Bonome, Tony & Matiya, are the brilliant minds behind the DIY Drone. DIY standing for ‘Do It Yourself’ The DIY drone is made out of local materials with the aim of helping transport vaccines in Uganda. The minds behind this innovation are WIU supported students at Kyangwali Secondary School. The students are able to innovate and learn with funding from UNHCR Uganda.
Read the personal stories of the minds behind the DIY Drone and how the idea came to life:
To see more footage, click here
I am Matiya Mulumba, a Senior Four 17-year-old student currently studying at Kyangwali Secondary School. .
I am a son of the late Mr. Ndirito Paul and Anewa Jane, who were residents of Mahagi in Democratic Republic of Congo. Currently, I live with my aunt and siblings.
I am on a WIndle International Uganda Scholarship which I was offered in senior three. This scholarship has changed my life. in different ways.
Before the scholarship, my aunt was responsible for my school fees but she could not manage to pay for both my brother and I. But, because everything is possible in God’s name, Windle International Uganda put in a helping hand to keep me in school. Now, Windle is on my side just like a parent.
In 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown, I used to watch the news a lot and see how these big and developed countries were suffering from COVID-19 and how the doctors were isolating patients in fear of being infected with the virus. That is when I got the idea of making a drone that will be used in Uganda to make deliveries for vaccines and will monitor patients before doctors provide the services required. I shared this idea with my aunt and she liked the idea. After a period of 2 weeks, she gave me some money which I used to purchase the required materials needed to make my vision come to life. On my first attempt, I made a drone that flew but due to the instability it crashed.
In 2022, I shared this information with my friends Karamagi Tonny and Bonome Katabana. We then submitted the project details to the school administration who liked the idea and were supported. With help from the school, we made a drone which we presented before the Uganda Science Education Program (USEP) during a science fair where we were selected to go and show case our innovation to represent Kyangwali Secondary School.
In relation to the drone project, we aimed high at seeing how we can solve some global challenges using our ideas and that’s how we named it the DIY drone, which means Do It Yourself, and is aimed at solving the problem of vaccine delivery and monitoring conditions of severely sick patients in hospitals. In the future, our dream is to make the drone a success to enable us to sell it to interested parties in Uganda and outside Uganda.
As far as the project is concerned, we encounter a lot of challenges which include lack of financial support because the drone requires some components we cannot financially afford, but if provided for, we can make it work. On the other hand, some possible solutions include support in terms of purchasing a control system for the drone, further academic support in terms of a sponsor so that I can achieve my goal of being an international engineer to be specific, an electrical engineer just like my inspiration Elon Musk, as well as other successful scientists out there.
I would like to inform and encourage my peers out there that imagination is the best of all. Because of imagination we can get solutions to every problem just as I and my team are soon doing. I do believe that creativity does not specify or require a particular gender, if you can dream it, you can achieve it.
Hello everybody out there!
My name is Tony Karamagi, a senior three student at Kyangwali secondary school in Kikuube District. I am a son to Mr. Dhejo Marien and Ms Tabbo Ruth who were citizens in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but we came to live in Uganda as refugees due to Internal conflicts in our country.
I was born 1st January 2005 in the D.R. Congo and came to live in Uganda at an age of three and also started my studies here in Uganda at Victorious Primary School found in Hoima district on a school scholarship at age of seven.
When I started school, I was so interested in science lessons and I began having the vision of becoming a great scientist in future, so I worked hard to pass exams and study hard though my parents were financially poor.
Because I liked science the most, I managed to pass my Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) with a score of 16 aggregates at Kasonga Primary School in Kyangwali sub-county.
In 2019, I joined secondary where I am on a scholarship financed by Windle International Uganda who helped me by paying all that was needed for me to study since my parents couldn’t not manage paying my school fees.
I would like to thank Windle International Uganda and UNCHR for the role they played through financial support, and supporting my education because this has helped my family settle their financial problems in relation to school fees, and has also inspired me to continue with my dreams of being a great scientist. This alone has motivated me to have better performance at school.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit that shook the world and led to a loss of many lives in this country, this led to a longtime lockdown in Uganda. While at home, I began doing research and watched how many scientists from foreign countries had to discover various ways of solving the pandemic. I was then inspired by them because they made a way of easing life that was also part of what I wanted to do in the future.
