Hats off to Manu Chandaria
Manu Chandaria, Kenyan businessman and philanthropist has become the first African to receive Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.
The Chair and CEO, COMCRAFT Group was honoured last week “for advancing opportunity and addressing critical needs in Africa through investments in healthcare infrastructure, secondary and higher education, poverty relief, and environmentalism.’’
Congratulations Manu Chandaria -the first ?? and African to receive the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy honoring his innovative investments in health, education, economic empowerment and #ClimateChange benefitting millions of people! ?https://t.co/EXFdKtrhqc pic.twitter.com/4VtsqaC5XS
— U.S. Embassy Nairobi (@USEmbassyKenya) September 20, 2022
Mr Chandaria was among five persons named as this year’s recipients of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.
The other recipients are four Americans; actress and country music singer Dolly Parton, investor Lyda Hill and billionaire businesswoman Lynn Schusterman and her daughter Stacy Schusterman. Non-profit organisation, World Central Kitchen, was also recognised.
The honourees will receive their medals at a ceremony in New York in October.
Chandaria’s many medals
Besides entrepreneurship and donating money to different causes, Manu Chandaria has styled himself as a speaker on various issues, among them global peace.
He is Kenya’s patron of the Global Peace Foundation and a member of the Global Leadership Council. Mr Chandaria also sits on boards of several companies in Kenya and the region.
He is also a recipient of the Elder of the Order of the Burning Spear (EBS) award, a presidential honour conferred on him in 2003 by then President Mwai Mwai Kibaki “in recognition of outstanding or distinguished services rendered to the nation in various capacities and responsibilities”.
In 2015, President Uhuru Kenyatta conferred on him The First Class: Chief of the Order of the Burning Spear (CBS).
About Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy
Some of the past recipients of Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy include: the Bill Gates family, Rockefeller family, and George Soros, who has donated Sh3.8 trillion so far to a foundation that advances justice, education, public health and independent media.