“Creating leaders”: Impact of an Aga Khan Schools education
During his time at the Aga Khan Academy Mombasa, Ham Serunjogi (Class of 2012) – CEO and co-founder of African fintech giant Chipper Cash – realised the importance of staying connected to something larger than himself and giving back to the world. This fuelled his remarkable success, and recently, the Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree was selected to serve as an advisor to the US President on African diaspora engagement.
“A big part of it was that I was in the residential programme,” Ham says. “My roommates and my house parents were a central part of my experience; they practically became family to me.”
Originally from Uganda, Ham became a part of the Academy’s residential programme, where students in Grades 6-12 from around the world live on campus and participate in different activities and leadership opportunities.
“The group of friends I had on the floor we lived on,” he continues, “I value those friendships deeply.”
Ham credits his dorm parent, Mr Bardai, as a large part of his amazing experience at the Academy.
“Mr Bardai was absolutely the best and looked out for me,” he said. “We remain close to this day.”
Along with his residential parents, Ham fondly recalls teachers such as Mr Kassam, who incorporated meals in his English lessons as they were described in books the students read in class, which encouraged the kids to bring in their own dishes for a potluck.
“We had a really fun time in class with Mr Kassam.”
Ham also recollects his role as President of the Academy’s Student Representative Council, which allowed him to lead the secondary school students and work closely with his peers and teachers.
“The Academies as a whole aim to instil in their education the notion of creating people who are leaders that can come back and help develop their local communities,” he explains. “The idea of being a net positive contributor to society – that was something I learnt strongly.”
“The more I think back on the ways the Academy made sure we were connected to the community, with the events we did outside of the Academy with other community members, that was a key reminder to not stay in an isolated group of privileged people or with people that aren’t connected to something larger than ourselves,” he explains.
“That really resonated with my time over there.”
From Kampala to Mombasa to Iowa
After completing the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme at the Academy, Ham’s journey leaped to another continent when he moved to Iowa in the US to study economics at the prestigious Grinnell College.
He was ready for the adventure, thanking his move to the Academy in Mombasa from his hometown in Kampala, Uganda as an insight into what it is like to move away.
“[My time at the Academy] was the first time in my life I lived away from home,” he says. “It was like a nice trial period before moving further away.”
“I was excited to move to Grinnell, to Iowa, for all the big and small things like seeing snow for the first time,” he reflects. “Just being around a new environment, new culture and a new group of people was very exciting.”
The creation of Chipper Cash
Following his graduation from Grinnell and a two-year stint at Meta (formerly Facebook) came a pivotal stage in Ham’s life. In 2018, he and his co-founder Maijid Moujaled established Chipper Cash, a financial technology, or fintech, company offering several products and services to people in Africa, such as local and cross-border payments, cards, stocks, airtime and data, and bill pay.
“I wanted to make an impact on my local community with what I know best,” Ham says. “I wanted to create a solution that might solve a problem for people in Uganda.”
The CEO met his co-founder at Grinnell, who wanted to create a similar solution for the people of Ghana, where he was originally from.
“It was easy to align our thinking because we wanted to start the company to check some boxes – what needs to be done and where?”
Chipper Cash now has over five million customers operating in countries including Nigeria, Rwanda, Ghana, Uganda and the US. It has been featured in several global financial publications as well as news channels including BBC, CNN, Quartz, Apple and Forbes, in which Ham was named as one of the honourees of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Finance List of 2023.
Serving on the US President’s advisory council
In September 2023, Ham was appointed to serve on the Inaugural President’s Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement in the United States. The Advisory Council is tasked to advise the US President on a range of issues, including how to strengthen relations between Africa and the US, promote trade and investment, and build educational exchanges.
“I definitely pinch myself every night just to make sure I’m not dreaming,” he laughs. “If you’d ask me at any point in my life if I would ever be an advisor to the US President, there’s no way I’d have thought that’s possible.”
