Helen Keller Named 2025 Holiday Impact Prize Winner

You can help us restart critical drug treatment for neglected tropical diseases.

Helen Keller Intl is honored to have been named a winner of the 2025 Kristof Holiday Impact Prize in support of our efforts to combat neglected tropical diseases.

Impacting more than one billion people worldwide, neglected tropical diseases can cause a host of disabling conditions, including blindness, painful deformities, and undernutrition, with devastating social stigma and economic losses for individuals and communities.

These diseases are preventable or treatable with simple, low-cost medicines. Yet recent funding cuts from the US government have forced us to discontinue this work, halting decades of progress overnight and threatening disease resurgence in communities most at risk.

Through the Kristof Holiday Impact Prize, you can help us restart critical drug treatment for communities across Africa where these diseases are most endemic. For only 75 cents per person, we can provide these simple, effective medications to prevent the spread of disease and keep communities healthy.

"Helen Keller’s optimism that some of these neglected tropical diseases can be eliminated in our lifetimes is a powerful reminder of what’s possible when determination meets collective action. On my first trip to West Africa in 1982, I saw people infected with river blindness and trachoma, reduced to begging while their children were pulled from school to guide them. The suffering was immense, yet the solutions were so inexpensive. For the cost of a postage stamp, we can end needless suffering – and empower communities."

Nicholas Kristof

New York Times Columnist

You can help us reach even more people with lifesaving medication. When you give today, your donation will be matched.

The first $500,000 raised for Helen Keller Intl’s neglected tropical disease work will be matched, dollar for dollar, by the Reaching the Last Mile Fund. Additionally, Bloomberg Philanthropies will generously match all reader donations through January 31, 2026.

Your support makes a difference for people facing devastating but preventable illnesses.

For decades, Helen Keller Intl has partnered with governments and communities across Africa to deliver lifesaving medicine to control and eliminate neglected tropical diseases through routine mass drug administration events. These collaborative efforts helped free tens of millions of people from the threat of these diseases, including eliminating onchocerciasis in Niger and trachoma in Mali.

People like Noel Kambou, a community drug distributor in Burkina Faso, who has been living with the debilitating effects of lymphatic filariasis for more than half of his life. The mosquito-borne disease was once common in his village. However, since he and his fellow health heroes began providing preventive treatment to the entire community, it has become rare to find someone with this illness, especially among the younger generations.

Funding disruptions have cut off access to the resources healthcare heroes like Noel need to help keep their communities safe and healthy, putting the incredible progress they’ve made at risk. With your support, Noel and other health heroes will have the resources they need to once again provide these vital medications, protecting their family, friends, and neighbors from disease.

Presented by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times columnist Nick Kristof, the annual Holiday Impact Prize helps bridge a philanthropic gap by connecting his readers with organizations doing vital work in communities around the world.