Askwar Hilonga is an award-winning entrepreneur, professor and inventor. He created Nanofilter, a low-cost and sustainable water purification system particularly suited to the needs of local people in Tanzania.

<p>Askwar Hilonga is an award-winning entrepreneur, professor and inventor. He created Nanofilter, a low-cost and sustainable water purification system particularly suited to the needs of local people in Tanzania.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hyve

Jesse Zwiker

The Hyve Podcast Season 1

Why Missional Entrepreneurship

Lyndon Sweeney

Why Aren’t We Doing This?

Daryl Gungadoo

True Wealth & Innovation

Helping the Church Grow More Effectively

Alistair Huong

Why I’m Excited About Financial Planning

Askwar Hilonga

Clean Water for Tanzania

Seth Hill

Failure

Can I Be an Adventist Millionaire?

Lorand Soares

How to Grow Your Business

Steven Grabiner

Our Brain Tricks Us When We Make Decisions

Gray Krause

Paying Tithes is Not Enough

Sebastien Braxton

Five Ways to Start With $0

Ellen White’s Forgotten Vision

Using Your God-Given Talents

Ivonne Restrepo

The Restaurant Failed But...

Profit is Evil. Right?

Ron Price

Dealing With Conflict in the Workplace

Welcome to the hi podcast. My name is Vincent BOR, and you're listening to your number one resource for missional entrepreneurship. I'm so excited that you're here. We help you grow your startup and ministry every single week with practical advice, powerful tools and inspirational store. So join us and become a world changer. One episode at a time, We were at the Buckingham palace. I am representing Africa and there are many other people who are representing other continents. When prince saw us, how we struggle for the preparation and what he, he told the audience at the palace, he said, ladies and gentlemen, I saw these young entrepreneurs preparing themselves. Some of them were doing that and that, and some of them were praying. And in fact, he was referring to me When he was announcing the winner. He said like this ladies and gentlemen, God is on someone's side. Again, I wanna introduce to you ASCO. Hi longa. Hi long is from Tanzania. And we wanna talk about his test and his startup today. He's a professor, he's an entrepreneur and he's also an adventure. In fact, he invented a water filter for the people in his country, and he has provided clean water to tens of thousands of people. In fact, he has now a company with 120 employees, and he has provided clean water to a thousand households so far and covered a hundred schools. And I wanted to ask him right at the beginning, how did you grow up? I grew up in a rural village called Gali, which is in Karatu district. In AIA, Tanzania. The village is very close to Serengeti and in Gure these places are famous to many tourists. So I joined the seven day Adventist church in the year, 1988 when I was 12 years old, it was in, in a rural village, a small village in a, a small Adventist church in my village, which is really despised. And like people, there are very few people, very weak. What can I say? But I was in another denomination where life is good, vibrant, many people and everything was cool. But one day, one missionary from the seven day Adventist church visited our family. He talked with my father. My father was, was drunk at that the, that time was binge drinker, drunk drunkard. So he, when he drinks, he normally, eh, vomit blood. So he is really in a desperate situation. So my father accepted the call and he said, please, can we visit a seven day Adventist church this summer, this Saturday to so we went there. I was a little boy, very curious, age 12. And we went to the church. I asked many questions. They answered my questions and little by little, my faith was growing. And when I joined the secondary school in the year 92, when I was in, in secondary school, I was baptized. So that's how I joined the church. And I was, I grew up in a rural village in Tanzania, a very rural setting that you can imagine the, those villages that they show in CNN and BBC, a typical rural village in Tanzania where we, yeah, we lived a really a rural village life. I was happy, boy. I live loved my life, played with my friends. But again, I can tell you the stories of how we have been struggling with waterborne diseases and, and the extreme poverty in the village. But I love myself. I love my parents. I love a community. That's why even now, after I finish my PhD, I still love my people. I'm I frequently visit them. Even this suburb, this Saturday, I'm going to visit them again to worship with my people. I love them so much. It is the community that raised me. Beautiful. So when you decided to, to, to actually continue in education, you said you're a professor now, how did you become a professor from going from that village where you grew up to a university? Now you're teaching at a university. How did that happen? Well, I, I don't want to overpraise myself. Like I was very smart and than anyone else, I believe it was God's Providence. It is God's plan