Ham highlights what he is most excited about for his role as an advisor.
“One, it’s an incredible group of people to be a part of,” he says. “And two, in today’s world, Africa is the fastest growing continent and they’re strong partners with the US. We will help advise the President to form policy and help drive US-African relations and investment further.”
“Policy is going to affect billions of people, and if we do our job well, we’ll make a positive impact on the world. If that’s all I ever do in my life, I’ll be very happy with myself.”
Giving back to the Academy
Ham feels fortunate to be in a position where he can give back to the place that started it all. The alumnus consistently provides the Academy in Mombasa with support by coming back to address graduates, creating videos and content to promote the Academy, or even donating to support current and future students.
“It’s a special place to me,” Ham describes. “I was fortunate enough to give the 2021 graduation commencement address, and the theme of my remarks was the realisation of the opportunities I’ve been lucky to receive, and the best way to repay them is to help repair the world.”
Karishma Bhagani (Class of 2015): Making a splash for clean water
Look below for a video of Karishma speaking at the Passion in Science Awards.
Last year, 20-year-old Karishma Bhagani of Mombasa, Kenya was awarded a seed grant at the NYU Reynolds Changemaker Challenge, beating out eight other teams and 46 other projects. Bhagani won the seed grant for an innovative water purification system that makes the most of natural resources in cash-strapped communities that need clean water. Her initiative, Matone De Chiwit, came about as a solution to a problem she noticed: more and more diseases were emerging as a result of fluctuating weather in the country, ranging from floods to drought conditions. She knew that something had to be done.
Matone De Chiwit means “drops of life” in three different languages. Matone means drops in Kiswahili (Kenya), de means “of” in Spanish (Latin America) and chiwit means “Life” in Thai (Thailand). These three languages represent the three parts of the world that suffer the most from clean water scarcity. It also speaks to the global nature of her venture, as Bhagani intends to expand her project to these three regions and beyond.
Aga Khan Academy as an Inspiration
Bhagani is a fourth-generation Kenyan who recently moved to New York City where she is studying drama, history and South Asian studies at New York University. The Aga Khan Development Network has always been a part of her life as she was one of 17 students at the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa who made up the first class to have been educated from pre-school to IB graduate.
The biggest lesson that Bhagani drew from her education is to be a holistic student. She strives to be as well rounded as possible, striking a balance between a social life, sleep, work and school, all with the goal of making a global impact. This pursuit of balance was inspired by her many years at the Aga Khan Academy.
“I think that at the end of the day what everything comes down to is how we can be citizens of the world and how we can change the world that we live in to make it a better place for ourselves and children that follow us. And part of that also means giving back to your own community,” said Bhagani.
When she was in middle school, she was required to carry out a personal project on something that inspired her. Having noticed the drastic fluctuations of weather and rampant diseases in her country, Bhagani decided that she would come up with an innovative water purification system that uses readily accessible natural resources. Her initiative uses locally available materials – sand, gravel, charcoal and cotton cloth – to purify water for villagers all across Kenya. The initial version of the product also used chlorine tablets called Aquapur. Bhagani received generous sponsorship funding from Davis & Shirtliff, a local water supply company, for donating 20 units to a community to test for effectiveness. “A lot of the families said that the water was ‘tamu sana’ which in English means very sweet,” said Bhagani.
Before Bhagani came up with her product, local families were typically just drinking untreated water, using a lot of energy to boil it on charcoal-heated stoves or using Aquapur chlorine tablets.
Testing and Improving
Through testing and implementation in villages, Bhagani and her partners came to the realization that using chlorine in a plastic container might not be the best idea. These tablets can actually be dangerous to human health — high doses can be potentially harmful as the plastic in the bottles reacts with the chlorine, resulting in the spread of more serious illnesses. So they decided to change it to moringa oleifera, essentially dried seed kernels of drumstick tree powder. Then, she carried out a lot of testing by collaborating with the Coast Water Services Board. She found that the new version worked just as well as the chlorine unit did.
