THOMAS Guwor, an alumnus of the William Booth High School in Monrovia, Liberia, has taken third place in the 10th annual Orange Africa and Middle East Social Venture international grand prix. At a virtual awards ceremony during the Africa Tech festival, Mr Guwor was awarded a prize on behalf of his company Weeglo, for innovation in its e-learning platform. The software has been successfully piloted across Salvation Army schools in Liberia, making it possible to continue providing learning opportunities to thousands of students during the country’s COVID-19 lockdown.
Since 2011, the prizes awarded by international mobile phone network Orange have been made in recognition of innovative projects and start-ups associated with the use of mobile telephony. Each has had an impact on society, by improving the quality of life of people in Africa and the Middle East in the fields of education, healthcare and agriculture, or mobile payment, e-commerce and sustainable development.
Weeglo, which Mr Guwor founded in 2019, aims to provide access to quality education in a way that is cost-effective, reliable, equitable and sustainable. The platform enables schools to control all aspects of a blended learning management and delivery system including classroom activities, grading system, registration, online testing, live video meetings and teaching, and more. It allows students, teachers, administrators, educators and parents to interact as well as to access educational resources such as the national curriculum, course guides, course notes, lesson plans, schedules, e-books and other supplementary digital learning resources. Materials are made available via individuals’ personal mobile and computer devices. More than 7,000 downloads of the Weeglo app have been registered from the Google Play Store alone.
David S. Massaquoi, Director for Education at The Salvation Army in Liberia, said of Mr Guwor’s win: ‘We warmly congratulate Thomas for his well-earned win in this international contest. Thomas’s vision for education in Liberia and Africa created the impactful Weeglo project, an education innovation that provides remote learning solutions specifically tailored for schools in Liberia. The Salvation Army is proud to have piloted this project at no cost.
‘As the alma mater of this brilliant, award-winning software developer, we are extremely proud of his success story and contribution to education. The Salvation Army commends Mr Guwor for giving back to our school system and the Liberian education sector during these times of tremendous need.’
- The Orange awards ceremony can be watched online at https://bit.ly/3msJ57S (registration required).
