LIONESS WEEKENDER COVER STORY
Wazi Vision’s co-founder and ceo, Brenda Katwesigye, has a big vision for her business - to help everyone access quality eye care, without paying hefty sums for it. She and her team understand that good eyesight is critical to overall health and well being – especially for children and that is why the company has created affordable eyeglasses that are designed in Uganda and cost 80% less than what is currently on the market. Wazi Vision’s virtual reality (VR) testing kit also helps bring eye care testing to communities that do not have optometrists or access to affordable eye care services.
Wazi Vision, incorporated in Uganda, is a company focused on providing more affordable eye care to everyone. According to the World Health Organization, 285 million people are visually impaired; 90% of whom live in low income families. Of these, 43% have uncorrected refractive errors. In Uganda alone, over 1.2 million people are visually impaired, yet the cost of corrective lenses and eye testing services is still high. Wazi Vision, therefore, focuses on providing an alternative to existing eye care solutions. The company designs and provides eye wear at 80% of the cost of other eye glasses on the market. It has also developed a mobile kit that uses virtual reality (VR) technology to test for eye acuity without the need for an optometrist, enabling all communities to have access to essential eye testing services. Over the past years of operation, Wazi has trained women to design eye wear, perform tests in communities, and manage logistics for delivery of eye glasses.
Wazi Vision is at the center of innovation, and with support from the United States Africa Development Foundation (USADF) and Greentec Capital Partners, has developed a software that uses Virtual Reality technology to test for eye acuity without the need for an optometrist. This kit will help Wazi Vision be able to reach communities that do not have optical centers or need to travel long distances to access basic eye care. The VR gear has been intuitively designed with modules for adults and also for children. It is interactive, easy to use, and needs no prior knowledge of optometry. Anyone can use the kit to perform an eye test!
Wazi Vision’s impact within its communities is at the forefront of who the company is and it’s vision. It believes that in order to be successful, the need is to focus on improving the lives of those in the communities and empower them to grow. With support from USADF, Wazi Vision has been able to organize eye camps, test more than 5,000 children in 2017 alone in multiple schools across Uganda, and provide those in need of eye glasses with affordable eye wear. The company has also over the years donated eye wear to children that otherwise cannot afford even the cheaper alternatives that Wazi Vision provides. This has been due to support of various people across the globe that have donated money to purchase eye glasses for the children. In addition, every pair of glasses bought contributes 10% to the purchase of a pair of eye glasses for a child in need.
About the founder
Brenda Katwesigye is the co-founder and CEO of Wazi Vision Limited, a company incorporated in Uganda that designs and manufactures eye wear from recycled plastic. She is passionate about creating sustainable and affordable solutions for critical healthcare challenges and has to-date reached over 6,000 Ugandans – especially children with affordable eye care and her company covers 4 regions in the country. Brenda was mentioned in the 2019 New Wealth Creators’ list by Forbes Africa and is an Alumni of Vodafone’s FLANE program, a 2018 Westerwelle Foundation fellow, a 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow and has previously served on the Regional Advisory Board of the Young African Leader’s Initiative (YALI) and the Board of the STARTS Prize of the Ars Electronica.
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