Kenyan woman Nelly Cheboi named CNN Hero of 2022

WASHINGTON - Nelly Cheboi - a renowned Kenya technopreneur has been feted as the 2022 CNN Hero of the Year. This is an award that recognizes individuals who have an impact on society.

Ms. Cheboi quit her lucrative software engineering job in Chicago in 2019 to create computer labs for Kenyan schoolchildren.

She was voted online and Cheboi was selected for her from among this year’s Top 10 CNN Heroes.

"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. My dream is to get to 100 schools which translates to 40,000 school-going children. Our leaders should strive 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.

She now has plans of expanding her tech enterprise beyond the borders of Kenya with Uganda being her next stop.

Mid this year the 29-year-old made headlines for using her entire earnings from her high-paying software engineering job to purchase computers for children in Kenyan schools.

Cheboi co-founded Technologically Literate Africa (TechLit Africa), a company that uses recycled computers to create tech labs in schools.

She will receive $100,000 to expand her work, as the CNN Hero of the Year.

For attending the gala, the winner and the other top 10 CNN Heroes will receive a $10,000 cash award.

They will also get additional grants, organizational training, and support from The Elevate Prize Foundation through a new collaboration with CNN Heroes.

Nelly Cheboi, 29, was born and brought up in a poor family in Mogotio, Baringo County. Her fortunes changed when she secured a scholarship through Zawadi Africa to study computer science at Augustana College in Illinois.

She graduated in 2015 and thereafter worked as a business analyst and lead software engineer for two US firms - New World Van Lines and User-Hero.

However, in 2019, she left all that behind and came back to her village, aiming at empowering her community borrowing from her experiences in the US.

GAROWE ONLINE