Ludwick Marishane: A bath without water

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

Translator: Alisa Xholi Reviewer: Iris Xholi

So I grew up in Limpopo, on the border of Limpopo

Une jam rritur ne Limpopo, ne kufij te Limpopos

and Mpumalanga, a little town called Motetema.

dhe Mpumalanga, nje qytet i vogel i quajtur Motetema.

Water and electricity supply are as unpredictable

Uji dhe furnizimi energjise jane po aq ta pa parashikuara

as the weather, and growing up in these tough situations,

sa koha, dhe duke u rritur ne keto kushte te veshtira,

at the age of 17, I was relaxing with a couple of friends

ne moshen 17 vjecare, po qetesohesa me disa miq

of mine in winter, and we were sunbathing.

te mite ne dimer, duke bere banjo dielli.

The Limpopo sun gets really hot in winter.

Dielli i Limpopos behet shume i nxehte ne dimer.

So as we were sunbathing, my best friend next to me says,

Ndersa po benim banjo dielli, miku im i ngushte me thote

"Man, why doesn't somebody invent something that you can

"Shoku, perse nuk shpik dikush dicka qe

just put on your skin and then you don't have to bathe?"

te mund ta vendosesh ne lekure dhe te mos kesh nevoje per larje?"

And I sat, and I was like, "Man, I would buy that, eh?"

Dhe ashtu ulur, i them, "Une do ta blija ate apo jo?"

So I went home, and I did a little research,

Keshtu u ktheva ne shtepi dhe bera nje kerkim te vogel,

and I found some very shocking statistics.

ku zbulova disa statistika shume shokuese.

Over 2.5 billion people in the world today

Mbi 2.5 miliarde njerez ne bote sot

do not have proper access to water and sanitation.

nuk kane aksesin e duhur per uje dhe higjene.

Four hundred and fifty million of them are in Africa,

Katerqind e pesedhjete milion nga ata jane ne Afrike,

and five million of them are in South Africa.

dhe pese milion nga ata jane ne Afriken e Jugut.

Various diseases thrive in this environment,

Semundje te ndryshme lulezojne ne kete mjedis,

the most drastic of which is called trachoma.

ku ajo me drastikja quhet trakome.

Trachoma is an infection of the eye due to dirt

Trakoma eshte nje infeksion i syrit per shkak te pisllekut

getting into your eye. Multiple infections of trachoma

qe futet ne sy. Infeksione te ndryshme te trakomes

can leave you permanently blind.

mund te te lene te verber.

The disease leaves eight million people permanently blind

Kjo semundje le tete milion njerez te verber

each and every year. The shocking part about it

cdo vit. Pjesa shokuese e kesaj

is that to avoid being infected with trachoma,

eshte se per te shmangur infeksionin e trakomes,

all you have to do is wash your face:

ajo cka duhet te besh eshte thjesht te lash fytyren:

no medicine, no pills, no injections.

pa mjekime, pa ilace, pa injeksione.

So after seeing these shocking statistics, I thought to myself,

Pra, pasi pash keto statistika shokuese, mendova

"Okay, even if I'm not just doing it for myself

"Ne rregull, nese nuk do e bej per veten time

and the fact that I don't want to bathe, I at least need

dhe per faktin se nuk dua te lahem, me duhet te pakten

to do it to try to save the world." (Laughter)

ta bej per tu perpjekur te shpetoj boten.'' (Te qeshura)

So with my trusty little steed, my Nokia 6234 cell phone --

Pra me celularin tim te vogel dhe te besueshem, Nokia 6234--

I didn't have a laptop, I didn't have Internet much,

Nuk kisha laptop, nuk kisha shume internet,

except for the 20-rand-an-hour Internet cafe —

pervec 20 rand per nje ore internet kafe --

I did research on Wikipedia, on Google, about lotions,

Bera disa kerkime ne Wikipedia, ne Google, per locione,

creams, the compositions, the melting points, the toxicities --

kremra, perzierje, pikat e shkrirjes, helmushmerite --

I did high school science --

shkence si ajo qe benim ne gjimnaze--

and I wrote down a little formula on a piece of paper,

dhe shkrujta nje fomule te vogel ne nje cop leter,

and it looked like the KFC special spice, you know?

e cila ngjnte me nje erez speciale te KFC (zinxhir fast food ne USA) , e keni parasysh?

So I was like, okay, so we've got the formula ready.

Dhe aty thashe, ne rregull, kemi fomulen gati.

Now we need to get this thing into practice.

Tani na duhet ta vendosim ne praktike.

Fast forward four years later, after having written

Pas kater vitesh, pasi kisha shkruar

a 40-page business plan on the cell phone,

nje plan biznesi 40-faqesh ne celular,

having written my patent on the cell phone,

pasi kisha shkruar patenten time ne celular,

I'm the youngest patent-holder in the country,

Une jam mbajtesi me i ri i nje patente ne vend,

and — ("No more bathing!") —

dhe --("Nuk ka me dush!")--

I can't say any more than that. (Laughter)

Nuk mund te them me shume se kaq. (Te qeshura)

I had invented DryBath, the world's first

Kisha shpikur DryBath, i pari

bath-substituting lotion.

locion zevendesues dushi ne bote.