The scientists produced a vaccine that would protect people from the pandemic thus saving lives. When I thought of that, I also thought of different ways of distributing the vaccines in Uganda and also a delivery service. I then collected some local materials like plastics and started making a simple aircraft, if supported would act as a perfect, modern drone for vaccine delivery.
I tried all means that it would fly and it did at one point but it crashed due to instability and lack of control.
When our schools reopened, we started studies and were promoted to third level (S3). In 2022, there was a science fair that was financed and supported by Uganda Science Education Programme (USEP). At this science fair, different secondary schools were selected in Kampala – Nsambya but my school (Kyangwali Secondary School) was also chosen to participate to exhibit their innovations.
When the fair started, my best friends (Matiya Mulumba and Bonome Katabana) and I were chosen to go for the exhibition in the city where we were ranked the winners of the exhibition thus making our school proud. We have a plan of making and producing a multipurpose vessel that can travel in air, water and on land and we also continue our project with an aim of earning money in the future.
I as Tony also have a dream of being a great quantum physicist and an electric engineer in the future because of the affinity I have for science.
When my friends and I were processing our small aircraft that we named DIY meaning Do It Yourself, we faced many challenges that made our work hard to do, and these included lack of financial support, lack of modernized materials to use, and lack of the reliable internet for research.
But since we worked as a team we managed to use the available materials and processed the model of our drone. So provided that we have all that is needed, we would perfect our project and give it the lift energy.
I also admire ELON MUSK who is a great scientist, thus being one of the richest people in the universe. He inspired me through his ways of solving problems using science and he is a man who does not give up on what he does.
So I send my message to all young people out there that we learn from mistakes and end up doing better things next. So don’t give up but you should know that with God and focus everything can happen and you will be successful in life (For God and my country).
I am called Bonome Katabana, a student of Kyangwali Secondary School aged 18 years in Senior Three.
Basing on my story, I am a son to Mr. Hakizimana Dezire and Mrs, Dusabe Sylvia and we’re residents of Rutchuru Democratic Republic of Congo. I live in a family of 6 people with my beloved younger brother Damascence Katabana. Due to political instability in my country, we were forced to refugee in Uganda. When we arrived in 2008, I made a simple circuit using my father’s dry cells from his radio at the age of 5 years to solve the darkness problem we had in our small tent.
I began my studies at Malembo Primary School and completed primary at Nyamiganda Primary School with a PLE score of 15 aggregates. My parents had no source of income at the time to facilitate my secondary education and I had no way to continue my education, so I talked to my friend who is a teacher (Mr. Baguma Moses) and he informed me about Windle International Uganda and UNHCR scholarships for secondary. It was amazing to hear that the chance of going back to school was a possibility. After applying I got a response after two months, although it delayed I was still excited that WIU was able to push me towards my scientific dreams through this scholarship, and because of this, I am forever grateful to Windle International Uganda.
My friends Matiya Mulumba and Karamagi Tonny came to me with the idea of the DIY drone (Do It Yourself), due to the fact that we had the same dreams, we joined forces and called the drone DIY, which is aimed at delivering medicine in an easy, faster and comfortable manner without human contact and we are planning to make it a multipurpose vessel with the ability to move on land, in air and on water in the future. If we are given the best of the best education, we can make a big change in the world.
I want to become a Theoretical physicist and an engineer like my role models Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, and since I believe that the brain is wide range, I also want to become a software developer (in programming) and right now, towards that goal I have managed to master HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and I’m proceeding to learn Java Scripts, but it has been tricky because I lack a computer. A phone cannot learn java script code so right now I am stuck but If I manage to get a computer, the above so called challenges can be overcome.
I call upon all young scientists to stop saying ‘I have no idea of what I can make’, the key is ‘imagination is better than knowledge’, so just imagine and implement, make research and know that scientific innovations usually involve experiments which undergo multiple failures, so don’t fail and give up. Failing and trying again is a success in progress.
