Africa Insight Communications Breaks Barriers With Nairobi Social Good Summit
The team at Africa Insight Communications ensured the event was streamed live at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 27, 2015.
Innovation, technology and social change remain the heart of the Social Good Summit and the 2015 Social Good Summit (SGS).
The summit boasts of the best in their fields - previous speakers include Paula Kahumbu, whose innovative use of social media has resulted in massive support for the Hands Off Our Elephants campaign; Julius Bett, whose Mkulima Young initiative has helped popularise farming as well as extend information and online marketing to farmers, and Nivi Mukherjee, whose e-Limu initiative has made learning in primary schools more interactive, fun and effective.
This year round, the summit speakers were just as influential.
The ‘Storytelling Through the Web and Creativity’ panel would see veteran columnist Oyunga Pala share the stage with Daniel Muli, who has made waves with a strong African agenda that he pushes with his animated online comic series, Shujaaz.
Abigail Arunga, one of the founders of y wedoit, a Kenyan v-log that provides Kenya’s youth with a voice often missing from traditional media, also made it to the Storytelling panel. The YouTube channel tackles topical, trending issues from a young person’s point of view.
‘21st Century Technology for Africa’ would bring together i-Lab Africa’s Emmanuel Kweyu and Tuzlyn Bayoh of UNDP, whose unique and innovative systems - put into place by UNDP West Africa in order to combat Ebola - are just beginning to be recognised.
Sam Rich of e-Limu Kenya, a company that uses tablets to engage Kenyan primary school students in the learning process, also sat on this panel.
Ecopost’s Lorna Rutto would sit on the Sustainable Living panel. Caleb Karuga, a former journalist who sacrificed his fame on TV to follow his true for poultry farming, also inspired the crowd. Cathy Watson of ICRAF spoke of her quest to sensitize cocoa farmers on the dangers of cultivating on the banks in Cote d’ Ivoire.
Sitawa Wafula through her influential blog, provides a source of reference for people looking for support and information on mental health and was one of the Health panelists. Cindy Ogana also spoke candidly on the role of Faraja Cancer Trust and fighting cancer in Kenya. Also on the panel was Zuby Onwuta- inventor, and creative problem solver. Zuby is the founder & CEO of Think and Zoom, a start-up that aims to provide hands free visual magnification powered by brain waves to 700 million visually impaired people worldwide such as himself.
The last panel was on Renewable Energy in the continent. Dora Wairuiru, Pavel Oimeke and Tom Osborn shed more light on supplies that will fuel economic growth into the 21st Century. South Africa’s massive renewables drive has focused on solar and wind power but there are plenty of other players, many of them bringing innovation not only to new tech power generation but also to existing technologies, some of them as old as fire itself.
