The Zawadi Africa Education Fund works to provide opportunities higher education for academically gifted but financially disadvantaged African women, with the eventual aim of providing a pipeline of women leaders for the Region. The Zawadi Education Fund is based on the highly successful Kennedy-Mboya Africa Student Airlifts Program of the 1960's, pioneered by Tom Mboya, (Dr. Mboya's father), and
President John F Kennedy. The Kennedy/Mboya airlifts educated over 1000 bright young East Africans who went on to become their countries leaders in post independence, and yielded such luminaries as Professor Wangari Mathaai (Nobel Peace Prize laureate), former Vice president Josephat Karanja and Barack Obama Sr., Father of Senator Barrack Obama. Likewise, the Zawadi Africa Educational Fund intends to accelerate the rate of development in Africa, by developing our most talented students into the women leaders the continent needs for the future.
