Malaria is one of today’s major global health challenges and has been associated with slow socioeconomic development and poverty. Uganda has some of the highest reported malaria transmission rates in the world, with approximately 16 million cases reported in 2013 and over 100 000 deaths annually.

Our Solution:

By selling our product with a high margin to resorts, lodges and high end hotels for tourists looking for a natural way of preventing mosquitoes and malaria during their trip, we are able to cross finance and subsidize our sales to rural mothers at the same price as ordinary soap. The impact is leveraging an every day consumer product to fight malaria. Tourists enjoy a locally made and organic repellent soap in their bathrooms while rural mothers are able to protect themselves and their children against one of the biggest killers in Uganda.

Soap is an everyday product even extremely poor families in Africa use almost daily. What if we could sell a soap in rural Uganda which is able to prevent mosquito bites at the same price as ordinary soap? We produce an affordable and long-lasting organic mosquito repellent soap that helps mothers with children below the age of five in rural communities to prevent mosquito bite.

Uganics is the winner of the 2019 Africa Innovation Challenge.

Hear the whole story of the creation of Uganics from the founder Joan Nalubega in this Podcast.

Buy the Soap:
In the USA
In Europe (coming soon)

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The Social Problem
In Uganda 78% of the primary school children and 82% of the secondary school students report having experienced sexual abuse at school (UNICEF 2013). According to the Annual Crime Report (2013) of the Uganda Police Force, close to 10,000 cases of defilement were reported in 2013, making it the second leading crime committed in Uganda. Astoundingly, only four percent of perpetrators have been convicted. The number of unreported cases are unknown but are estimated to be as high as even 50,000 per year. Tens of thousands of girls suffer in silence, while the perpetrators are not prosecuted. Like in my own case, it often happens within family settings and this is what makes it so difficult and often impossible for the victims to talk about. They do not want to be responsible for breaking the family apart or they fear the consequences of e.g. not receiving school fees or basic needs. The fear that no one will believe often leaves the victim to blame herself, even hate herself sometimes for the rest of their live or committing suicide. Without being able to speak about the events, girls end up being affected for life about the way they perceive themselves, relationships with men and lack of self-belief. Janet Aguti was one of the girls sexually abused as a child. For 17 years she did not find the courage to tell anyone. She started to see her past as strength rather than a subject of shame and Today, Janet Aguti is the founder and driving force of Totya Platform.

The Solution
Totya Platform provides support to victims of sexual violence through Peer Groups, Life-Coaching- in person and online, as well as medical and legal support of severe cases. Anonymous interactions with survivors of sexual violence, who overcame sexual abuse themselves, enable users to speak about their experiences while receiving emotional care and self-help tools. Our service is free and available to those who were victims of sexual violence – no matter what type or by whom – in their childhood or as youths. Totya supports all questions and problems that have resulted from the sexual violence and its effects as an adult. Coaching sessions are absolutely confidential.

If you would wish to talk to Totya Platform, send a message (also WhatsApp) to (+256) (0)759 296 003 (internationally) or call the Free End Sexual Abuse Hotline: 080 0220630 (Uganda only)

People who have successfully transformed the experiences are encouraged to find strength in speaking up, joining our campaigns online campaigns to break the taboo on speaking about sexual abuse. For continuous self-organized support among each other, self-help groups are initiated for the women, meeting regularly and in person.

Find an academic impact assessment of Totya Platform here.

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In a country where keeping drinking water clean or even getting clean water in the first place is difficult, there are few communities that don’t face preventable illnesses like typhoid that come from these sources of water. Even pipes are not always safe. Traditionally, people then try and boil their water, which consumes a lot of charcoal and time. Then, the water is stored in pots and jerrycans, and if it wasn’t contaminated during transport, bacteria will now easily enter.

This is a lot of effort for a small outcome. Tusafishe has inquired from the communities that there is a need for a better solution, and our solution is a simple one: water purification systems. Using the same principle as natural springs in the ground, it filters particles, bacteria, and even chemicals out of the water and makes it safe to drink.

Tusafishe is a Bayer Social Innovation Award winner 2022.

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Elizabeth Nalugemwa grew up on a coffee plantation in central Uganda in a place called Masaka. Her mother was a smallholder coffee farmer. Her efforts to generate an income for our family were deemed a threat by my father and that led to domestic violence and their eventual separation. Elizabeth witnessed her mother end up losing all she had. As a result of her struggles. 

While women smallholder farmers play a crucial role in growing and preparing ingredients for many global products, their contribution is often unrecognized, unpaid and invisible. In many cases, women provide the majority of agricultural labor, yet transporting crops to market and sales are largely done by men. This creates barriers for women in terms of both income and leadership.

In SINA in 2017 Kyaffee Farmers Coffee was born and was able to acquire its own coffee farm in 2019. In the communities where Kyaffe Farmers Coffee operates, women and children lack vital educational, economical and health-related support services that often lead them into risky situations for survival such as early marriage, pregnancy and sex work. The consequences of such actions include gender-based violence, dropping out of school, drug abuse, sexually-transmitted infections/HIV and a perpetuated cycle of poverty and oppression.

In response to these issues, Kyaffee developed programs with the overall aim to tackle pervasive gender inequality and to see societal transformation by creating sustainable livelihoods for these women. Coffee is one of the world’s most traded commodities with Uganda being a top producer.

Kyaffe currently purchases coffee at fair trade prices from 50 cooperatives consisting of 1.500 farmers. The team is also working with farmers to process an alternative to charcoal, a briquette made from waste coffee grounds that they themselves can make and sell and use in their own homes instead of contributing to deforestation.

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