We are proud to announce that another of our SE Outreach Accelerator alumni has been awarded a prize for their social enterprise. Elvis Austins, founder of SpellAfrica, was awarded the first annual Global Innovation Award at a ceremony in Berlin. SpellAfrica is a Nigeria based enterprise working with improving English skills in impoverished areas.

Growing up in Benin City, Nigeria, Elvis Austins lacked formal education. By age 20 he was still unable to properly spell his own name. Trying to find a way to educate himself in English he started carrying a dictionary and learning words from it. Slowly his vocabulary started to improve but he wanted to make his learning more effective

Elvis realized that technology could help his learning and he found a simple method of sending SMS texts to himself with words and descriptions of the words. Not having to carry the dictionary anymore, he had better access to learning and this good idea made it easier for him to expand his knowledge of the English language.

After using this method for a while Elvis realized that it was not just him that could benefit from this method of learning, but others in similar situation could also boost their language skills. This was how SpellAfrica was born.

Elvis is an alumnus from our SE Outreach Accelerator 2013. Today, SpellAfrica, has more than 100 volunteers and just released a educational app called FotoBulary. Elvis is still trying to grow his enterprise but he and his organization has already helped countless people and this award is just another validation that he is headed in the right direction.

We at SE Forum are very proud of SpellAfrica and Elvis and we are very much looking forward to having the next SE Outreach Accelerator 2015! If your are a social entrepreneur and are looking to boost your enterprise to the next level, do not hesitate to apply! More info can be found here: https://se-forum.se/se-outreach-accelerator

More about the Global Innovation Award can be found here: https://sciencebusiness.net/news/76726/Spelling-initiative-wins-inaugural-Global-Innovation-Award
And more about SpellAfrica can be found here: https://spellafrica.org/

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