Spouts of Hope
At 19, Kathy Ku had a simple idea that would change thousands of lives, not to mention her own. She found a way to bring clean water to people in Uganda, where she lived as a student. See Kampala through her eyes, and why she was determined to blow past rejection and make a difference for the people there. Guaranteed to both inspire you and give you the chills, this video from National Geographic's new digital community for ideas, Chasing Genius, will make you think about your own creative power.
Transformational ideas can come from anywhere. From anyone. National Geographic’s Chasing Genius is looking for more ideas like the one profiled here—could it be yours? Check out the challenge, where the best ideas for improving our world each can win $25,000.
While teaching in Uganda in 2010, American college student Kathy Ku noticed that both she and her host family were getting sick a lot from drinking the water. She kept thinking about the problem even after she was back in school at Harvard University, designing a ceramic water filter and getting other students involved. In the middle of her junior year, she took a year off to pursue the idea in earnest.
Ku wasn’t aiming just to bring water filters into Uganda. She wanted to actually make them there, sourcing the needed clay and sawdust locally. Now, five years after that exploratory visit during her year off, Ku and co-founder John Kye have a full-fledged water filter factory near Kampala. Their
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