Jovia Kisaakye is improving health and the environment in Uganda by turning waste into valuable products and using AI to help women access better healthcare.
Maternal health and environmental sustainability are two urgent challenges threatening the lives of Ugandans. Despite recent progress, the country still struggles with high maternal mortality rates. For every 100,000 live births, 189 mothers die due to complications that could be prevented with better healthcare access.
At the same time, food waste and methane emissions are fueling climate change. The dairy industry releases massive amounts of methane – a greenhouse gas responsible for nearly 40% of global warming. Spoiled milk, often discarded by farmers, contributes to this issue, thus increasing economic loss.
Jovia Kisaakye is helping Uganda tackle these problems through the ECOBED Biotech Initiative and Bulamu Bridge AI.
Kisaakye innovates the health and agriculture with ECOBED
In 2022, she co-founded ECOBED Biotech Initiative, a Uganda-based startup that transforms waste into valuable products to reduce environmental harm and improve public health.
To start with, they fight malaria with Mosquito-Repellent Skincare products.
Malaria is a significant threat in Uganda, causing thousands of deaths each year. Instead of relying on chemical repellents, ECOBED developed an eco-friendly mosquito-repellent lotion made from spoiled milk. This reduces waste and provides a natural defence against malaria.
ECOBED doesn’t stop at skincare. The company also converts food waste into organic fertilisers and high-protein animal feeds using black soldier fly larvae. This promotes sustainable agriculture as farmers get affordable, organic fertilisers and high-protein feeds to improve fish and poultry farming. This has also reduced food waste, resulting in less methane emissions and pollution.
ECOBED also empowers smallholder farmers and women by buying spoiled milk from them at fair prices. This means that farmers earn extra income from what would have been wasted, and in the long run, a circular economy is built.
In 5 years, ECOBED has impacted over 2500+ farmers and won more than five international awards.
Kisaakye’s Bulamu Bridge AI transforms maternal healthcare
While ECOBED fights environmental and health challenges, Bulamu Bridge AI, co-founded by Jovia Kisaakye and Teddy Nalwanji in January 2021, is transforming maternal and reproductive healthcare. The company uses AI-powered digital healthcare to connect women to vital healthcare services.
Through My FemiHub and an AI-powered WhatsApp chatbot named “Lydia”, women can consult with healthcare professionals virtually, track their pregnancies and menstrual cycles, access sexual and reproductive health education and get prescriptions translated into Luganda and Swahili.
In addition, Bulamu Bridge AI distributes thousands of maternal hygiene kits to ensure mothers have the resources they need for safe deliveries. The technology has already reached over 20,000 teenage girls and 2,700 women with healthcare support. It reduces early child pregnancies through education, providing youth-friendly services, and reducing stigma in reproductive health.
Jovia Kisaakye, co-founder of Bulamu Bridge AI and CEO of ECOBED Biotech, aligns her work with SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-being, SDG 5 – Gender Equality, and SDG 13 – Climate Action.
