Interview: Mitch Horrocks

MITCH HORROCKS

FOUNDER, 663 TO ZERO

and designer of ‘OKU-Zi’, a product born to create clean water in developing countries

PHOTO: MITCH HORROCKS

[ TLSE ] FOR ALMOST ONE THIRD OF THE WORLDS POPULATION, A CRUCIAL CHOICE HAS TO BE MADE EVERYDAY, ‘DO I DIE NOW FROM NOT DRINKING WATER, OR DO I DIE LATER FROM THE WATER I DRINK?’. 663 TO ZERO IS A MOVEMENT BASED IN UGANDA DESIGNED TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO DON’T HAVE ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER, FROM 663 MILLION TO ZERO.

NO-ONE QUITE TELLS YOUR STORY AS PASSIONATELY AS YOU DO…HOW DID UGANDA AND IT’S COMMUNITY COME TO CAPTURE SUCH A LARGE PART OF YOUR LIFE.

[ MITCH ] Well, the first time I visited Uganda was actually a High School trip during our Christmas holidays in 2008. Me and 12 friends had the opportunity to visit Uganda, volunteer for a week in an orphanage and then travel across Uganda doing safaris. It was my first small taste of the country and I certainly felt like I had to return to see more of it. Once I graduated from High School, I was accepted into what was then called ‘Industrial Design’ at the University of Technology, Sydney but I deferred the course for a year. I decided to return to the orphanage organisation as a volunteer for a 6 month period, teaching Cricket, Rugby and Athletics (all sports I am passionate about) in the children’s village. I fell in love with the lifestyle in Uganda, the people of the country, the vibrance of Kampala as a city and more importantly, thoroughly felt like I could make a difference to the children’s lives in these orphanage villages.

After studying for 18 months back in Australia and fundraising at the same time, I returned to the orphanage in Uganda with $10,000 to build cricket nets in the villages and continued volunteering. I also played semi-professional Cricket for Uganda at that time which was a crazy experience going on tours around the world representing my adopted country In a sport I loved! I returned in 2013 and decided to focus on my studies a bit more until I had at least finished my Bachelor course.

Once I had graduated with the Bachelor degree, I had the opportunity to study an Honours in Product Design. I took this as an opportunity to return to Uganda in late 2015 and live in some rural communities, researching and observing the people and their way of life, so that I could use my Honours year to design a product that would benefit these rural communities. I was focusing on the biggest problem, which I saw as the lack of clean drinking water and the processes to be able to allow these people to access clea n water. The product I ended up designing was not only designed FOR these people, but WITH these people so that it actually worked and could be incorporated into their day-to-day activities. The end product is a simple sheet metal product that sits on top of their pot of food as it cooks over the fire, and using the steam being produced from this food, boils another pot, this time filled with dirty water, on top of the product.

YOUR PRODUCT SOLVES ONE OF THE BIGGEST ISSUES FACING RURAL COMMUNITIES IN UGANDA. COSTING ONLY $1.50 TO MANUFACTURE, HOW DOES IT WORK, WHAT IMPACT DOES IT HAVE, AND HOW IMPORTANT WAS IT TO GET PRODUCTION COSTS DOWN?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) released statistics in 2017 that state there are ‘663 million people in the world without access to clean water’. 30,000 people die each week due to unsafe water sources and 90% of those people are children under 5 years of age. These were the statistics that struck me and forced me to ask myself “Is this right and can it be helped?”

The product was given the name ‘Okuchumba Amaizi’, which means ‘something that boils water’ in the Rutooro language in Western Uganda. Recently I shortened the name to ‘OKU- Zi’ which is catchier and a lot easy for people in Australia to pronounce!

The product is extremely simple; it purely channcels the steam being produced from the food to the base of the pot of water. This steam being produced from the food is so intense it actually ends up boiling this pot of water (95 degrees) within 30 minutes of the food cooking, killing two birds with one stone kind of thing! Incorporating the product into their daily routines was a big part of my design.

I wanted to make it so easy for these mothers to use the product that it would be more effort to not use it rather than use it! It also means that they use less firewood, because instead of removing the pot of food once it’s cooked, adding more firewood and then placing the pot of dirty water on the fire, both tasks are completed at once.

My second semester of the Honours year was actually spent refining the product to reduce the cost of the product and enable it to boil the water quicker. Reducing manufacturing costs, means that the money that I raised during 2017 goes much further and we can give these products to more families in these rural communities. From the results of my surveys when I was in the field, each household has roughly 10 people living in it, and you only need to give one ‘OKU-Zi’ to a family, therefore for $1.50 you have helped 10 people have access to clean drinking water.

