How Everything Started!
In 2021, I completed a well project that provided safe and clean water to 600 local households in my home village. Initially, I thought moving long distances to access clean and safe water was normal. Until I joined Xian Liagjiatan International School in 2020, I met Daun Yorke, my mentor, who helped me know my purpose in my community. Everything started after a meeting with Daun about what I am to do for my personal project. She tasked me to look for challenges in my community, and building a well was possible. With full support from the Xian Liangjiatan International School community, I built a well for my community as a Grade 10 project. This project opened my eyes, and I learned that having access to clean and safe water is a human right.
Kick-starting Clawest
In 2022, I couldn’t finish Grade 12 in XLIS due to the COVID-19 lockdown. The next step was going to the School of Humanity, an online school where I learned how artificial intelligence is changing the world. My curiosity was piqued about how I can use artificial intelligence to help people access safe and clean water. Initially, I thought a mobile app could help purify water by pointing it at the water in the glass or cup. Since I had to do a project (Nkoba's Water Purity Detector), I trained a Google Teachable Machine for this. After a German conference in 2023, talking to different people, I understood that it couldn’t happen in real life due to the phone camera and system. My next brainstorming was adding a water bottle to aid in assessing the water put in the bottle, sending the information to the mobile app, such that the user gets the right to know what’s in the water, and decide to take in, purify, or remove some components before drinking. I never prototyped this as I spent all the time looking for people or organisations I could join to know the feasibility of my idea. Lots of questions popped into my head whenever I researched and noticed that I need a lot of money as capital to have a prototype.
Foundation Building
In 2024, I joined the BeVisioneers Fellowship, which helped me build my idea. Since I am focused on people having a right to access clean and safe water everywhere, I realized that people have a barrier of always charging their water bottles to asses and purify their drinking water. In that case, I decided to eliminate the assessment of water and focus on purifying the drinking water. I am now looking for universities to work with to have a water bottle that uses no power to purify drinking water.
