Stephen Ogweno From Kenya is OD Young Person of The Month – May 2026 – YOA

Meet Stephen Ogweno, a Kenyan world public well being professional, researcher, creator, innovator, and social entrepreneur utilizing well being training, advocacy, analysis, and know-how to remodel public well being throughout Africa. Stephen is the Founder of Stowelink Foundation, a youth-led public well being organisation advancing well being literacy, non-communicable illness prevention, psychological well being consciousness, sexual and reproductive well being training, local weather and well being advocacy, and neighborhood-centred public well being motion. He is additionally the Co-founder of Lifesten Health, a digital well being platform selling preventive healthcare, wholesome behaviour, and early well being monitoring.

How did he begin and what impressed him?

Stephen’s journey started from private expertise. Growing up with childhood weight problems and different well being challenges uncovered him to stigma, misinformation, and the gaps many younger individuals face when attempting to entry the best well being info and help. Rather than permit these experiences to restrict him, he turned them right into a mission to make sure that extra younger individuals and communities have the information, instruments, and help they should stay more healthy lives.

What has he achieved to this point?
Through Stowelink Foundation, Stephen has contributed to public well being programmes throughout a number of African international locations, reaching thousands and thousands of individuals by grassroots campaigns, digital advocacy, neighborhood well being training, analysis, and coverage engagement. His work has helped place younger individuals as key actors in shaping the longer term of public well being in Africa. He has additionally obtained main recognition for his work, together with the WHO-AFRO Hideyo Noguchi Prize for Young African Researchers in 2022, and continues to work with native and world well being actors to strengthen public well being programs, particularly round non-communicable illnesses and preventive healthcare.

What are his plans for the undertaking?`
Stephen plans to proceed scaling preventive well being options throughout Africa by increasing Stowelink Foundation’s neighborhood well being campaigns, strengthening youth-led advocacy, deepening analysis and coverage engagement, and rising Lifesten Health as a digital instrument for early detection, wellness monitoring, and wholesome life-style help. His imaginative and prescient is to see an Africa the place healthcare is not solely about remedy, but additionally about prevention, training, innovation, and neighborhood management.

What obstacles has he confronted and the way did he overcome them?
Stephen has confronted private, monetary, and systemic challenges. From overcoming the stigma hooked up to childhood weight problems to constructing public well being options with restricted sources, his journey has required resilience, consistency, and braveness. In his work, he has additionally needed to make non-communicable illnesses extra seen in well being programs the place they’re usually underneath-prioritised. He has overcome these boundaries by partnerships, proof-primarily based advocacy, storytelling, analysis, innovation, and a robust dedication to studying from the communities he serves.

His recommendation to younger individuals
Stephen encourages younger individuals who need to create affect to start out with the issue closest to their hearts, however to not cease at ardour. He believes younger changemakers should study the problems they care about, take heed to affected communities, construct self-discipline, collaborate with others, and stay constant even when progress feels sluggish.

For him, younger individuals don’t want to attend for permission to guide change. They can start the place they’re, with what they’ve, and develop by studying, service, and dedication.

Connect with Stephen Ogweno

Personal hyperlinks:
https://ogwenostephen.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ogwenostephen/
https://www.instagram.com/stevenstowel/
https://www.facebook.com/PracticalSkillsByOgwenoStephen/
https://www.youtube.com/@ogwenostephen
https://x.com/OgwenoStephen_/