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iHub By Jessica Colaco / March 14, 2011

AkiraChix honoured as Unsung Heros by US Ambassador Ranneberger in Nairobi

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Akira is a Japanese word that means ‘energy’ and ‘Intelligence’, those are the two words that aptly describe this group of ladies. They are intelligent and bring all their energy together to help and empower the greater community of galz out there.The amazing gal team housed within the iHub where honored by US Ambassador as Unsung Heros on International Women’s Day in Nairobi. These young ladies are truly amazing considering what they have achieved in less than a year.

Ambassador Ranneberger and Dr. Julia Ojiambo with the Unsung Heros on International Women’s Day in Nairobi.

Here are some of their highlights in less than a year

Last year, they embarked on training 29 poor girls and five boys in a programme  dubbed ‘Akishika’. The trainees had completed school and failed to further their studies. AkiraChix trained them on programming design and entrepreneurship. Computer Aid International donated 36 laptops, in return for an application for the visually impaired.

They continually urge members to come up with innovations and one major achievement of the AkiraChix is M-Farm. Five members of the AkiraChix participated in the IPO48 competition where different groups were given 48 hours to develop and execute a web or mobile business concept. In 48 hours, AkiraChix were able to come up with M-Farm, a mobile information resource centre that focuses on delivering real time information to farmers on market prices, connects them with suppliers, agro vets and cooperatives. The application won the group Sh1 million that will help them roll it out.

Another achievement is on the grant received from Infodev, a donor-funded agency hosted by the World Bank to foster innovation and collaboration among different stakeholders in the mobile communications sector. With the grant, they are charged with facilitating the activities of the mobile lab (mlab), as they have been selected as the implementing organisation in Kenya for mobile social networking activities as part of the Creating Sustainable Businesses in the Knowledge Economy Partnership.

Author : Jessica Colaco

Founding iHub Manager - 2010 - 2011 at iHub, Research Director @iHubResearch, Mobile and Robotics Tech Evangelist @iHub_Robotics, Co-Founder of @WMIAfrica and @AkiraChix, @TED Global Fellow 2009 and Guitarist.