FOUNDER

Bertrand H. BYISHIMO
Founder & Director BSI
Born in the Congo and raised in Rwanda, Ben is a second-year Global Health student at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. He has been running the Bilharzia Storytelling Initiative for three years, working with a five-person team. He joined the accelerator to build fundraising and sustainability skills for scaling local non-profit initiatives — a response to the funding cuts now closing projects across Rwanda. During the program he completed 60 discovery interviews.
Former healthcare executive with deep domain expertise in women’s health. Strong product-market validation through clinical partnerships and user research.

Elimination starts with being understood

Up to 1,013 administrative entities in Rwanda are endemic to Bilharzia, and the disease has contributed 27% to malnutrition in the country. The Bilharzia Storytelling Initiative treats communication itself as the intervention, using storytelling and technology to reach communities affected by Bilharzia and other intestinal worms. Three years in, the initiative has reached 11,000 beneficiaries with a team of five, and is now building the fundraising infrastructure to scale that reach as international development funding contracts.

INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHTS

Revenue Status
[TBC]
Accelerators
RightShift, Emory Hatchery
Founder Solution Fit
[TBC]
Funded By
[TBC]

Program

Program Phase

Stage
Operating · ETP / MVP
Beneficiaries to Date
11,000
Years Operating
3
Discovery Interviews
60
Product BG

Traction

11,000
Reached over three years of operation in Rwanda by a five-person team.
1,013
The scale of the problem the initiative is built to address. Bilharzia has contributed 27% to malnutrition in the country.
60
Completed during the 10-week accelerator, alongside incorporating the entity and defining an earliest testable product.