If you have not heard about AfriGalTech up until“ now”, well this is the time to get to know one of the African’ s talents of the future. AfriGalTech is comprised out of 3 young women who grew up in kampala, Uganda. Rachel who is 26 years old, Bonita and Joanitah who are 27 years old. All three of them are engineers and yes, they are an“ all girls” team on purpose. They made this decision back in 2014 when they noticed that most teams involved in Tech development were male dominated.
From this day they set out to change that, so they decided to have an all female team so that they could inspire other girls who thought innovation was only meant for men. Although the current team is now diversified with the addition of male advisors and exceptional researchers in the field. A couple couple of years ago they invented mdex. Well, mDex is a smartphone based, low cost, reusable, near instant point of care screening tool aimed at increasing access to Sickle Cell Diagnostic services in low resources areas.
This tool comprises of a mobile application which is installed on a smartphone and a detachable lens. mDex bridges the knowledge gap and the feedback loop between the time of testing and results. This equips medical personnel with no hematology skills to screen sickle cell disease accurately to facilitate early diagnosis, thus reducing mortality rates and encouraging enrollment into sickle cell clinics for disease management.
AfriGalTech strongly believed they would come up with a solution and although they were not medical doctors, technology gave life to numerous impossibilities and therefore they found a solution. In the beginning it was hard for them to transition from“ engineers” into“ entrepreneurs” and along the way they’ ve encountered a series of problems: failure to understand specific user / human needs relating to the solution, limited infrastructural and financial resources, etc ……. But they didn’ t stop believing in mDex, just the idea that the world will never get to experience the immense potential and magical friendships of some of these people was constantly