30,000 PEOPLE DIE EACH WEEK DUE TO UNSAFE WATER SOURCES, AND 90% OF THOSE PEOPLE ARE CHILDREN UNDER 5.

THESE WERE STATISTICS THAT STRUCK ME AND FORCED ME TO ASK MYSELF, “IS THIS RIGHT, AND CAN IT BE HELPED?”

IN THE LAST 18 MONTHS, YOU’VE RECENTLY FINISHED AN HONOURS YEAR IN PRODUCT DESIGN, HAVE SUCCESSFULLY CROWD-FUNDED OVER $60K FOR THE MOVEMENT, AND ARE CURRENTLY LIVING IN UGANDA FOR 2018 SETTING UP YOUR FIRST MANUFACTURING WORKSHOP.

HOW IS THE MONEY RAISED BEING USED, AND WHY IS HAVING THE VILLAGE COMMUNITY INVOLVED IN THE PRODUCTION PROCESS A CRUCIAL COMPONENT IN ENSURING THE LONGEVITY OF THE PROJECT?

I arrived back in Uganda at the end of February and will be here for at least the next year. I’ve already put in the paperwork to register my organisation ‘663toZERO’ as an official NGO which is an exciting step. This will allow us to be recognised a bit more in the charity sector and to be able to apply for funding from donors around the world.

So far, the money raised during my fundraising last year has been used to set up our workshop in Kampala, where these products will be made. We are also already employing 5 Ugandans in different roles in the organisation, whether it is as Water and Sanitation experts or Artisans creating the products. The rest of the money will be used to pay for purchase of the sheet metal used to create the products and the distribution of the products to the remote villages where our facilitation team will teach the mothers how to use the product and the importance of clean drinking water.

YOUR GOAL IS PROVIDE 100,000 PEOPLE WITH ACCESS TO CLEAN DRINKING WATER WITHIN THE FIRST YEAR OF PRODUCTION….HOW DO YOU STAY ACCOUNTABLE TO THIS GOAL, AND - TOUCH WOOD ! - HOW ARE YOU TRACKING IN MEETING THIS?

With the $60K raised, I believe we can produce 10,000 of the ‘OKU-Zi’ products within a year of operation, It’s a big task but our workshop is already producing over 300 products each week and there are only 3 artisans. As we grow and become more efficient, I believe we can make up to 500 each week.

The next step is obviously to find 500 families in the villages each week to distribute them to, but as we become increasingly well known in the Kyenjojo district, we believe we can grow the distribution to be 500 products given to families a week as well. Documentation and reporting is extremely important when you make statements like this, which is why every week we are employing more facilitators in the village to move from house-to-house conducting intimate sensitisation sessions with the mothers on the importance of clean water, and recording how many people stay in the house, so we have clear figures on how many people we have been able to help so far.

I DON’T PLAN ON STOPPING, ANYTIME SOON.

YOU’VE COMBINED YOUR DESIGN TRAINING WITH SOMETHING YOU’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT, INVENTING A PRODUCT AND DESIGNING A BUSINESS MODEL THAT SOLVES A REAL WORLD PROBLEM; I’M CURIOUS, WHAT IS THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN IN ESTABLISHING 663 TO ZERO, AND WHAT IS THE ONE PIECE OF ADVICE YOU WOULD GIVE OTHERS WHO WANT TO PURSUE PROJECTS THAT THEY ARE TRULY PASSIONATE ABOUT?

I think you have hit the nail on the head there, combining my design degree with something I’m passionate about. When I was deciding whether or not to enrol in the Honours course, I first had to think about what kind of product I wanted to create, and If I couldn’t think of anything I was passionate about to spend a year of my life designing, well I wasn’t going to enrol. Connecting my love for Uganda, to being given the opportunity to spend a whole year designing a product of my choosing! I doubt many people in their product design careers get to have that freedom even in their first 10 years of being a product designer!

I think the best piece of advice that I have been given during this period is to be open and honest with people and let them always see your love for these people. Be a representation of the love and passion you have to change the lives of those in vulnerable situations. I’ve always been somebody that has wanted to help those who can’t necessarily help themselves. Being transparent with my organisation and being honest with donors and supporters about where the funds are going and what my goals are, is also extremely important.

My one piece of advice for people wanting to pursue projects that they are truly passionate about is to just go out and bloody do it! So many people these days are scared to do what they truly want to do because of so many reasons. Don’t get me wrong, so far I’ve had enough ups and downs, but knowing that we are changing peoples lives with the work we are doing, is enough to keep me going and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

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