that I should be this much successful because I remember in, in our school, we were about 70 in our primary school in gon gon primary school out of 70 children. Can you imagine how many of us passed the examination to go to secondary school? We were 4 1, 2, 3, 4 people going forward. Their rest had to remain to the village as, as farmers, as the normal village is there. I am so pitting them now that they could not get a, a, a luxury of getting higher education. As for me, I'm so grateful. I was among the four who went to the secondary school and the ones who continued with the further education out of us for I was alone to continue with the high, high, high school, of course, with other students. Now, from other villages, we continue to high school, very few of us, and you can see how the equation is narrowing down now to first degree, very, very, very few trans. Now, now it's not about the village. Very few Tanzanians go to the, to university. And then if you go to the masters, now, maybe they, they have a list of people who are in the master's level. PhD are no, don't talk about that. You can just count how many people have PhD here. Professors are number 10, the highest rank professor in Tanzania. My position is number 27 in the whole country anyway. So that's how it goes. But I thank God. It's a wonderful opportunity to, to get both this secular education, but also under the context of seven, the Adventist church I've been raised by the, in South Korea. When I was doing my PhD there, I was working also for the church as a, as a lay lay pastor. I was a lay pastor for an Adventist church in South Korea. I, I have a passion to tell this story, but I thank God. I've been climbing the lot of education step by step from a rural of village in Monali to a university in South Korea called Haung university. I did my PhD in South Korea, and now I'm a professor at the university called Nelson Mandela in Tanzania. It's a success story in a short span of life. I can remember my childhood today. They called me a professor, man. I really thank God. It's a miracle happening in my lifetime. How was it for you to transition from that high education and, and the degree this that you received to a, to an entrepreneurial life, becoming an inventor, and basically going back to the problem that you have experienced as a child, you know, with those diseases caused by just unclean water. How did you come up with the water filter idea? Well, so it was a progressive process. As I said, I, I struggled a lot with water on this diseases. One was, I was a little boy. Did I tell you the story of how I was struggling with the worms, with the, with the water bone diseases of different kinds? Actually, I could see there is a time I could see worms in my pool, really worms floating in my pool. And yet I was told that I'm Bewitched. And they were looking for a, a witch doctor, a witch who cause all this. And I told me, it is a same grandmother, our neighbor who was causing this or the, the, which doctor told me to get the footprints of this woman. And, but fortunately the woman was unfortunately on my side, fortunately to her side, she was wearing a shoes. So I could not get that anyway to, to get a log, to cut a long story short. I struggled a lot today. I'm asking my question, a question that what does my PhD mean to my people? Why should boys and girls suffer in the 21st century while there are lot of technological advancement and there is a possibility to solve this problem? So in South Korea, my eyes were literally opened. I saw the potential of using nanotechnology to solve this problem. And that's why step by step. I decided to invent a filter. I was working on it. It's that I, I it's, it's really challenging process to develop a new innovation because there are many filters that are imported from China, from Korea, from India, from America and elsewhere, but yet they are not solving. The problem is still there. So what was the problem? So I went there, I investigated this, see the weaknesses of those imported filters. And I came up with my own invention. And now it is in the market. It is solving the problem. So it's step by step is not an easy process. There are many people who play their role, like the Royal academy of who invested in me to develop my, my, what is that? The business skills, because I, I I'm trained as an engineer, chemical engineer. Now, how can I do business? So I was, I was trained by the Royal academy of engineering. We were participating in a program called Africa prize for engineering innovation. But later I got many other supporters partners. We have, I have 77 partners. I dunno if I can list all of them in during this podcast, but while they have played their role, I, I am so grateful today. We have a product that's in the market solving the real problems of people. I'm so grateful. Hey man. Yeah, that's, that's real powerful and you are not done. I just saw that when we were, you know, we were talking, you were showing me the property, how your company looks like right now, you