Brightest Young Minds (BYM) is an international leadership development organization with headquarters in South Africa. Based on the initiative of the organization, the innovative and responsible young people in Africa are annually selected and connected through the BYM Summit. This year’s BYM 2017 was hosted from 24th to 30th September 2017 at Park Inn Hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg. The awardees of age 25 to 35 years were selected from across 17 countries including; Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa which were most represented among others.
‘Excitingly! I was named as one of the 100 brightest young minds in Africa changing the world based on my work with InnovAsepsis specifically Pedal Tap-‘non touch water dispensing systemseeking to prevent disease transmission, and reduce water use’ and EpiTent-‘a tent which breathes’ innovations’ shared Grace Nakibaala, RAN Innovator and InnovAsepsis and Epitent Limited. BYM2017 summit was a powerful event with my main take away being; Us innovators and next generation leaders, -we must appreciate the existing structures to be able to make them better. As we create new products, we must make sure we understand the existing solutions. We were trained and empowered to take on the position of leadership in the fields suitable to each one of us, Grace added
We were also given the opportunity to share ideas from various fields of operation. We had several challenges designed to make us better future leaders working within the communities. To make the summit more interesting, guest speakers and facilitators joined the awardees to share practical examples and share life experiences real time. Such exercises helped participants come up with more brilliant ideas to address diverse problems in various sectors.
I am more than excited having been part of the awardees. I am grateful to have been selected and invited into this very competitive knowledge generation and sharing space. Thank you BYM for the opportunity. I feel like my direction of thought for social innovation is boasted I feel more challenged and exposed to a variety of new and never-heard-of-before resources to launch me into the next level as an impactful young leader on the continent. I am also additionally fueled to relentlessly go all the way to see my work impact millions of people in the communities.
Solutions through Innovation at RAN, exposure and capacity building for innovators is as important as the Innovation itself.
By; Grace Nakibaala, Innovator, CEO InnovAsepsis and EpiTent Limited
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