Every year, the University of Washington selects four outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of engineering and presents each with a Diamond Award. This year, Nafundi's CEO Yaw Anokwa was selected for the Diamond Award for Distinguished Service. The committee chose Yaw out of the tens of thousands of alumni because of his use of technology in helping the underserved.
The video below that played at the awards ceremony describes why Yaw is an ideal honoree. It has great insights from well-known ICTD researchers Nicola Dell and Kentaro Toyama on how Yaw and the rest of the ODK team's community-focused management of the project enabled its success.
The video also has examples of Yaw's commitment to the underserved, including his work with WHO documenting polio coverage in South Sudan, with WWF protecting gorilla habitat in DR Congo, and with AMPATH counseling and testing over a million people for HIV in Kenya.
Yaw and I have been working together since the start of ODK and what I say at the end of video is as true today as it was then. As long as there are people collecting data who need help, we will be there to help. Contact our team to get started.
In early 2018, polio virus was detected in the sewers of Mogadishu, Somalia and the government moved quickly to vaccinate the country's children in order to prevent a potential outbreak. A vaccination campaign targeting more than 726,000 children was launched in the Banadir and Lower and Middle Shabelle regions. The campaign was carried out by some 3,500 staffers and Nafundi assisted by enabling real-time tracking of vaccination coverage using ODK. Read more.
Fayaz Jatoi is the Coordinator of the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) for Polio Eradication in Sindh, Pakistan. In this guest post, Fayaz describes why AFP surveillance is critical to polio eradication and how an SMS-based reporting system for private care provider helps. Read more.
This position has been filled. Thanks to everyone who applied! Read more.