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Kenyan woman shortlisted for CNN’s 2022 Hero of The Year Award


Kenyan software engineer Nelly Cheboi has been shortlisted for the 2022 CNN Hero of the Year Award, which honours individuals from across the world who are making a positive impact on society through small acts of kindness.

Cheboi’s foundation Tech Lit Africa has been lauded for recycling old computers and using them to create technology labs across schools in rural Kenya.

Cheboi’s Tech Lit Africa repurposes the vast quantity of used technological equipment from companies, institutions, and individuals and refurbishes them for use in communities in Kenya.

Tech Lit Africa, which was founded in 2019, also builds computer laboratories for schools in rural Kenya.

Cheboi attended college on scholarship in the United States, worked odd jobs to support her family, and discovered her passion for computer science. She credits computer literacy for her ability to find job opportunities and make money doing what she loves. She knew she wanted to share it with her community back home.

Today, she’s giving 4,000 kids the chance for a brighter future through her nonprofit, TechLit Africa. The organization, whose name is short for Technologically Literate Africa, uses recycled computers to create technology labs in schools in rural Kenya.

“I know the pain of poverty, and that’s why I feel so passionate about it,” said Cheboi, a software engineer who splits her time between the US and Kenya. “I never forgot what it was like with my stomach churning because of hunger at night,” she said during an interview with CNN.

In 2012, Cheboi received a full scholarship to Augustana College in Illinois and began her studies with almost no computer experience. She handwrote papers and struggled to transcribe them on a laptop. She said she never felt comfortable using a computer until her junior year when she took a Java course required for her mathematics major.

“When I discovered computer science, I just fell in love with it. I knew that this is something that I wanted to do as my career, and also bring it to my community,” she said.

Cheboi’s organization maintains online and onsite ownership of the computers, providing tech support, software updates and troubleshooting. TechLit Africa installs new customer operating systems geared towards children, and schools are asked to pay a small fee for the services, which includes TechLit educators onsite from 8am-4pm.

The organization currently serves 10 schools, and by early next year, Cheboi hopes to be partnered with 100 more.

“My hope is that when the first TechLit kids graduate high school, they’re able to get a job online because they will know how to code, they will know how to do graphic design, they know how to do marketing,” Cheboi said. “The world is your oyster when you are educated. By bringing the resources, by bringing these skills, we are opening up the world to them,” she added.

She was shortlisted alongside nine others including Carie Broecker (Peace of Mind Dog Rescue), Richard Casper (CreatiVets), Nora El-Khouri Spencer (Hope Renovations), Tyrique Glasgow (Young Chances Foundation), Teresa Gray (Mobile Medics International), Meymuna Hussein-Cattan (The Tiyya Foundation), Aidan Reilly (The Farmlink Project), Debra Vines (The Answer Inc.) and Bobby Wilson (Metro Atlanta Urban Farm).

Each of the 10 honorees will receive a $10,000 prize (about Sh1.2 million) before the 2022 CNN Hero of the Year is announced on December 11th.

Voting, which closes on December 6th, can be done on CNNheroes.com where voters will be given 10 votes every day to vote for their preferred hero.

The Hero of the Year will receive a cash prize of $100,000 (Sh12.2 million).

“All of the honourees will receive a grant along with organizational and capacity-building support from The Elevate Prize Foundation. They will also participate in the foundation’s annual Make Good Famous Summit in Miami,” CNN says.

She was featured in this year’s Forbes’ annual 30 Under 30 list.