have 100, I believe 127 employees. You have multiple buildings. Now you are bringing clean water to thousands of people, but, but you're not done. What's your vision for your life? What's your dream. What's your goal? My goal is to be a billionaire. I want to be a billionaire, not in terms of money, but is in terms of impacting billions of lives. Mm. So anything I can do that can touch someone's life. That's my calling. If it is through this inspirational talks, if a little boy or a little girl is listening to me now from Mexico or in Haiti or in, in Cuba, someone in America maybe, or elsewhere, whoever is being touched by my story and whoever is giving back to their community. I count those as the numbers of people I'm impacting in my lifetime. So when my day comes to bow out, I should be, I will be so grateful that I reached people in different ways, by inspir them, by providing them with them, affordable technology, easy to use that, solving their problems, children with white teeth, like mine. People are not suffering from typhoid, chole, and other challenges. The opportunities I create for, for startups, young companies who study from me, they come the volunteers who come to Tanzania to work with me. All those are the lives that I want to touch in my lifetime. So that's my life commitment. I'm passionate about this while I'm still living. Thank you. We're taking a short break right now and be right back to talk about faith and business and how you as a young man or a woman, wherever you are, can get involved with HIAs cause, and really understand how you can use the power of innovation with the gospel message to finish the work, stay with us. We'll be right back. Hive is your number one platform for missional entrepreneurship start, grow and scale your faith-based business with us day by day, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Just look for hive. I N T that's hive international hive. I N T let's change to this world and the world to come together. We're back here with hi longa and his amazing story going all the way from a rural village in Tanzania to South Korea. And back now he's impacting thousands of people in his country and beyond. Hi longa. Thank you so much for being here. I wanted to ask you as a faith-based entrepreneur, as a missional entrepreneur, how do you combine faith and business and, and how, what would you advise to a young man or woman listening to this? What can we do to combine it to and really make a difference today? I, I thank good. I, I don't have a, my, but I have seen God fulfilling his promise in my life. I did not mention to you. I forgot to mention about the hours I won. I want 22 hours. Now, as I talk to you, 22 different awards, I have been to 20 different countries around the world, nine times in the UK. And of course, once in America, I was in Washington. I went to the white house, not inside, but just outside to take a photo a little bit, but I've been to France, to Norway, to many I other countries around the world. I lived in South Korea for five years. I've been to China, to Vietnam, Thailand, and which country didn't I mention. So, but I, I believe God has a purpose in my life that it's not an aimless life of running here and there. And there it is a life. It's a, it's a mission life because wherever I go, I get opportunities. As I talk about my business, I also talk about how God has blessed my life. How, who is God, by the way, in my life. And, and people see that. Let me give you a typical example. We were at the Buckingham palace and the prince. This was the second time. I first, first time I won the award is called pitch at palace Africa. So we were there competing and I was the first winner. Now I went there for the pitch at palace global. So I am representing Africa and there are many other people who representing other continents. So when prince saw us and how we struggle for the preparation and what he, he told the audience at the palace, he said, ladies and gentlemen, I saw this young entrepreneurs preparing themselves. Some of them were doing that and that, and some them were praying. Wow. And in fact, he was referring to me and when he was announcing the winner, he said like this ladies and gentlemen, God is on someone's side again. And then he announced the winner and the winner is as square. Hi, longer. Wow. That's me. And now that was a big testimony. The news reporters were following up me and they were asking about the success story. How did you this and this, you know, my friends, it is like replaying the stories of Daniel and other heroes in the Bible. Those boys who are 10 times better than others who are smarter in every thing they, they were doing. So you can read those stories, but God has given us an opportunity to replay these stories in our life while we are still living. So I, I am not exaggerating my story, but if you can look at that, coming from that background, getting a PhD at a very young age, a professor at this age, owning a company that is very rich, this much rich, of course, in