Sima Parekh - Community Award Winner

Congratulations to Sima Parekh on her Community Award

Our US colleague Sima Parekh feared the worst for charity 48in48 when Covid-19 struck, but it defied the odds, leading to a surprise community award. 

“Like everything else in the past year, winning the Techbridge Ann Cramer Volunteer Award for my work with 48in48 came out of the blue. I began volunteering in 2015 for the charity, which builds 48 websites in 48 hours for non-profit organisations for free, by staging weekend hackathons. It’s hugely satisfying – a great website helps a charity attract funding.

We’ve built 950 websites across the US and around the world, but Covid-19 hit sponsorship and stopped our in-person hackathons. I didn’t think 48in48 could survive, but we changed our operating model, hosting our first virtual global event in October. It was our biggest ever, building 63 websites.

IHG are proud to support people like me through our Giving for Good month or giving all corporate colleagues two days’ paid leave each year for volunteering. Now some of my IHG teammates will join me at 48in48’s Women’s Build event in April, which features our first female-only expert teams. What keeps me coming back is finding organisations that speak to your heart. It’s why I’m so passionate about 48in48.”