The 2022 CNN Hero of the Year is Nelly Cheboi, who in 2019 left a prestigious software engineering position in Chicago to build computer labs for Kenyan kids. She was chosen by online voters from among the Top 10 CNN Heroes for this year.
She comes from Mogotio, and Cheboi reveals she was raised in abject poverty.
Cheboi, 29, stated, “I understand the suffering that comes with poverty. “I never forgot what it felt like to be starving at night with my stomach rumbling.”
Through the charity organization TechLit Africa, founded by Cheboi, thousands of children in rural Kenya now have access to donated, refurbished computers.
With her mother, who Cheboi praised for “working so hard to educate them,” she accepted the award. Cheboi and her mother sang a song onstage at the start of her acceptance speech that, according to Cheboi, had a special significance to her when she was a child.
Cheboi will get $100,000 as the CNN Hero of the Year to further her work. She, along with the other top 10 CNN Heroes awarded at Sunday’s event, will each receive a $10,000 cash prize as well as, thanks to a new partnership with CNN Heroes, extra grants, organizational training, and support from The Elevate Prize Foundation.
Nelly will also receive the Elevate Prize, which entitles her to a $300,000 grant as well as further assistance for her charity organization worth $200,000.
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