Miss Nelly Cheboi is a successful Kenyan software engineer who quit her job in 2019 to start up a non-profit organization creating computer labs for Kenyan school children. The non-profit organization, Techlit has provided thousands of students across rural Kenya with access to donated, upcycled computers giving them a chance at a better life.

In 2018, she began transporting donated computers back to Kenya in her personal luggage, handling customs fee and taxes by herself. She said “at one point I was bringing 44 computers, I paid more for the luggages than I paid for the air ticket”. She co-founded Techlit with a fellow software engineer who also quit his job to help out. She also accepts donations from companies, universities and individuals; the software of the computers are usually wiped and refurbished before shipped to them.

On Sunday she was named CNN hero of the year for that selfless act. As winner, she received $100,000 dollars to expand her work. She and the other CNN heroes will receive 10,000 cash awards and for the first time additional grants, organizational training and support from the Elevate Prize Foundation through a new collaboration with CNN heroes. 

She will also be named an Elevate prize winner which comes with a $300,000 grant and additional support worth $200,000 for her non-profit organization.

She works with 10 schools now but she hopes to expand to over a hundred in the nearest future.