Nelly Cheboi is the founder of Tech-Lit Africa which collects donated computers from American schools, and ships them to rural schools in Kenya.
The announcement was made during a live program honoring ten nominees for this year's CNN Hero of the Year.
She will receive 100,000 dollars to support her work, plus additional grants totaling 500,000 dollars.
In an interview during the nationwide voting for Hero of the Year, Cheboi said students in Kenya use the donated computers to learn coding and how to build websites.
"So I started TechLit Africa because I saw the potential you could get with technology so I was thinking about teaching people in rural Kenya, teaching them digital skills, enough for them to work remotely all over the world."
And she said if she won, she'd spend the money on living wages for the staff of TechLit Africa who currently volunteer.
She is the second Hero of the Year with ties to the Quad Cities. Chad Pregracke won in 2013 - he is the founder of the environmental group Living Lands and Waters.
