Leadership Prize Winners Work in Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa

The award: The Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership, which recognizes nonprofit leadership

What the award is worth: $250,000

The winners: The two winners were Soraya Salti, regional director at Injaz Al-Arab, an entrepreneurship-education program for young people in the Middle East, and senior vice president of Middle East/North Africa for Junior Achievement Worldwide; and mothers2mothers, a charity in Cape Town that helps prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS.

About Ms. Salti’s work: Since she started at Injaz Al-Arab in 2001, she has expanded its programs from Jordan to 14 other countries, reaching about one million students ages 14 to 21. The group teaches young people business skills and financial literacy while also providing career guidance. Key to the nonprofit’s success has been “the involvement of the private sector,” Ms. Solti says. Injaz plans to use the award money to take its efforts online.

About mothers2mothers: Founded in 2001, the charity employs 1,800 HIV-positive mothers at nearly 600 clinics in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa to counsel pregnant women and new mothers on health and personal issues, reaching more than one million women so far. Says Gene Falk, the charity’s co-founder: “Women who might not have survived went on to become the people who were most critical in providing care to women just like them.”