Friday, 18th March, the Ambassador of Italy to Kenya, his Excellency, Ambassador Alberto Pieri, on behalf of the President of the Republic of Italy awarded Ms. Wangu Kanja with the Honour in the Rank of Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy.
The Order of The Star of Italy was originally instituted in 1947 as the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity, to recognise those expatriates and foreigners who made an outstanding contribution to the reconstruction of Italy after World War II.
The Wangu Kanja Foundation was born from challenges that the founder experienced – after she was raped in a carjacking incidence in 2002. Her traumatic experience led her to the realisation that she needed to take action to address sexual violence by creating awareness and prevention.
Since then, the foundation has worked tirelessly to support women survivors of gender-based violence by ensuring that survivors have access to comprehensive medical, psychological and legal support. The Wangu Kanja foundation also provides access to economic empowerment activities to ensure economic independence, which is the core of the foundation.
The Foundation, has supported 1,000 sexual- violence survivors between 2020-2021.
As Ambassador Pieri said, the motivation for the award is that “After becoming a victim of sexual violence herself, followed by the social stigma attached to such horrific experiences that still plague, not only Kenya, but many other countries in the world, Ms Kanja found the strength to pick herself up and undertake meritorious public initiatives.
Aided by her foundation and networking of survivors, she set up centres of excellence for the prevention of all aspects of gender-based violence, and established successful collaborative projects with UNWomen and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation. Such collaboration was beneficial to Italy’s image in Kenya as bearer of positive social messages.”
The Wangu Kanja Foundation is one of the partners of the project ‘Let It Not Happen Again’ funded by the Italian cooperation. It aims at strengthening the response and accountability mechanisms with regards to GBV, especially during the election period.
