CNN honours 29-year-old Kenyan Philanthropist Nelly Cheboi
CNN honours 29-year-old Kenya Nelly Cheboi; software engineer turned Philanthropist with a Ksh74 million reward
CNN honours 29-year-old Kenya Nelly Cheboi; software engineer turned Philanthropist with a Ksh74 million reward.
On Sunday, December 11, Kenyan software engineer turned philanthropist Nelly Cheboi received the 2022 CNN Hero of the Year Award, worth Ksh74 million.
CNN veteran journalist Anderson Cooper announced Cheboi as the winner at an event hosted at the American Museum of Natural History, emerging first among ten other nominees.
Cheboi burst into tears as she invited her family to the podium to accept the prestigious trophy with her.
She received a Ksh1.2 million cash reward as well as a Ksh12.3 million grant to expand her work as part of the award. Cheboi’s victory automatically confirmed her as the Elevate Prize winner.
“The Elevate Prize Foundation includes a USD300,000 (Ksh37 million) grant and additional support worth USD200,000 (Ksh24.6 million) for her nonprofit.
Speaking after receiving the reward, she expressed her gratitude for the honour and noted that the funds would be used to realize her dream of bridging technological gaps in rural Africa.
“Every year, people are graduating into the corporate world without ever using a computer. This forces them to go back to the village with their education
“I want to get to 100 schools which translates to 40,000 school-going children. We need to rewrite what it means to grow up in rural Africa because people can work glamorous jobs and still work in your community,” she stated.
Cheboi stated that she plans to expand her work to Uganda and neighboring countries.
Initially, the 29-year-old made headlines in May after she used her entire salary from her high-paying software engineering job to buy computers for Kenyan schoolchildren.
She sourced computers from the United States through her company TechLit Africa to equip laboratories in Kenyan rural schools.
Furthermore, the company hires and trains teachers to run the labs and pass on the same knowledge and skills to children in order to prepare them for the digital world.
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