The Uganda Technovation Challenge finals took place on 4th and 5th of June 2015 at the Makerere School of Public health ResilientAfrica Network offices in Kololo.This two day event comprised of a series of presentations from speakers in all walks of life.
The sessions ranged from technical to interactive including those that focused on leadership and team work skills.All participating teams were present and well wishers also joined in.Following regional pitches the teams also had final pitches on the second day,these pitches were open to the audience and the judges were there to make their final judgement.
The guest speakers included:
Ms. Susan Ajok Executive Director from straight talk foundation Uganda was the chief guest at Technovation challenge. Ms. Ajok encouraged many young people with her words of inspiration. The most important lesson was never to give up because it is not how many times we fall down but how many times we stand and continue with the journey is what matters. . She emphasized the need for each one to discover and believe in him or herself saying “The journey to success is not a straight forward one and once you fail, the most important is what lesson you
have learnt moving forward.”
Doctor Bazeyo William the Dean of Makerere School of Public Health and the chief of party at RAN also encouraged innovators at the event.
He thanked Dr. Dorothy Akello for her great effort in empowering the girl child with innovation through organising challenges and events and taking a further step to find them in schools and also encourage their parents to support. Doctor Bazeyo also thanked the entire RAN team for the work well done in making the Technovation event a success and cautioned them to include more schools in the forth coming 2016 challenge. He further thanked the schools, universities and all other individuals and organisations for participating in the challenge
As a move to further promote female innovation, he promised to sponsor the chosen representative of the participants that would make it to the finals.
Professor Mondo Kagonyera,the seventh chancellor of Makerere University advised young people to always have a strong goal and strong will in their lives because it helps us to stay focused on whatever we do. He also discouraged people from corruption acts because they just give bad names and labels to an individual. The professor also encouraged young people to engage in science since it will take them to places.
“You can achieve if you plan because everything is possible,” he said. In additional to the above was to be more educational oriented because it helps us to create awareness, remain persistent, never estimate the potential one has, have a positive attitude (positive energy) and to keep a journal (record) of everything that we do.