When she was in the IB program at the Academy, she had the opportunity to take her unit to the Golden Climate International Environment Project Olympiad. That’s where she carried out even more research and testing to modify and improve the system. Her project ended up advancing to the national round, then the international round, where she won gold in its category.
It was at this point that she decided to patent the product. She applied before starting at NYU and received the patent while she was a first-year student.
Why Matone De Chiwit?
What sets Matone De Chiwit apart from competitors is that the device is both chlorine-free and cost-effective. Since it’s made up of natural resources common in rural Kenya and other parts of Africa, they can be replaced easily, which means users don’t have to rely on Matone De Chiwit to replenish the filter. Charcoal is easily found and other ingredients, like the drumstick tree powder, can be grown in their backyards. Additionally, Moringa olifeira grows in a variety of climates and doesn’t need much water to grow.
In terms of cost, it’s much cheaper in the long-term than what is currently used. Even so, Bhagani intends to ensure it’s affordable for rural villages by applying for sponsorship and grant funding from large companies all over Europe and North America. Her venture is also bridging the gap from the city to the village, because she is working with people from each of those communities and bringing them together to achieve clean water and sanitation for all.
The Future
With the seed grants that Bhagani recently received, including the Reynolds grant, she plans to carry out her first beta testing. The biggest challenge for her at the moment is having an adequate source of funding to collect data.
“It’s kind of a chicken-and-egg situation because we need more evidence of this product working in practicality in communities so that we can apply for more grants to sustain us, but without the grants it’s difficult to go out into the communities to actually grow these projects with that seed money,” said Bhagani.
With the little funding that she currently has received, she plans to establish the purifiers in at least two or three communities. Bhagani will continue checking on the units to get enough data so she can apply for larger grants and potentially work with philanthropies like the Gates Foundation. She also hopes to conduct more research on its effectiveness through beta testing in communities.
“In five years’ time, I hope to have conducted at least ten beta tests in Mombasa, and have expanded the venture all across Kenya. My intention is to begin applying for larger grants by that time so that we can expand to other countries around the world,” said Bhagani.
Additionally, she plans to collaborate with other Aga Khan academies in Hyderabad, India and Maputo, Mozambique. That collaboration could build on student organizations that can work with the rural communities that they already engage with.
Her long-term plan is to create a sustainable community, which not only bridges the urban/rural divide but also allows families to provide for themselves.
This spotlight is republished courtesy of AKF USA.
Living on Campus
Residential life at the Academy complements and extends the academic experience. The residential programme includes a broad selection of activities and leadership opportunities to enhance students’ learning and growth.
The Academy's residential programme officially opened in April 2009. Our student residences have been designed to accommodate students and dorm parents, who are teachers who have been chosen carefully and trained to live in the faculty apartments in the student residences.
Up to four students share a room. The rooms are spacious with high ceilings and large windows. Facilities include a student lounge with a breathtaking view out to sea and a large-screen television along with laundry facilities.
The Commons building houses the dining hall and an array of spaces for school activities. It is the hub of student activity and serves as the main space for major school functions, including music and drama performances and public lectures.
“The tour of the residential facility gave me a great sense of fulfillment,” said Bernard Dudi, a teacher and dorm parent. “I appreciate the amount of planning and resources and the thoroughness of the execution.”
Learning beyond the classroom
The culture of the Academy is based on respect, integrity, honesty, fairness, empathy and good humour. Our students, teachers and administrative staff create and sustain this positive learning environment.
The experience of our pluralistic learning community is especially rich for students in residence given the constant interactions among students, faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds.
The focus of the residential programme is on students’ intellectual, social, spiritual and physical growth in a structured and ethical environment. In the words of Aziz Batada, a former dorm parent, “The residential experience allows the typical school day – where the vision of the Aga Khan Academy is continuously being lived – to be extended, and education itself is seen as a part of every moment of an individual's life.”
