CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Harvard University student Kathy Ku has started a nonprofit business called SPOUTS of Water that produces cheap, simple and effective water filters called SPOUTS — sustainable point-of-use treatment and storage — for Ugandans, according to an article by Boston Business Journal.
Ku first got the idea when she was working at a health clinic in Uganda at 19 years old and realized that local residents suffered from many diseases caused by dirty water, the article reported.
"Civil war had ended there but clean water and water filters weren’t at the top of the list of priorities," said Ku, now a senior at Harvard focusing on engineering sciences and molecular and cellular biology.
According to the article, Ku received a $15,000 grant from the Harvard President’s Challenge and a donated plot of land, took the semester off in 2011 and built a ceramic water filter factory in Kumi, Uganda where she started producing SPROUTS.
The business has raised $50,000 and aims to raise another $100,000 in the next few months to hire employees, the article continued, as the company is currently run by volunteers and Harvard students.
Read the full article here.
