Yvette
ISHIMWE
IRIBA Water Group
Founder & CEO
ABH 2021 Top 10 Hero
The ABH community is an invaluable source of inspiration and support and has exposed me to diverse perspectives, innovative ideas, and best practices.
Clean drinking water from innovative ATMs in Rwanda
Yvette Ishimwe’s mission to offer Rwandans affordable drinking water began when her family moved to the countryside, where it was in short supply, and people were at risk from waterborne diseases. Demand from communities led to the business management graduate establishing IRIBA Water Group in 2017 to distribute purified water through a network of community cyclists. IRIBA’s evolution to novel water ATMs in schools and communities and solar water pumps in hard-to-reach valleys incorporates advanced filtration technology and water storage tanks. Iriba makes clean water accessible to more than 74,500 people daily through 73 sites run by women and youth franchisees.