Grameen Foundation Named 2013 Computerworld Honors Laureate for Health Innovation

WASHINGTON, May 6, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Grameen Foundation has been selected as a 2013 IDG Computerworld Honors Program Laureate for its innovations in mobile health (mHealth). The annual award program honors visionary applications of information technology promoting positive social, economic and educational change. Grameen Foundation was nominated for its work using mobile phones to collect and disseminate health information in poor and underserved communities.

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"Technology continues to play a pivotal role in transforming how business and society functions. For the past 25 years the Computerworld Honors Program has had the privilege of celebrating innovative IT achievements," said John Amato, vice president & publisher, Computerworld. "Computerworld is honored to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of the 2013 class of Laureates and to share their work. These projects demonstrate how IT can advance organizations' ability to compete, innovate, communicate and prosper."

"We are honored to be named a Computerworld Honors Laureate," said Alex Counts, president and CEO of Grameen Foundation. "For more than a decade we've been using mobile phones to help the poor start and build businesses and to access information that leads to poverty reduction outcomes. This recognition supports our belief that the information revolution can be put to work for improving the lives of the world's poor, principally by enabling them, and the organizations that serve them, to make better decisions.  Perhaps in no area is this no more true than in promoting improved health."

Since 2001, Grameen Foundation has been at the forefront of efforts to expand access to mobile phones in poor communities. Today, it focuses on providing the poor, mostly women, with access to relevant and actionable information. Its Mobile Technology for Health (MOTECH) initiative is helping to improve maternal and infant care in Ghana by providing valuable information to pregnant women and new mothers and enabling healthcare staff to collect and track patient information more effectively. In addition, other organizations are using the MOTECH Suite platform to provide services to underserved populations in countries such as India, Zambia and Uganda. The MOTECH Suite provides organizations like World Vision a set of field-tested services from established technology leaders to facilitate effective and efficient mHealth projects.

The Computerworld Honors Program awards will be presented at the Gala Evening and Awards Ceremony on June 3, 2013, at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C.

About Grameen Foundation
Grameen Foundation, a global nonprofit organization, helps the world's poorest people – especially women – lift themselves out of poverty by providing appropriate financial services, life-changing information and unique business opportunities. Founded in 1997, Grameen Foundation has offices in Washington, DC; Seattle, WA; Colombia; Ghana; Hong Kong; Indonesia; Kenya; the Philippines; and Uganda. Microfinance pioneer Dr. Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, is a founding member of its Board of Directors, and now serves as director emeritus. For more information, please visit grameenfoundation.org or follow us on Twitter @GrameenFdn.

About The Computerworld Honors Program
Founded by International Data Group (IDG) in 1988, The Computerworld Honors Program is governed by the not-for-profit Computerworld Information Technology Awards Foundation. Computerworld Honors is the longest running global program to honor individuals and organizations that use information technology to promote positive social, economic and educational change. Additional information about the program and a Global Archive of past Laureate case studies, as well as oral histories of Leadership Award recipients can be found at the Computerworld Honors website.

About Computerworld 
Computerworld is the leading source of technology news and information for IT influencers, providing peer perspective, IT leadership and business results. Computerworld's award-winning website (http://www.computerworld.com/), bi-weekly publication, focused conference series, custom solutions and custom research forms the hub of the world's largest (40+ edition) global IT media network and provides opportunities for IT solutions providers to engage this audience. Computerworld leads the industry with an online audience of over 3.5 million unique, monthly visitors (Omniture, August 2012) and was recognized as the Best Website by ASBPE and TABPI in 2012. Computerworld is published by IDG Enterprise, a subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading media, events and research company. Company information is available at http://www.idgenterprise.com/.

Contact:    Liselle Yorke
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SOURCE Grameen Foundation