We Must Start

Kathy Ku is the co-founder and head of production at SPOUTS of Water, a startup that is working to provide access to safe drinking water by manufacturing affordable ceramic water filters in Uganda. Kathy first traveled to Uganda after her freshman year at Harvard University and while living with a host family she experienced firsthand the problems of water-borne illnesses. After failing to find an existing organization willing to take on this problem and manufacture ceramic water filters, Kathy decided to take a year off from college and pursue SPOUTS full time. To date, SPOUTS has provided 55,000 Ugandans with safe water and they continue to expand both their reach and impact. Since starting SPOUTS, Kathy has also completed her B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology and M.S. in Engineering Science at Harvard University.