Interaction 1.0: Ben Wokorach P Olwedo, Co-founder of Fruiti-Cycle

The purpose of sharing these interactions is to inspire others to take action in their own way after reading them. As Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, mentioned during fireside chat at Stanford GSB this year, “In your short-run career plans, it is not about what you accomplish but it’s about what you help other people accomplish and what you’ve learned from them”

Ben Wokorach is a scholar, leader, and social entrepreneur at heart. After obtaining his degree in Architecture from Makerere University, he decided to apply those skills to address the food shortage crisis in his home country of Uganda by co-founding Fruiti-Cycle (www.fruiti-cycle.com). Fruiti-Cycle aims to eliminate post-harvest waste by providing local farmers with the tools to store and transport food properly.

I was introduced to Ben when he applied for the Village to Raise a Child — VTRAC established by Harvard College Social Innovation Collaborative. The VTRAC program connects 5 high schoolers from around the world with the most innovative ideas with experts on Harvard Campus in order that they can develop their projects and leadership skills.

“Important announcement: VTRAC application is now open: http://ignitinginnovationsummit.com/program/" Just one week left.

Unfortunately, Ben was ineligible for the VTRAC program as he didn’t meet the criterion of a high school student. Luckily, we got connected with the help of Allie Cunningham, an organizer for the 2016 VTRAC program, and since then, I have personally witnessed Ben grow the Fruiti-Cycle platform into a scalable and high market value enterprise.

Recently being awarded the 2017 Mandela Washington Fellowship, he hopes to apply the leadership skills he learns from the experience to transform the African continent from within.