Pneuma’s Turyabagye Brian; BBC Certified Innovator

It’s 11:45 Am, Sunday morning. Here at Grand Global Hotel, in Kikoni- Makerere. It’s Sunny and bright outside, as it is inside the Pneuma Word Church Sunday service lit by the Word from Prophet Brian Kagyezi.

The service ends and while many throng into “meet and greet” after the service, our author and writing enthusiast Mr. Ninsiima Gerald catches up with Mr. Brian Turyabagye about his recent endorsement by BBC as a young innovator to watch out for this year- 2017 and as Uganda’s Millennial by Sunday Adelija

Who is Mr. Brian Turyabagye?

At 24 years of age, Brian is a Telecommunications engineer with a passion to establish and set new trends in the world of technologies. He finished his University from Makerere University, and had done his O’ and A’level studies at Mbarara High School and Ntare School respectively.

At church; known and called “Bishop” , Brian is the head of the Perfected band, head of the media productions team and Assistant Head of the Finance in ministry.

He is making news for designing a biomedical “smart Jacket” called “Mamaope” that detects Pneumonia 3-4  times faster than a doctor.

He is described as a “Ugandan Millennial” by Sunday Adelaija,  the founder and senior pastor of the Embassy of God, an evangelical-charismatic megachurch in Kiev.

The Guardian , a British national daily newspaper hails Mr. Turyabagye “The jacket could be a major boom to diagnosing, treating and preventing pneumonia”

BBC News Notifys the World, “Mamaope Smart Jacket-an invention to look out for in 2017”

Born and raised by the Prophet, Mr. Turyabagye says that humility, submission (and listening) and trusting God (with extreme Confidence) is what has brought him to where he is.

Brian says “I find the whole idea of humility and the way it’s defined very appealing. I remember a day when the prophet was emphasising that no matter what, there should never be any reason of fighting over something or raising contentions, with the mind that if God directs your paths, what is it to you that you should belittle yourself and fight with man. The very fact that God directs your path it is proof enough that u can never fall by man, but can always be up and headed for your destiny.”

Just like his spiritual father Prophet Brian Kagyezi, Brian says that he has learnt how to let go no matter what and to never fear what people fear With a mind that the God who directs his path has already seen and directed his end.

“Even if I see no reason of hope, I always know that God already took the risk of making me his own, and if any bad was to happen to me through even ways I am unaware, God would never allow it to come close to my circles.” Overjoyed Brian adds.

Mr. Ninsiima Gerald: I wish to know, what’s this “Mamaope” all about?  where does it draw it’s name?

MamaOpe is a smart jacket made to save millions of children’s lives (especially aged under five) from Pneumonia. “Mama” stands for mother and “ope” stands for hope, thus MamaOpe being an acronym to mean the Mother’s hope; something made to give hope to the many mothers that have cried due to the epidemic.

Mr. Ninsiima Gerald: When is it developed?

The idea was conceived in 2015 and has been going through various stages to refine the product.

Mr. Ninsiima Gerald: Where do you draw the inspiration of coming up with the “Mamaope”?

It all started when Olivia’s (our team member) grandmother lost the battle to Pneumonia due to wrong diagnosis at an initial stage. Having been part of iLabs at Makerere research project, our mentor (Mr. Cosmas Mwikirize) inspired us to think of ideas that could revolutionalise the face of technology. It’s then that Olivia’s mind was triggered to think of a solution that could bridge the technology gap in the diagnosis process of this disease. she then got in touch with me and Bes(team member) and brainstormed on a standing solution that would work.

Mr. Ninsiima Gerald: it’s been nice catching up with you “Bishop” and surely God bless you.

This innovation has made Mr. Turyabagye Brian’s name international, interacted with the best press in the world likes of AFP agency, BBC , the guardian and CCTV. He has also been appointed as an ambassador for QEPrize (Queen Elizabeth prize for engineering) and he writes blog articles for their site, now a member of the Africa Prize for engineering alumni. His innovation has been shortlisted for the 2017 Royal Academy of Engineering Africa Prize. Reports BBC.