Innovation Program - Our Winners

March 24, 2021

After successfully pitching their digital ideas, four teams selected for the Innovation Programme will now be part of a six-month mentorship programme that will run alongside the implementation of their projects.

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The Innovation Program winners, who jointly share a Shs60 million grant will implement a wide range of digital based innovations aimed at advancing human rights in Uganda. Here, we profile the winning teams.

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iRoom

(Awarded Shs18million)

As an initiative of the African Institute for Investigative Journalism (AIIJ), the team at iRoom has developed an online platform where they will share untold stories of human rights violations. While a lot of human rights violations get documented, many remain on shelves of without generating the necessary action needed.

The iRoom platform will be a place where these violations are documented and uploaded. Contributors to the platform will include human rights organisations, journalists and the general public.

According to the team at iRoom, the aim is to be able to curate human rights violation stories needed for evidence to convict the perpetrators and bring accountability to the system.

Watch the iRoom team pitch their idea here.

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Safe Bangles

(Awarded 17million)

As gender based violence cases continue to persist in Uganda, there are challenges on how to report cases in real time. This is the challenge that the Safe Bangle team is addressing with the development of a wearable safety bracelet. Fitted with information, communication and GPS capabilities, the bracelet can help women and girls at risk of gender based violence report threats instantly by pressing on it for a few seconds. With an alert message being sent immediately to the contacts of the person at risk, the team hopes this will help mitigate violence in a timely manner. The team behind the innovation says they hope to sell the bracelets for Shs60,000 for individuals wishing to acquire it, while organisations working in communities and wish to purchase the bracelets in bulk will do so for Shs50,000 per unit.

Through the platform, the Safe Bangle team hopes to see a 5 per cent increase in people reporting cases of gender based violence by 2023. They also hope to ensure that up to 2,500 people at risk are rescued using the Safe Bangle platform by 2024.

Watch the SafeBangles team pitch their idea here.

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Kuchu Care

(Awarded Shs15million)

Kuchu Care is a mobile application that has been developed by the team at Let’s Walk Uganda to provide LGBTQ+ friendly services. Currently, many LGBTQ persons in Uganda are unable to access health services and information because of institutionalised homophobia, stigma and the lack of friendly health care facilities. With the app, members can access information and services, talk to a doctor, counsellor and peers without the fear of being stigmatised. The app also allows members to access services such as condoms.

Watch the Kuchu Care team pitch their idea here.

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Youth Scroll e-Magazine

(Awarded Shs10million)

The team at Girl Power Connect is developing an e-magazine that aims to simplify Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and HIV/Aids information for young people through comics and cartoons.

The platform aims to provide age specific information to in and out of school adolescents in both rural and urban areas, secondary school and university students. All the information that will be provided through the e-magazine, according to the team at Girl Power Connect aims at supporting choice to safe, effective and affordable Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights services. It also aims to be a platform where misconceptions and myths about contraceptives are addressed.

Subsequently, the impact the team hopes to see is reduced cases of teenage pregnancies and HIV/Aids among young people. They also hope the information that the magazine provides will lead to reduced school dropouts.

The magazine will also have printed versions that can be distributed to adolescents and youth in rural communities who do not have access to the internet.

Watch the Youth Scroll e-Magazine team pitch their idea here.