Global-NAMRIP support helps Ugandan entrepreneur protect schools, clinics and refugee camps from typhoid and cholera

A BBC South news feature told the story of how Global-NAMRIP support had helped Timothy Kayondo, a Ugandan entrepreneur, protect schools, clinics and refugee camps from typhoid and cholera through a start-up company to produce his solar-powered water purification equipment.

The 18:30 broadcast for BBC South on 14 April 2022 centred on the story of how Timothy Kayondo had met Professor Leighton at the Global-NAMRIP conference in Kampala in 2019, and the subsequent mentoring and sponsoring for the 2020 Africa Prize (and subsequent Africa Prize 2021 Alumni Grant) to Timothy and his water purification start-up company ‘Aqua Methods Uganda’. The BBC reported how this journey supported Timothy, such that (to quote the BBC report) “ his invention in now used at Health centres, schools and refugee camps across Uganda, protecting people against diseases like Typhoid .”

The BBC asked Timothy “ How important was it for you to get the support from Professor Leighton to be able to get this product off the ground? ”

Timothy credited the help he had received “ I think he opened our world, I can say that. He modified our proposal and connected us to many many funders. Up to now he’s been supporting us, in every case when I need any support, I just send him an email and in the blink of an eye he replies, I don’t know if he sleeps. ”

Professor Leighton responded: “ I don’t deserve this kind of credit. The credit goes to the young people who came up with this (and their mentors at Makerere University as well, who helped them). They are the heroes of this story, not me .”