Nigeria’s Omomi Named World Summit Youth Awards Finalist

You remember Omomi, an Android app set to enable Nigerian mothers keep their babies healthy by giving them SMS alerts to monitor their children’s growth and nutritional status, remember immunization visits and access health information has been named by a global jury among 85 youth digital projects from around the world addressing the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Now in its 7th edition, the World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) were established in 2005 to honor excellence on the use of Internet for social empowerment. It seeks to motivate young people under the age of thirty to actively contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals which are allievation of poverty, hunger and disease, inequalities, lack of education and environmental degradation.

This year, there were 1896 projects from 138 UN countries competing and just 85 were named as finalists. The Jury of international experts will select the 18 winners and 12 runners-up of the WSYA 2014.

The projects are being evaluated for their contribution to the achievements of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and their capability to harness the power of technology for social improvement. The products were separated in 6 categories: Fight Poverty, Hunger and Disease, Education for All, Power 2 Women, Create your Culture, Go Green and Pursue Truth.

Hosted by the Humanitare Foundation, the winners’ ceremony will be held November 28^th to December 1^th, 2014 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This event will feature world-class keynote speeches, hands-on workshop and engaging panel discussions about social entrepreneurship and the content industry. Who will join the winners’ event will be announced at the end of August 2014.

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Omomo is confident it will win because it helps mothers handle common childhood ailments like diarrhoea, malaria and it gives useful tips on breastfeeding and family planning. Furthermore the app has a Mothers Community section that will provide a safe and secure platform for mothers to interact. The founders believe it is the very first app worldwide that focuses on fulfiling all of the WHO Childhood Survival Strategies – which were developed to help reduce child mortality and promote maternal health.