Ashoka Changemakers Announce “She Will Innovate” Winners And 2012 Fellows

Today Ashoka Changemakers, supported by Intel Corporation, announced the three winners of the She Will Innovate: Technology Solutions Enriching the Lives Girls competition, a global challenge designed to bridge the gender and technology divide and find communication technology solutions that improve the lives of girls and women. Also announced were four Ashoka Fellows, also supported by Intel, who work in the nexus of technology as a tool to empower women and girls.

The three winners below were selected by Ashoka Changemakers’ online community, and each received a cash prize of US $10,000 from Intel to invest in scaling their idea.

• Hesperian Health Guides, a nonprofit health information and health education source, created a mobile app, Safe Pregnancy and Birth, which provides pregnant women and health workers with lifesaving health information that is medically accurate, easy to understand and empowering.
• To support hiring in the developing world, DUMA created an SMS-based job matching service that connects short-term laborers and potential customers in emerging markets. With the click of a button on a basic cell phone, DUMA’s unique software pairs employers with local job seekers to whom they are socially connected.
• Aware that 796 million adults lack basic literacy skills, and two-thirds of whom are women, Cell-ED created a mobile phone platform, using audio and SMS, to bring basic literacy to learners anytime, anywhere and in any language.

Ashoka launched the She Will Innovate: Technology Solutions Enriching the Lives Girls online competition in June 2012 in an effort to find the world’s most innovative solutions that equip girls and women with new digital technologies, enabling them to live healthier, smarter and more meaningful lives. The competition was open to solutions from around the world and nearly 300 entries from 56 countries were submitted. Successful entries described a systemic or disruptive solution with realistic and clearly outlined long-term goals and proposals for securing financial backing. The proposals also demonstrated the possibility of large-scale, global replication.

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