John Renouard is a humanitarian, best-selling author, innovator, and founder of the award-winning nonprofit WHOlives, an organization dedicated to creating sustainable solutions to some of the world’s most difficult humanitarian challenges.

John is the creator of the Village Drill, an innovative human-powered drilling system that has helped provide clean, sustainable water to more than 16 million people in over 44 countries. His work is built on the belief that lasting humanitarian progress becomes sustainable not simply when aid is provided, but when local people and economies are strengthened. WHOlives’ guiding philosophy of “Trade Over Aid” focuses on equipping individuals and communities with the tools, opportunities, and economic pathways they need to create lasting change for themselves.

That philosophy has also shaped John’s work protecting vulnerable girls and children. Through WHOlives, John has become deeply involved in efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM), child marriage, and human trafficking. Over several years of work in one district in Kenya, the rate of girls undergoing FGM has fallen from approximately 98% to about 6% today. That progress has been achieved by working alongside community leaders, fathers, elders, government officials, and families to create lasting “mindset change” from within the community itself.

John is also the best-selling author of the short story The Value of a Daughter, which explores the powerful role fathers can play in protecting their daughters, challenging harmful traditions, and creating greater opportunities for the next generation of girls. His work emphasizes a simple but consequential idea: when the value placed on a daughter grows, families and communities can grow with it.

Across his humanitarian work, John has consistently combined innovation, entrepreneurship, and human dignity to develop solutions designed to endure long after outside assistance is gone.

John’s mission is to rewrite the way humanitarian problems are solved—using innovation, local ownership, and personal responsibility to create solutions that are proven effective and sustainable.