By Savithri Rodrigo
Kenya (Commonwealth Union)_She grew up in the little village of Mogotio in Kenya in a tin-roofed house. She walked barefoot to school, went to bed hungry on most days but would never let anything deter her from her academics. In this poverty-ridden village, there were no computers and in fact, she had not even seen a picture of one. She simply put pencil to paper, kept her head down and her grades up.
Then came her a-ha moment. She landed a college scholarship to Augustana College in Illinois in the US and Nelly Cheboi had her first glimpse of the power of technology.
Having never typed on a computer, she would handwrite her ten-page assignments rather than type them out as it took too long for her to type. However, none of this deterred the passion and determination Cheboi had to make her childhood dream come true – to change the lives of those around her.
With her exposure in the US, she realized how backward Kenya. She saw the infinite possibilities technology would open up for her village. Now on a mission, she became a software engineer and founded TechLit Africa. TechLit Africa was founded in 2018 as a non-profit organisation and is short for Technologically Literate Africa. It aims to give students in rural Kenya access to technology and enable the learning of fundamental digital skills at a very young age.
The 29-year-old Cheboi gets donated computers and transports and refurbishes them in Kenya. These refurbished computers together with an ICT curriculum is given to schools. Cheboi adds a sustainable angle to the project by having the school and parents cover the cost of operations as this gains the buy-in of these stakeholders.
Once installed and the joy and fun added to the mix, Cheboi, a 2022 CNN Hero and Forbes 30 Under 30 Member, keeps pushing the programme upwards. Recently, students spoke with NASA interns via Zoom, asking questions and learning about NASA and space. “Students are not just learning the subject, they are understanding that access to technology can translate into a career and the opportunities that are limitless,” she says.
Students are taught three main skills: self-efficacy for confidence to be whoever they want to be, troubleshooting as a problem-solving mechanism and internet skills for communication, marketing themselves and being safe on the internet and Cheboi is seeing tangible results. An eight-year-old is teaching her mother to touch type, a skill she learned at TEchLit Africa; another wants to be a space engineer and yet others are using tech and music to hone their creativity and engineering capabilities.
Cheboi has now embarked on her next step – to equip more than one hundred schools. “TechLit Africa is a way to connect two worlds. Kids interact, ask questions and imagine what life is like out there while understanding the value of the internet. In doing so, they unlock global opportunities – and a second chance at a more fulfilling life.”
