African Network Wins $1-Million Gates Access to Learning Award

A jubilant James Nguo accepts the Access to Learning Award.

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“It’s indeed hard to describe my pleasure in standing before you today,” said James Nguo, “to receive the 2011 Access to Learning Award on behalf of the Arid Lands Information Network [ALIN] and the people of East Africa.” Nguo was in San Juan, Puerto Rico, August 16 to accept the $1-million prize, which is bestowed annually by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to a library or similar organization outside the United States in recognition of its efforts “to connect people to information through free access to computers and the internet.”

ALIN has created 12 Maarifa—or Knowledge—Centers in the most hard-to-reach regions of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania so that people there have the tools they need to improve their health, increase their incomes, and better their lives.

During a brief interview following the presentation, Nguo said ALIN has been helping communities for a decade to create and exchange knowledge to improve their daily lives. “We are going to use the money to expand our reach so we have many more people benefiting from free access to information, ICT training so they can compete on the level where most of the privileged class is.” Asked how he felt when he was told that ALIN had won the award, Nguo said, “Oh my, I was lost, I mean, a million dollars is by no means small money; I was very excited, but at least because I knew the magnitude of my dream, I had to fit a million dollars into that dream.”

Presenting the award on behalf of the foundation was Deborah Jacobs, director of the Global Libraries initiative, during the annual conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. For more photos and information about ALIN, visit the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation website.

Watch video of Nguo accepting the award and being interviewed about it.