Saving lives with old bones and veggie peelings

When he was a boy, Timothy Kayondo lived in a village called Mbarara. It’s in the east African country of Uganda. The land is very green and people keep a lot of cows. 

Like other children, Timothy had to help his family by going to the local well to fetch water. Like many African villages, their house didn’t have water coming out of taps. And lots of people got sick because the water from the well wasn’t very clean. It often had bugs in it. 

When he was daydreaming, Timothy dreamed of becoming a doctor. When he grew up, he would save lives, he thought!  

Old idea, new solution 

Timothy didn’t study medicine, however. He went to university to become an engineer. There, he started to think about how he could help people in his village to get clean water. 

He remembered something that old people like his granny used to do with charcoal – the kind of burnt wood we use on barbecues. They would take muddy water from the well, pour it through the charcoal and when it came out, the water was clear. No mud. 

Now, Timothy knew that just because you couldn’t see the mud, the dangerous bugs were still there. But he thought, what if he could make a charcoal that would take out the bugs, too? 

From old rubbish to lives saved 

You need something to burn to make charcoal. Instead of wood, Timothy saw two things that were cheap and plentiful – because people just threw them away. Cow bones and peelings from a vegetable called cassava that local people ate most days. 

He baked bones and peel into charcoal. And when he poured water through it, bingo! No bugs.  

Timothy has now installed dozens of his local charcoal filters in Uganda, especially in schools and hospitals. People are healthier and happy to have clean water. 

And Timothy is happy, too. I didn’t become a doctor like I dreamed when I was a boy. But working as an engineer, he says, I’ve maybe saved more lives than a doctor!