Success for Global-NAMRIP member Timothy Kayondo
We are pleased to share the good news that Timothy Kayondo, Global-NAMRIP member and founder of Aqua Methods Uganda, has received $10k of funding to continue implementation of his ‘Digitalized Eco Mobile Water Purifier’ device within Africa. This is the second grant Timothy had received from Makerere University School of Public Health ResilientAfrica Network (RAN) and the United States agency for International Development (USAID), the first being in 2016. The Eco Water Purifier is a digital system that turns waste products such as bones and coconut shells into an activated carbon water filter providing clean, safe and pure drinking water (free from chemicals and other contaminants) for those in remote areas of Uganda where access to clean water is severely limited.
The device is currently running in pilot mode in the KyakaII refugee camp in South Western Uganda, which hosts around 120,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi. The pilot is targeting 8000 refugees mainly focussed within primary schools and health centres.
As a shortlisted candidate of the Africa prize for Engineering, Timothy is also benefitting from an eight-month package of support to help him accelerate his innovation. Part of this was an opportunity to pitch his project to investors at the ‘Africa Prize Live’ event at the Royal Academy of Engineering on Thursday 23 January 2019. As Timothy is currently monitoring the pilot installation of his water purifier device in, his colleague Magdalene Akos Odikro from Aqua Methods, Uganda, presented the project on behalf of the team.
This activity began when Professor Leighton visited Uganda in March 2019 as part of the 2nd Global-NAMRIP conference, in Kampala. Professor Leighton met with Timothy Kayondo of Aqua Methods Uganda, and began Global-NAMRIP’s mentorship and sponsorship of the team for the Africa Prize. Having proceeded to the final round, Timothy attended training in South Africa, prior to the current London event. In London, Professor Leighton showed Magdalene around the Royal Society (the picture shows them with the Royal Society’s mace, which represents the Queen when she is not in attendance), then onto the Royal Academy of Engineering, where Magdalene gave a much-appreciated talk on the water purification system they are developing.