NAIROBI, Kenya, May 16 – An organisation that specialises in developing and maintaining free websites for educational institutions across the country has been honoured for its visionary applications of information technology that promote positive social, economic and educational change.
Elimu Holdings Limited was named by a leading source of technology news and information for IT influencers Computerworld as a 2011 Laureate.
“Computerworld is very proud to name the 2011 class of Laureates and showcase their initiatives benefiting society through innovative uses of IT,” Computerworld Publisher John Amato said.
Announcing the awards, the publisher disclosed that the nominations received were of high quality and inspirational.
“The number and quality of nominations this year were very inspiring and demonstrate how valuable IT is to community change,” he pointed out.
Elimu Holdings Chief Executive Officer Davis Waithaka, who was featured on Capital Business in November 2009, explained that their intention is to connect schools to the internet so that the students can benefit from the huge database of information that exists on the World Wide Web.
In an interview with Capital Business then, Mr Waithaka had outlined the organisation’s strategy as that of building websites for as many schools as possible so as to sustain the initiative and at the same time contribute towards ICT penetration in the country’s education sector.
The initiative is part of the innovations that have been taking root in the country as many people continue to utilise their IT skills and take advantage of the laid down infrastructure.
The award now strengthens their resolve to continue building and maintaining websites, a feat that Mr Waithaka expressed his satisfaction with.
Currently, the initiative has built websites for over 180 schools and colleges making it the biggest private sector project for ICT and Education in Kenya.
The project to ease access to official information from schools in Africa thus eliminating the skewed perception that computer-based initiatives in the African setting can only benefit the more affluent societies.
Also, the participating schools use the websites to reduce costs of communication while increasing its impact and efficiency.
“Attaining the Computerworld Honours award is a great milestone in Elimu’s young history. It is a statement of the importance of ICT in Africa and in particular, the importance of ICT in the continent’s education,” the CEO enthused.
He expressed commitment to developing free websites for schools which enables them to generate revenue through paid up advertisements placed on the school websites.
“We are very glad to be associated with all the schools that have our websites, all our advertisers, sponsors and partners,” Mr Waithaka added.
The Computerworld Honours awards will be presented at the Annual Laureates Medal Ceremony and Gala Awards on June 20, 2011 at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC.
Computerworld Honours is the longest running global program to honour individuals and organisations that use information technology for social development.
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