First presentation of the award for outstanding social commitment.
As a first,ย Juliana Rotichย was honored with theย Impact Awardย at the DLDwomen 2013 conference inย Munichย on Monday,ย 15 July 2013. Originally fromย Kenya, Rotich is the co-founder and managing director of Ushahidi.com, an Internet platform set up to help people in crisis regions to connect, warn each other of dangers and get aid organizations involved when incidences of violence and/or disasters occur. Theย Impact Awardย has been initiated to recognize women whose outstanding commitment makes changes in society happen.
“We are proud to present this award to strong women who, using digital technologies, improve, enrich and even save people’s lives by showing braveness and commitment,” DLDwomen founder Steffi Czerny comments on the award, which was presented by Gabriele Zedlmayer, Vice President Global Social Innovation at Hewlett-Packard. Zedlmayer: “Juliana Rotichย is an exceptional individual – technologist, creator, innovator and an optimist who actually turns her visions into reality.”
Juliana Rotichย grew up inย Kenyaย and later moved toย the United Statesย to study Information Technology. She has been working in the American IT industry for ten years now, but always maintained strong ties with her African roots. Very early on, she understood the need of the people inย Africaย not only to use, but also to develop digital technologies. When, in 2008,ย Kenyaexperienced violent confrontations between the rivaling parties following the national elections, Rotich founded the Internet platform Ushahidi, which means ‘witness’ in Swahili, the Bantu language. Ushahidi allows people to report a violent incident or disaster via text message or email and request help and/or medical supplies immediately. If possible, the reports are checked right away and depicted on a map on the website, detailing information on time and place. International relief organizations also use the platform, whose open source technology has meanwhile been applied in countries such asย Haiti,ย Chileย and Palestine.-prnewswire.com
