FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 20, 2023

Media Contact:

Kourtney Janeau

[email protected]

(United States) - Elizabeth Nyamwange is a 17 -year-old inventor, developer, researcher, and gender- activist renowned for her work in addressing global social issues. A native of Byron, Illinois, Elizabeth has dedicated herself to providing solutions to the worldwide digital identification gap currently affecting over 850 million people globally, most of which are women disproportionately affected in low-infrastructure environments. Inspired by conversations with the women in her family in Kenya, she recognized identification as a restrictive issue and created the code and device called Etana.

Etana is a solar-powered device that uses blockchain technology that enables women to create unique biometric digital identification without relying on access to the internet or electricity, which is not commonly accessible in low-infrastructure countries such as Kenya. With Etana, the goal is to allow to women participate in most essential processes such as banking, getting jobs, receiving healthcare, judicial protection, and more that were previously restricted due to the digital identification gap that many women globally face.

However, Elizabeth's impact doesn't stop there. By blending her passions for gender advocacy and computer science, Elizabeth has served as a youth advisor to the United Nations on issues of Gender and Education, addresses science that excludes women's perspectives and contributions, and contributes to research focused on serving the most vulnerable communities. Through her work, Elizabeth is trailblazing a path that she hopes will inspire increases in women in STEM and increase the less than 10% of Black women in STEM." By providing girls around the world with knowledge on how to innovate and reason critically, we are raising a generation of leaders who are bound to change the world," states Elizabeth.



Most recently, Elizabeth has been awarded the HP Girls Save the World Award, the 2022 Global Teen Leader Award, and the MIT Youth Solv(ed) Award among many others. Over the years, Elizabeth and her work have been featured in numerous publications and media outlets, including Seventeen Magazine, Yahoo Finance, Science Fridays, and more!

For media inquiries and interviews with Elizabeth, please contact Kourtney Janeau at [email protected].

About Elizabeth Nyamwange

Elizabeth Nyamwange, the inventor of Etana, is a successful developer, researcher, and gender- activist at the age of 17 years old. Elizabeth possesses a passion for gender advocacy and computer sciences and uses those passions to solve global social issues. Her creation of Etana uses digital blockchain technology to provide women in low-infrastructure environments with identification. Learn more about Elizabeth here.