Each receives financial support of up to $50,000 and mentorship to build and launch a WhatsApp messaging service to further their organizational objectives.
A panel of five independent judges has selected the 10 organizations that will join the Chat for Impact Summit’s Accelerator, enabling each one to build and launch a WhatsApp messaging service that significantly enhances their work helping to advance social justice and equality.
Nmachi Jidenma, Gulalai Ismail, Matthaus Krzykowski, Rodrigo de Reyes and Bosun Tijani had the difficult task of choosing 10 winning organizations from the 30 organisations who developed, refined and presented their WhatApp use cases during the Summit.
In partnership with Praekelt.org, a tech non-profit, and hosted by the social change platform, Turn.io, and supported by global development community media platform, Devex, the Chat for Impact Summit took place in May this year in the Americas and APAC/EMEA regions. Through a programme of powerful keynote speakers, insightful and inspiring panels and training, the 30 organizations were able to advance their goals of addressing societal issues using WhatsApp as a private and secure communication tool.
Reaching across the globe and working in health, education, human rights, and civic engagement, the 10 winners are Digify Africa, Ladysmith, Mobile Pathways, Reach52, SameSame, Strongminds, Talk2U, Voices of Venezuela, Vote.org, Worldreader.
The organizations now participate in a four-month Accelerator that will provide dedicated mentorship and support to help build their WhatsApp messaging service. The accelerator includes up to $50,000 to help develop and launch the service, the opportunity for mentorship directly from WhatsApp and social innovation experts as well as the opportunity to learn from the other Accelerator organizations and showcase their work at a demo day.
Principal at Black Futures Lab, author of The Purpose of Power and co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter, Alicia Garza, was the keynote speaker for the Summit’s America’s programme while human rights activist and co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, Nadia Murad, was the keynote speaker during the Summit’s EMEA/APAC programme.
Ben Supple, Head of Civic Engagement at WhatsApp comments; “WhatsApp is proud to support these 10 organizations and accelerate the incredible work they are already doing every day on social justice issues.”
Judging Panel
