This young woman has been fighting malaria with homemade soap.
And it’s working.
Joan Nalubega was inspired to do this by her own personal experience.
Joan Nalubega, Uganics founder
“As I was a child, I used to face malaria a lot as a disease. So I grew up with this inspiration to come up with an intervention to prevent malaria.
Malaria is Uganda’s number 1 infectious killer.
But Joan says most products in the market are targeted for tourists.
So she sells her product at a markup to high-end hotels and subsidises the cost for the locals.
And the long-lasting, mosquito-repellent soap is already making an impact.
Teddy Namirembe, Mpigi resident:
“Before we started using this soap the children suffered malaria. They had several bite-marks on their bodies in the morning from mosquito bites but now there are no mosquito bites, they don’t have marks on their arms, I no longer struggle to buy medication. This soap has helped me yet I don’t know what ingredients were used, however, it’s better than the previous one.”
Joan ingredients aren’t too complicated.
Joan Nalubega, Uganics founders
“We put [in] olive oil then we put coconut oil then we put other oils then at last we put the repellent component – so the citronella, the lavender and all those other oils that we use for blending the repellent component.”
Joan is working with hospitals and communities to track the impact of her soap.
She wants to reduce malaria in Uganda by 20% over the next 5 years.
Comments
Comments are disabled for this post.