Shamim Nabuuma Kaliisa, 24, Uganda<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Founder and Executive Director of Chil Artificial\nIntelligence Lab<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Industry: Artificial intelligence in medicine<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At only 24, Shamim Nabuuma Kaliisa is an entrepreneur with a\nbackground in the medical field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She is also a cancer survivor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But she would rather you call her an entrepreneur, she\nexpresses, as she arrives for the FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 photoshoot in\nJohannesburg, straight from the airport, after flying in from Uganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her company Chil Artificial Intelligence Lab was founded out\nof both passion and personal experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When she was 13, she lost her mother to cervical cancer.\nKaliisa\u2019s mother had one last wish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe called for me from school and when I reached the Uganda\nCancer Institute, my mother told me \u2018my daughter, study hard and become a\ndoctor and look for a way to extend services to women like your mother who\nlacked key screening services in our villages\u2019,\u201d Kaliisa recounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those last words sank in and the young Kaliisa vowed to\nfulfil her mother\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But things took a different turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During her second year pursuing a bachelor\u2019s degree in\nmedicine and surgery, she felt an unusual pain in one of her breasts. She got\nit tested and the results returned positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLuckily, it was still in its early stages. I was treated,\nthough I lost one of my breasts [to mastectomy] as a way to save the rest of\nme,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These experiences led to her founding a company in 2017 to\noffer mobile cancer screening, which later incorporated the use of artificial\nintelligence guided e-oncology services (to detect cervical and breast cancer).\nToday, her company also incorporates drone services for easier transportation\nof cervical cancer specimens from the rural areas to laboratories without women\nhaving to travel long distances out of the villages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, she and her team developed a chatbot to automate consulting to communities in Uganda, South Sudan and DRC. This innovation will help reduce the human interaction and the monitory burden faced by governments. \u2063 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kaliisa, who locals refer to as \u201cmama cancer\u201d, is a winner\nof the Takeda Young Entrepreneur Award 2018, Young African Entrepreneur Award\n2018, Social Impact Finalist AWIEF Awards 2018, has received an Honourable\nMention at the Maathai Impact Award 2019, and was chosen among the top 10\nartificial intelligence companies founded in Africa by Google for start-ups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She has also been endorsed by the Tony Elumelu Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kaliisa continues to make strides in the field of cancer\nscreening. Packing up her things after the photoshoot with us, she heads back\nto the airport for her flight home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s business as usual for this young woman on a mission to help women in villages survive cancer like she did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n