KarunaNews Story

Nelly Cheboi, who quit a lucrative software engineering job in Chicago to create computer labs for Kenyan schoolchildren, is the 2022 CNN Hero of the Year. Her nonprofit, TechLit Africa, has provided thousands of students across rural Kenya with access to donated, upcycled computers. Cheboi, 29, grew up in a rural township in Kenya but got a full scholarship to Augustana College in Illinois in 2012. Realizing many computers were being thrown away as companies upgraded their technology infrastructure, she began transporting donated computers back to Kenya and in 2019, co-founded TechLit Africa. TechLit serves 10 schools now but within the next year, hopes to partner with 100 more. CNN has partnered with GoFundMe to enable donations to this year’s Top 10 honorees and Subaru is matching all donations up to $50,000 for each of them through January 3, 2023.