocate for decent work for young people and meaningful youth participation by amplifying youth voices in the project implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Fridah was selected as a fellow and represented Kenya in the United States at the first ever Community Engagement Exchange Programme; a dynamic global network of emerging young civil society leaders and innovators, working with communities to address critical modern issues.

With her excellent public speaking, she has moderated, facilitated, and spoke at regional and international conferences representing young people, CFYE and VSO including at the Rewired Conference in Dubai, Africa Climate Week, COP 26 Virtual event on Mainstreaming Youth in Climate Policy.

In 2022 November, she was nominated as a finalist for the VSO Impact Awards under the Livelihoods category.

Umar Abdullahi

Umar Abdullahi is a Global Climate Champion.  As a youth champion in Nigeria, he advocates for meaningful youth participation and engagement through the Challenge Fund for Youth Engagement. Umar played a pivotal role in the development of youth action research on youth aspiration, digitally enabled jobs and peer network tool kits. 

As an engaged member of the National Youth Engagement Network, Umar has successfully empowered over 200 women and youth, in the production of essential household products, fostering self-reliance within communities. 

Beyond his transformative initiatives, Umar's love of public speaking resulting in him delivering a series of insightful lectures on youth employability and career development. Umar was asked to be the youth speaker for the Connection Works Conference 2023 in the Netherlands. 

Umar co-founded the Global Shapers Community Katsina Hub. Born out of the World Economic Forum, the Global Shapers Community is a network of 14,000 young people under 30, across 150 countries, coming together to address local, regional and global challenges.

Performers

Juanito Estrada, Spoken Word Artist

Juanito is a spoken word artist who was born and raised in the Philippines, who first started volunteering with VSO in Zanzibar in 2009. In 2015, he helped pilot the integration of the International Citizen Service (ICS) programme in Tanzania, bringing together international, national and community volunteers. From 2015 to 2017, he volunteered in Nepal and helped to establish a project in Mindanao, Philippines.

From 2018 to 2020, Juanito volunteered in Rwanda until, in 2021 he returned to the Philippines as a national volunteer. Juanito is a self-proclaimed eco-conservationist and farmers advocate, with a passion for creating art using indigenous materials, literature, and natural resources.

Kelvin Leteipa aka Leteipa the King, Musician

Kelvin Leteipa otherwise known in the music industry as Leteipa the King is a talented afro-pop artist from Kajiado Kenya. He is a vocalist, guitarist, composer, rapper, script writer, artist and actor.

Leteipa volunteered on the International Citizen Service Programme (ICS). Using his deep vocals, he portrays stories of real experiences.

Last year, Leteipa the King performed his song 'They Were There' at the 2022 awards ceremony, dedicated to all our incredible volunteers past and present.

'They Were There' - A song dedicated to volunteers

Speakers

Omar Daair OBE

Omar Daair was appointed as the British High Commissioner to Rwanda and non-resident Ambassador to Burundi in January 2021, and started the role in July of the same year. Omar joined the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office in 2002.

His career has largely focused on Africa, including roles as Private Secretary to the Minister for Africa and Deputy Head of Africa Department (East & West), as well as overseas postings to Sudan (2005 to 2008) and South Sudan (2010 to 2011).

He has also worked on NATO policy and national security issues, and was posted to Washington, DC (2011 to 2014). Omar’s most recent role before moving to Kigali was as Head of Europe Department, leading EU Exit related development work in London.

Omar is a graduate of the London School of Economics and the School of Oriental and African Studies. He also holds a Masters of Public Administration from the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University.

Carol Carson OBE

Carol was a registered nurse for over 40 years. She registered and worked in general nursing, mental health nursing and public health nursing. She has had four VSO placements, two in Malawi, one in South Sudan, which was terminated early due to civil war, and one in Myanmar.

Her roles included teaching student nurses, up skilling midwives, working with local communities to improve maternal and neonatal health and up skilling midwifery tutors.

Carol’s experience with VSO has enriched her life by giving her the opportunity to work and live in different countries, immerse herself in different cultures and experience different ways of life.

Carol was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to volunteering