Tanzania standards, maybe in America say, brother is not really rich. But from that background of growing from a grass house to a four story, building to an employer of a number of people and all these kind of exposure in all those countries, I believe it is God's specific plan, not coincidence. This is a plan is a purpose of God to demonstrate his power in us, to fulfill his promise in because he promised to us to make us head and not tell. So it's happening in my life. What else can I do, brother, except to be a, a testimony to others. So I believe God is using me as a teaching aid in his hands as his missionary to demonstrate, to do play how unique I am, how unique his people should be. So he, he is doing it. I dunno, what else can I say in health? He, God has given us like a, what is the principles of healthful living? I followed it to the dot. I did my best. You know, after I joined the 70 Adventist church, I decided to stop eating meat. My pure vegetarian, as I'm talking to you now, of course, I eat a little bit of egg and fish, maybe fish Arian, or a little bit fish and, and egg a little bit, but I follow all those principles. I don't meat like cows, the, the goats and what, and today I am 45, but you can look at my face because you are privileged to see this. Some people feel like I'm 20 something, but I'm already a 45, man. So again, I'm not over praising myself. I'm just saying by following those regulations, the principles that God has given us, helpful, living, exercise, cheerful, heart, and loving people, giving back to people. And it it's, it's just my life. And I am harvesting the fruit while I'm living while we talk of the kingdom of heaven. But I think we can enjoy good life even now, while we are waiting for the blessed hope of the second coming of Jesus. Amen. Thank you for sharing that. It's so important to give praise to God and to point back to our creator and Redeemer every single time that he blesses us with our successes, what basically, basically those are his successes, right? And, and so I really appreciate you sharing these powerful stories, how God has worked in your life. Last question for you, my friend, how can we get involved with you? How can I get involved with you? How can we be a part of the cause that you started? Tell us, Thank you very much. And among the people, I must be so grateful too, is my wife, who is a CEO of the company. And my son is 13 years old now. And my daughter is 11 years old. We are four in this company. I and my wife and my son and my daughter four, seven day advent is working for this company. And we are openminded to work with anyone who wants to work with us will give you my contacts. I hope you will put it somewhere. If you contact me, we can discuss and see how you can be involved. If you are an investor, you want to invest this. We call social impact investors. Those who are not really craving for too much money from the poor people, but who maybe just want their money to come back, that you impact people. And after they pay back, you get your money back or with a small interest or a donation or a grant, or you want to be a volunteer. You want to work with us, or you just want as a tourist to stay in our hotel at an affordable price. We are, we have a hotel here. I built a, a have house here where we have 16 rooms. You can stay here. And some of the income that we get goes back to the activities we are doing here to touch people's lives. I'm open minded. We can discuss just, just as a friend, let's talk like, how do you want to be involved? If you are coming to Tanzania, definitely we are here to host you. So just drop by. We can visit Serengeti, CLE Manjaro or communities, churches, whoever wants to support a church. I'm a church elder also in my church is called aha international SD church. So you can just drop by here, sing with us. Anything you want to do that can bring glory to go, but also bring blessings to humanity. I am. Open-minded welcome to Tanzania. If you wanna, to more inspiring stories, powerful episodes and practical takeaways, make sure to subscribe. We are on all major podcast platforms and we have new episodes coming out every single Monday at 6:00 AM Eastern time. So subscribe, follow us and listen to more. Next week. My name is Vincent. BJO been listening to a long story and this is the hive podcast.

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Series

The Hyve Podcast Season 1

Clean Water for Tanzania

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

Why Missional Entrepreneurship

Why Aren’t We Doing This?

True Wealth & Innovation

Helping the Church Grow More Effectively

Why I’m Excited About Financial Planning

Clean Water for Tanzania

Failure

Can I Be an Adventist Millionaire?

How to Grow Your Business

Our Brain Tricks Us When We Make Decisions

Paying Tithes is Not Enough

Five Ways to Start With $0

Ellen White’s Forgotten Vision

Using Your God-Given Talents

The Restaurant Failed But...

Profit is Evil. Right?

Dealing With Conflict in the Workplace

Sound Doctrine