Today, Uganda joins the rest of the world to celebrate the International Women’s Day. The local theme for this year’s celebrations is Empowering Women Through Innovative Approaches to Social Protection; a Pre-requisite for Inclusive and Sustainable Development. Owen Wagabaza brings you profiles of some Ugandan women whose innovations are changing the world for the better
Natalie Bitature, Musana Carts
Bitature is the proprietor and co-founder of the award-winning Musana Carts, the solar streetvending revolution, which provides urban street vendors with a cleaner, safer and more efficient solution to their cooking, storage and financing needs. She is motivated by the need to create an opportunity for people who have been stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty. “We want to raise the income of the urban poor and drive them to create a business solution that is a change-making tool. We also want to work for a cleaner, brighter and more innovative Uganda,” Bitature explains. Bitature says the current model of food-vending is unsafe, environmentally hazardous and unsustainable to both the vendors and the public or environment for whom they prepare the food. “We want to reduce the negative environmental and health impact of the streetvending activities,” she says. In 2016, Bitature was named among the top 30 Forbes List Africa, and in the same year, she was shortlisted in the top 10 innovators in Africa by the World Economic Forum.
https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1495630/celebrating-women-innovators