Musawo

Hi there, I am Blanche Kaira, an Edmund Hillary Fellow, and CEO of Musawo, a project with the goal of reducing the global threat of antibiotic resistance, through innovation.

In September 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared antibiotic resistance as a global health threat. Additionally, recent reports indicate that its prevalence has increased during the COVID19 pandemic as a result of increased needless misuse, abuse, and overuse of antibiotics, through over-the-counter purchases, in some cases, as well as hospital prescriptions by doctors treating patients infected with coronavirus disease. As a result, antibiotic resistance has been indicated as one of the underlying health conditions in some patients, who have tested positive for coronavirus disease and at higher risk of severity of the coronavirus disease. This is because increased antibiotic resistance has made the coronavirus disease harder to treat.

A component of Musawo’s workflow includes engaging and teaming with various collaborative partners, innovative minds and companies, for synergy in both quality and timely delivery of the desired project outcomes within the targeted populations.

For these meaningful collaborations to happen, one of the requirements I need to meet is to financially contribute towards the project so that there is shared risk between financial collaborators and Musawo. To do that, I want to put my computer graphics skills (such as 3D modeling and animation using ZBrush, Autodesk Maya, and Facegen Pro software, as well as augmented reality and visual effects using the Adobe Aero and Adobe After Effects, respectively, as well as other additional tools within the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite), to work and generate funds as my contribution towards the Musawo project.  In order to do this work properly, I need a new laptop and software, meeting specific system requirements, because my old one has been causing me problems.

The budget for the laptop and software is NZD 16495 (AUD and USD quotes have been converted to NZD), and is broken down as follows:

References: