So I grew up in Limpopo, on the border of Limpopo and Mpumalanga, a little town called Motetema. Water and electricity supply are as unpredictable as the weather, and growing up in these tough situations, at the age of 17, I was relaxing with a couple of friends of mine in winter, and we were sunbathing. The Limpopo sun gets really hot in winter. So as we were sunbathing, my best friend next to me says, "Man, why doesn't somebody invent something that you can just put on your skin and then you don't have to bathe?" And I sat, and I was like, "Man, I would buy that, eh?"
Une jam rritur ne Limpopo, ne kufij te Limpopos dhe Mpumalanga, nje qytet i vogel i quajtur Motetema. Uji dhe furnizimi energjise jane po aq ta pa parashikuara sa koha, dhe duke u rritur ne keto kushte te veshtira, ne moshen 17 vjecare, po qetesohesa me disa miq te mite ne dimer, duke bere banjo dielli. Dielli i Limpopos behet shume i nxehte ne dimer. Ndersa po benim banjo dielli, miku im i ngushte me thote "Shoku, perse nuk shpik dikush dicka qe te mund ta vendosesh ne lekure dhe te mos kesh nevoje per larje?" Dhe ashtu ulur, i them, "Une do ta blija ate apo jo?"
So I went home, and I did a little research, and I found some very shocking statistics. Over 2.5 billion people in the world today do not have proper access to water and sanitation. Four hundred and fifty million of them are in Africa, and five million of them are in South Africa. Various diseases thrive in this environment, the most drastic of which is called trachoma. Trachoma is an infection of the eye due to dirt getting into your eye. Multiple infections of trachoma can leave you permanently blind. The disease leaves eight million people permanently blind each and every year. The shocking part about it is that to avoid being infected with trachoma, all you have to do is wash your face: no medicine, no pills, no injections.
Keshtu u ktheva ne shtepi dhe bera nje kerkim te vogel, ku zbulova disa statistika shume shokuese. Mbi 2.5 miliarde njerez ne bote sot nuk kane aksesin e duhur per uje dhe higjene. Katerqind e pesedhjete milion nga ata jane ne Afrike, dhe pese milion nga ata jane ne Afriken e Jugut. Semundje te ndryshme lulezojne ne kete mjedis, ku ajo me drastikja quhet trakome. Trakoma eshte nje infeksion i syrit per shkak te pisllekut qe futet ne sy. Infeksione te ndryshme te trakomes mund te te lene te verber. Kjo semundje le tete milion njerez te verber cdo vit. Pjesa shokuese e kesaj eshte se per te shmangur infeksionin e trakomes, ajo cka duhet te besh eshte thjesht te lash fytyren: pa mjekime, pa ilace, pa injeksione.
So after seeing these shocking statistics, I thought to myself, "Okay, even if I'm not just doing it for myself and the fact that I don't want to bathe, I at least need to do it to try to save the world." (Laughter) So with my trusty little steed, my Nokia 6234 cell phone -- I didn't have a laptop, I didn't have Internet much, except for the 20-rand-an-hour Internet cafe — I did research on Wikipedia, on Google, about lotions, creams, the compositions, the melting points, the toxicities -- I did high school science -- and I wrote down a little formula on a piece of paper, and it looked like the KFC special spice, you know?
Pra, pasi pash keto statistika shokuese, mendova "Ne rregull, nese nuk do e bej per veten time dhe per faktin se nuk dua te lahem, me duhet te pakten ta bej per tu perpjekur te shpetoj boten.'' (Te qeshura) Pra me celularin tim te vogel dhe te besueshem, Nokia 6234-- Nuk kisha laptop, nuk kisha shume internet, pervec 20 rand per nje ore internet kafe -- Bera disa kerkime ne Wikipedia, ne Google, per locione, kremra, perzierje, pikat e shkrirjes, helmushmerite -- shkence si ajo qe benim ne gjimnaze-- dhe shkrujta nje fomule te vogel ne nje cop leter, e cila ngjnte me nje erez speciale te KFC (zinxhir fast food ne USA) , e keni parasysh?
So I was like, okay, so we've got the formula ready. Now we need to get this thing into practice. Fast forward four years later, after having written a 40-page business plan on the cell phone, having written my patent on the cell phone, I'm the youngest patent-holder in the country, and — ("No more bathing!") — I can't say any more than that. (Laughter) I had invented DryBath, the world's first bath-substituting lotion. You literally put it on your skin, and you don't have to bathe. (Laughter)
Dhe aty thashe, ne rregull, kemi fomulen gati. Tani na duhet ta vendosim ne praktike. Pas kater vitesh, pasi kisha shkruar nje plan biznesi 40-faqesh ne celular, pasi kisha shkruar patenten time ne celular, Une jam mbajtesi me i ri i nje patente ne vend, dhe --("Nuk ka me dush!")-- Nuk mund te them me shume se kaq. (Te qeshura) Kisha shpikur DryBath, i pari locion zevendesues dushi ne bote. Vertet e vendos ate ne lekure, dhe nuk ke nevoje te lahesh. (Te qeshura)
So after having tried to make it work in high school with the limited resources I had, I went to university, met a few people, got it into practice, and we have a fully functioning product that's ready to go to the market. It's actually available on the market. So we learned a few lessons in commercializing and making DryBath available. One of the things we learned was that poor communities don't buy products in bulk. They buy products on demand. A person in Alex doesn't buy a box of cigarettes. They buy one cigarette each day, even though it's more expensive. So we packaged DryBath in these innovative little sachets. You just snap them in half, and you squeeze it out. And the cool part is, one sachet substitutes one bath for five rand. After creating that model, we also learned a lot in terms of implementing the product. We realized that even rich kids from the suburbs really want DryBath. (Laughter) At least once a week. Anyway, we realized that we could save 80 million liters of water on average each time they skipped a bath, and also we would save two hours a day for kids who are in rural areas, two hours more for school, two hours more for homework, two hours more to just be a kid.
Pra pasi u perpoqa ta beja te funksionoje ne gjimnaz me ato burime te limituara qe kisha, vajta ne universitet, takova disa njerez, e vura ne praktike, dhe kemi nje produkt funksionali cili eshte gati per te dal ne treg. Eshte aktualisht i disponueshem ne treg. Mesuam disa leksione mbi reklamimin dhe si te mundemi ta bejme DryBath te disponueshem. Nje nga gjerat qe mesuam ishte se ne komunitet e varfra nuk blejne produkte ne shumice. Ata blejne produkte ne nevoje. Nje person ne Alex nuk blen nje kuti me cigare. Blen nje cigare cdo dite, edhe pse eshte shume me e shtrenjte. Keshtu e paketuam DryBath ne disa qese te vogla inovative. Thjesht e ndan ate ne gjysem, dhe e shtrydh jashte. Pjesa interesante eshte, se nje qese zevendeson nje dush per pese rand. Pasi krijuam ate model, mesuam gjithashtu termat e zbatimit te produktit. Zbuluam se dhe femijet e pasur nga periferite e donin vertet DryBath. (Te qeshura) Te pakten nje here ne jave. Gjithsesi, zbuluam se mund te shpetonim 80 milion litra uje mesatarisht per cdo here qe ata i shpetonin dushit, dhe do kursenim gjithashtu dy ore per femijet te cilet jetojne ne zonat bujqesore, dy ore me shume per ne shkolle, dy ore me shume per detyrat e shtepise, dy ore me shume per te qene thjesht femije.
After seeing that global impact, we narrowed it down to our key value proposition, which was cleanliness and convenience. DryBath is a rich man's convenience and a poor man's lifesaver.
Pasi pam kete ndikim global, e kufizuam ne vleren tone thelbesore, e cila ishte pastertia dhe lehtesia. DryBath eshte lehtesi per nje njeri te pasur dhe shpetues jete per nje njeri te varfer.
Having put the product into practice, we are actually now on the verge of selling the product onto a multinational to take it to the retail market, and one question I have for the audience today is, on the gravel roads of Limpopo, with an allowance of 50 rand a week, I came up with a way for the world not to bathe. What's stopping you? (Applause) I'm not done yet. I'm not done yet. And another key thing that I learned a lot throughout this whole process, last year Google named me as one of the brightest young minds in the world. I'm also currently the best student entrepreneur in the world, the first African to get that accolade, and one thing that really puzzles me is, I did all of this just because I didn't want to bathe. Thank you. (Applause.)
Pasi e kemi hedhur produktin ne praktike, aktualisht jemi ne prag te shitjes se produktit ne shumekombeshmeri per ta marr ne treg ta pakices, dhe pyetja qe kam per ju sot eshte, ne rruget me zhavorr te Limpopos, dhe duke pasur 50rand ne jave, zbulova nje menyre per boten per te mos u lare. Cfare po ju ndalon ju? (Duartrokitje) Nuk kam mbaruar ende. Dhe dicka tjeter thelbesore qe eshte se kam mesuar shume gjate ketij procesi, vitin e kaluar, Google me quajti nje nga mendjet me te zgjuara, nder te rinjte, ne bote. Gjithastu jam aktualisht studenti me i mire sipermarres ne bote, Afrikani i pare qe ka marre titullin e kaloresit, dhe ajo cka me ngatarron mua eshte, e bera gjithe kete thjesht sepse nuk doja te lahesha. Faleminderit.