At just 23 years of age, Sedrick Otolo has developed a wearable hand wrist device that tracks a pregnant mothers’ temperature, heartbeat, pressure, GPS location and relays this data to a doctor in real time.
Wow, that’s impressive!
But the beginning was not easy.
The story of Otolo’s ingenuity is that of an architect who was inspired by some of the past experiences and in a bid to save society, came up with the innovation.
“It was around 2018 when I went to lab in Kamwokya and we were asked to suggest things we could do to support society and I came up with Pregcare,” Otolo said.
He says that he always had the idea of developing the device but along the way, he abandoned it.
He was only reawakened by the death of his brother’s baby.
“When my brother lost a baby two days after the baby was born, it touched me so much. It was really sad because the mother didn’t have constant monitoring by the doctor. I therefore realized I needed to do something to save such situations. That is how Pregcare was born to help pregnant mothers,” he says.
Explaining his innovation, Otolo, a software engineer says that Pregcare which is a pregnancy monitoring device was designed in such a way that it tracks all the vitals elements of the pregnant mother and relays it to the doctor in real time.
Starting
Otolo, who also has a diploma in networking in cyber security, says that after realizing he had to do something to help pregnant mothers, he embarked on ensuring his innovation saw the light of the day.
He says he pooled funds from his savings that helped him buy the different materials that he used to assemble the wearable device.
He says with time, he was able to pull it off but says right now, he is at the stage where he needs more capital to scale up production of these devices for pregnant mothers.
Challenges
Just like any other job or innovation, there are several challenges and according to Otolo, while developing Pregcare, he encountered some challenges.
He says that while starting the innovation, he had a team of six other people but along the way, some left, arguing that it could not be pulled off.
He said they remained only two people.
“These didn’t see the value of what we were doing. Finances are also a challenge since we needed to print the hardware. Because in Uganda we don’t have capacity to print the circuit boards, this could only be done abroad in China. We were therefore limited by finances to do this.”
Otolo says that in order to overcome the challenge of limited manpower, he ensures the work is done by himself.
“My passion is the future and therefore, I find ways of getting around the challenges. I just love to do something with whoever wants.”
He says on the issue of limited finances; he improvises with the little he has to ensure he pulls it off.
“It is a matter of putting value onto my innovation. I believe in seizing one’s moment. Every opportunity we get through proposals for finance, we use it,” he says.
The 23-year-old software engineer says that through hard work, his innovation has got recognition from different parts of the country, a thing he says is so energizing.
“The project received five or four presidential awards last year and the recent recognition by Airtel Uganda. It has been a success and I believe these awards a big step towards making Pregcare what it is supposed to be in helping communities.”
The 23-year-old Lira based innovator says he is optimistic the future is very bright for him and innovation.
In a few years, he expects his company, Kakebe Technologies Limited to become big and build its own innovation centre that will also serve people in the Northern part of the country.
“In Northern Uganda there is none (innovation centre) yet we need to boost innovation. There are so many innovators in this region but they can’t afford to come to Kampala. I would need the northern region to grow in terms of technology and this can be done through this innovation centre,” he says.
He asks government to ensure innovation centres are extended to other parts of the country like the northern region to benefit a number of people, especially youths who have great ideas but lack facilities to develop them.
“If we can have innovation centres in all the parts of the country, every region or city will have something which attaches young people together but also brings innovative minds together. This way, graduates and students at university will have their ideas promoted.”
Otolo emphasizes the need for revising the Ugandan school curriculum to help teach students how to be creative, build websites and how to do programming.
He says this way the country will have many innovators.
Advice
Otolo has some piece of advice for youths throughout the country who would want to succeed in life.
“Young people should seize their moments. Make sure when you get an opportunity to do something, do it with all your mind and soul. Don’t give up but keep trying and listen to people who have made it in the same field. Love the thing you are passionate about and in everything you do, it will count. Believe and trust in God in every little process.”
