Nelly Cheboi, who creates computer labs for Kenyan schoolchildren, is CNN’s Hero of the Year
![Nelly Cheboi, who creates computer labs for Kenyan schoolchildren, is CNN’s Hero of the Year Nelly Cheboi, who creates computer labs for Kenyan schoolchildren, is CNN’s Hero of the Year](https://citizentv.obs.af-south-1.myhuaweicloud.com/76617/conversions/220714135408-nelly-cheboi-1-cnnheroes-exlarge-tease-og_image.webp)
Nelly Cheboi. | CNN
Nelly
Cheboi,
who in 2019 quit a lucrative software engineering job in Chicago to create
computer labs for Kenyan schoolchildren, is the 2022 CNN Hero of the Year.
Online voters selected
her from among this year’s Top 10 CNN Heroes.
Cheboi’s nonprofit, TechLit Africa, has provided thousands
of students across rural Kenya with access to donated, upcycled computers — and
the chance at a brighter future.
Cheboi accepted the award with her
mother, who she said “worked really hard to educate us.” At the beginning of
her acceptance speech, Cheboi and her mother sang a song onstage that she
explained had a special meaning when she was growing up.
As CNN Hero of the Year, Cheboi
will receive $100,000 to expand her work. She and the other top 10 CNN Heroes
honored at Sunday’s gala all receive a $10,000 cash award and, for the first
time, additional grants, organizational training and support from The Elevate
Prize Foundation through a new collaboration with CNN Heroes. Nelly will also
be named an Elevate Prize winner, which comes with a $300,000 grant and
additional support worth $200,000 for her nonprofit.
“The world is your oyster when you are educated”
Cheboi grew up in poverty in
Mogotio, a rural township in Kenya. “I know the pain of poverty,” said Cheboi,
29. “I never forgot what it was like with my stomach churning because of hunger
at night.”
A hard-working student,
Cheboi received a full scholarship to Augustana College in Illinois in 2012.
She began her studies there with almost no experience with computers,
handwriting papers and struggling to transcribe them onto a laptop.
Everything changed in her
junior year, though, when Cheboi took a programming 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 told CNN.
Many basic computer skills were still a steep learning
curve, however. Cheboi remembers having to practice touch-typing for six months
before she could pass a coding interview. Touch-typing is a skill that is now a
core part of the TechLit curriculum.
“I feel so accomplished seeing kids that are 7 years old
touch-typing, knowing that I just learned how to touch-type less than five
years ago,” she said.
Once she had begun working in the software industry,
Cheboi soon realized the extent of which computers were being thrown away as
companies upgraded their technology infrastructure.
“We have kids here (in
Kenya) — myself included, back in the day — who don’t even know what a computer
is,” she said.
So, in 2018, she began transporting donated computers back
to Kenya — in her personal luggage, handling customs fees and taxes herself.
“At one point, I was
bringing 44 computers, and I paid more for the luggage than I did for the air
ticket,” she said.
A year later, she co-founded TechLit Africa with a fellow
software engineer after both quit their jobs. The nonprofit accepts computer
donations from companies, universities and individuals.
The hardware is wiped and refurbished before it’s shipped
to Kenya. There, it’s distributed to partner schools in rural communities,
where students ages 4 to 12 receive daily classes and frequent opportunities to
learn from professionals, gaining skills that will help improve their education
and better prepare them for future jobs.
“We have people who own a specific skill coming in and are
just inspiring the kids (with) music production, video production, coding,
personal branding,” Cheboi said. “They can go from doing a remote class with
NASA on education to music production.”
The organization currently serves 10 schools; within the
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 will 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.”
Want to send us a story? SMS to 25170 or WhatsApp 0743570000 or Submit on Citizen Digital or email wananchi@royalmedia.co.ke
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a Comment