welcome to news africa it's good to have you along this is julianna wrote it for those of you haven't heard officially is a kenyan i t entrepreneur and the woman behind that is an online platform used in more than 160 countries new zealand chile and afghanistan to name a few now we'll tell you more about what he does in the movement because on wednesday germany's chancellor i'm going to metal awarded juliana rochus the $29000.00 german africa prize now the prize on is africans who have made their mark on human rights and sustainable development. wrote it was recognized not only for her technological innovations and business achievements but also for her outstanding sense of social responsibility. the removed region in the north of kenya sparsely populated the landscape arid many who live here count themselves lucky if they have access to the internet and electricity the

last thing you would expect here is a tech house where you can lend to cooed and fund your own startup. and it wasn't for julian i wrote each such a how it might not exist the i.t. consultant has made it her mission to support young people who would otherwise not have enough opportunities yeah. it's not only. the most remote 2nd i think it's the most inspiring place that reminds you that technology still has the capacity to inspire to create solutions to to create a sustainable living. for anyone anywhere. you know supports together with the engine and in lyons between young adults in programming web design and media skills. to create

a work force of youth who can do felines work right from where they live. just because people may be living outside of what is considered the core of either culture or culture in general or media or business doesn't mean they don't have value to bring. so we need to shine a light on learning and other initiatives that are considered on the edge of what is currently the core. over half of the students into qana women some have used the newly acquired skills to start own businesses one of the most successful projects. an online shop run by a marine. the 27 year old found is already selling her traditional jewry internationally. when she comes here to speak and we

get to listen we get to see what she's doing enough. and they're going to the somebody like me can do with even me. what's best for my community. and justin is you know we're going to. remember. when asked to describe herself juliana is far more modest so i got herself a somebody who helps enable change. i'm part collaborator i guess problems. a bit of an urge. julian has pushed to change kenya's take seems started 12 years ago kenya's capital nairobi at that time kenya's a position to go to the streets to protest the disputed election the entire country was in crisis. together with other developers giuliano from that

a crowd source and platform shahidi which is kiswahili for testimony it's allowed ordinary people to report incidents of violence in the areas they deal was to create a platform where people could quickly say this is where i am this is what i see this is what's going on and this is because there were lots of incidences that were under reported so we wanted to create a repository where we would put all of this information so that there would be a wreck org of what happened to the country today show he is an internationally recognized platform it has been used to report hate crimes during the us elections documents the war in syria and help disaster relief after the earthquake in the poll. body and giuliana has evolved from a young tech nerd into a global room an advocate for freedom of information. and she's here in

person julia the german africa prize 29000 welcome to the africa it's exciting to have you here and i'm just thinking back to when you created the platform in 2007 right that was about addressing a challenge in your country it was person actually violence did you ever think that it would take on the way that it did we're talking about a platform that's used in all of the 100 countries today. thank you for having me 1st of all it's great to be here i never would have thought that the collaborative work that myself and the co-founders of. plus the community of volunteers and bloggers in their early days of. can and blogging seen could've put together something that would have scaled as much as it did so i never could have imagined that it was it would be available in languages like

russian nor german you know or you know all being used by the barack obama campaign i rage as i say saying i think the credit for that goes to barack obama's team hopper read the c.t.o. of barack obama for america and the incredible thing about that and the really encouraging thing about that is they paired use of the platform with lawyers who could respond to reports of voter suppression or any of the issues around the election there i mean so i want to talk about something that's perhaps more recent than that and that would be the fact that you have found it and i have to read this yes i could write the biggest public why 5 provider in sub-saharan africa just explain that because there are so in 2012. the company called brick was co-founded with my colleagues eric and david colby and

a few other people who were part of that he did not work and the biggest challenge was having stable internet connectivity with time and specifically early this year . there was new though brick acquired surf internet so there are fixed wireless hotspots and also mobile wireless hotspots right right. now the cost of connectivity is still high and what the network by brick allows is for storage of some content so that you can still access useful content. on the brick and save up on using your internet connectivity charges so it's actually quite exciting although i'm not longer actively part of the company but i continue to remain. a supporter there of and i can see how that's

taken off because i mean as you mentioned data across all the content are exceptionally high i can think of so after for example you know this week on the program we had a nigerian woman and she was talking about her if it's in training women up for the tech sector the industry that you work in a she talked about how difficult it isn't really how hostile the industry is on the continent i guess in the world as well to women i just wonder what your experience has been and are you seeing things improving are there more women like you leading the charge seriously. 2 things 1st is support for women in technology is also support for women in science and support for women in all walks of life really and i think it also starts at home i was fortunate that my family was encouraging of my interest in science i was not told that or you're you know you shouldn't be interested in that so i would encourage. everyone to

really how are you encouraging young girl orian boy who's interested in science and mathematics it's it shouldn't be that it's an uncool thing it should be quite encouraged if that's a passion right so that's number one and it is a social construct in schools in in all the places where people.