Some of the world’s top champions on the front lines in the fight against global poverty gathered at the National Building Museum in Washington on Friday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Africare.

The 2010 Bishop Walker Memorial Dinner, the nation’s largest annual fund raising event for Africa, honored three leaders, including a lifetime achievement award to His Excellency Nelson Mandela; the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service award to Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director of the World Bank, and the Corporate Award to Rex Tillerson, Chairman and CEO of the Exxon Mobil Corporation.

The crowd cheered as the daughter and grandson of Nelson Mandela accepted his award, thanking the work of Africare and challenging those in the audience by stating Mandela’s legacy is now in their hands.

Africare is the oldest and largest African-American led non-profit organization specializing in African aid. In the last forty years, Africare has delivered over $1 billion in assistance and support to over 36 countries in Africa, in more than 2,500 projects.

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former Nigerian Finance Minster, stirred a rousing round of applause as she called for the audience to “stop thinking of aid as aid: we must think of aid as investment.”