Huawei award prizes to winners of special needs hackathon in Kenya

NAIROBI, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese telecommunication firm Huawei on Tuesday presented a range of prizes, including trophies, certificates and electronic gadgets, to winners of a special needs hackathon launched in Kenya in March.

The winners, comprised of college students from the Huawei ICT academy, were recognized for developing outstanding solutions to improve the lives of people with disabilities.

Senior government officials and Huawei executives attended the award ceremony, held on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the African Development Bank in Nairobi.

Winnie Chepkonga, a public relations specialist at Huawei Kenya, said the Artificial Intelligence (AI) hackathon is important for encouraging students to innovate for the benefit of those with disabilities.

Chepkonga said that the hackathon aimed to find solutions to the challenges faced by people with special needs, leading to the development of ideas, models, and software to assist them and create a positive impact on society.

Partners to the Huawei-convened special needs hackathon included the Kenya Institute of Special Education and the Kenya National Innovation Agency.

Huawei reaffirmed its commitment to creating an enabling ecosystem for leveraging AI to improve cognitive abilities and income generation opportunities among physically impaired citizens.

According to government statistics, people living with disabilities comprise 10 percent of the Kenyan population, equivalent to 4.4 million people, with many facing neglect and marginalization.

Norman Kiogora, director of the Kenya Institute of Special Education, said that through the partnership with Huawei, the institute will be possible to enhance access to technologies that empower people living with disabilities. Kiogora stressed that by harnessing AI, people with special needs can acquire lifelong skills, integrate into the mainstream economy, and become more aware of their surroundings.