Among the twenty young Africans whose enterprises offer innovative solutions that have fostered climate change adaptation and resilience, Rwandan Yvette Ishimwe has also received $100,000 awards for winning the 2022-2023 African Youth Adaptation Solutions Challenge (#YouthAdapt Challenge).
The awards ceremony took place at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
Yvette Ishimwe is the founder and CEO of IRIBA water group. Studied Physics, Chemistry, and Biology in high school and completed a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management with a concentration in logistics and operations at Southern New Hampshire University.
According to her, she had always dreamt of becoming a businesswoman, describing the award as a “life-changing opportunity.”
“Winning this Award is a life-changing opportunity. It will enable us to provide more drinking water for people and to create more jobs,” Ishimwe said.
Ishimwe’s social enterprise enhanced access to clean water to more than 73,000 people across the country through water plants and water ATMs on streets and in schools.
In 2017, Ishimwe was one of the two lucky winners from Rwanda selected to receive the ‘Queen’s Young Leaders’ award at Buckingham Palace, London.
“We are committed to supplying clean drinking water in schools, markets, and urban communities at an affordable price through Tap and Drink Innovation. We install eco-friendly water ATMs and kiosks for public drinking water points in urban and peri-urban low-earning communities,” Ishimwe said.
The Tap and Drink innovation installs eco-friendly water ATMs and kiosks for public drinking water points in urban and peri-urban low-earning communities to facilitate low-income earners to access affordable, safe drinking water easily.
Through a special ‘lease-to-own model’, the firm makes it possible and very easy for schools to have safe drinking water for their students and teachers. It installs customised water purification machines to fit each school’s needs and resources. With this model, all students and teachers are assured reliable, safe and clean drinking water at all times.
Ishimwe also won $20,000 in the inaugural women’s entrepreneurship competition, 2X Invest2Impact, in 2019 during the Global Summit 2019. The challenge brought together women entrepreneurs from Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia.
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