You literally put it on your skin, and you don't have to bathe.

Vertet e vendos ate ne lekure, dhe nuk ke nevoje te lahesh.

(Laughter)

(Te qeshura)

So after having tried to make it work in high school

Pra pasi u perpoqa ta beja te funksionoje ne gjimnaz

with the limited resources I had, I went to university,

me ato burime te limituara qe kisha, vajta ne universitet,

met a few people, got it into practice,

takova disa njerez, e vura ne praktike,

and we have a fully functioning product that's ready

dhe kemi nje produkt funksionali cili eshte gati

to go to the market. It's actually available on the market.

per te dal ne treg. Eshte aktualisht i disponueshem ne treg.

So we learned a few lessons in commercializing

Mesuam disa leksione mbi reklamimin

and making DryBath available.

dhe si te mundemi ta bejme DryBath te disponueshem.

One of the things we learned was that poor communities

Nje nga gjerat qe mesuam ishte se ne komunitet e varfra

don't buy products in bulk.

nuk blejne produkte ne shumice.

They buy products on demand. A person in Alex

Ata blejne produkte ne nevoje. Nje person ne Alex

doesn't buy a box of cigarettes. They buy one cigarette

nuk blen nje kuti me cigare. Blen nje cigare

each day, even though it's more expensive.

cdo dite, edhe pse eshte shume me e shtrenjte.

So we packaged DryBath in these innovative little sachets.

Keshtu e paketuam DryBath ne disa qese te vogla inovative.

You just snap them in half, and you squeeze it out.

Thjesht e ndan ate ne gjysem, dhe e shtrydh jashte.

And the cool part is, one sachet substitutes one bath

Pjesa interesante eshte, se nje qese zevendeson nje dush

for five rand.

per pese rand.

After creating that model, we also learned a lot

Pasi krijuam ate model, mesuam gjithashtu

in terms of implementing the product.

termat e zbatimit te produktit.

We realized that even rich kids from the suburbs

Zbuluam se dhe femijet e pasur nga periferite

really want DryBath. (Laughter)

e donin vertet DryBath. (Te qeshura)

At least once a week.

Te pakten nje here ne jave.

Anyway, we realized that we could save 80 million liters

Gjithsesi, zbuluam se mund te shpetonim 80 milion litra

of water on average each time they skipped a bath,

uje mesatarisht per cdo here qe ata i shpetonin dushit,

and also we would save two hours a day for kids

dhe do kursenim gjithashtu dy ore per femijet

who are in rural areas, two hours more for school,

te cilet jetojne ne zonat bujqesore, dy ore me shume per ne shkolle,

two hours more for homework,

dy ore me shume per detyrat e shtepise,

two hours more to just be a kid.

dy ore me shume per te qene thjesht femije.

After seeing that global impact, we narrowed it down

Pasi pam kete ndikim global, e kufizuam

to our key value proposition,

ne vleren tone thelbesore,

which was cleanliness and convenience.

e cila ishte pastertia dhe lehtesia.

DryBath is a rich man's convenience

DryBath eshte lehtesi per nje njeri te pasur

and a poor man's lifesaver.

dhe shpetues jete per nje njeri te varfer.

Having put the product into practice, we are actually now

Pasi e kemi hedhur produktin ne praktike, aktualisht jemi

on the verge of selling the product

ne prag te shitjes se produktit

onto a multinational to take it to the retail market,

ne shumekombeshmeri per ta marr ne treg ta pakices,

and one question I have for the audience today is,

dhe pyetja qe kam per ju sot eshte,

on the gravel roads of Limpopo,

ne rruget me zhavorr te Limpopos,

with an allowance of 50 rand a week,

dhe duke pasur 50rand ne jave,

I came up with a way for the world not to bathe.

zbulova nje menyre per boten per te mos u lare.

What's stopping you? (Applause)

Cfare po ju ndalon ju? (Duartrokitje)

I'm not done yet. I'm not done yet.

Nuk kam mbaruar ende.

And another key thing that I learned a lot

Dhe dicka tjeter thelbesore qe eshte se kam mesuar shume

throughout this whole process,

gjate ketij procesi,

last year Google named me as one of the brightest young minds in the world.

vitin e kaluar, Google me quajti nje nga mendjet me te zgjuara, nder te rinjte, ne bote.

I'm also currently the best student entrepreneur

Gjithastu jam aktualisht studenti me i mire sipermarres

in the world, the first African to get that accolade,

ne bote, Afrikani i pare qe ka marre titullin e kaloresit,

and one thing that really puzzles me is, I did all of this

dhe ajo cka me ngatarron mua eshte, e bera gjithe kete

just because I didn't want to bathe. Thank you.

thjesht sepse nuk doja te lahesha. Faleminderit.

(Applause.)