ABOUT US
WHERE WE STARTED
Kathy Ku, a young college student, spent the summer of 2010 in Uganda and was struck by how many people around her were getting sick from dirty water.
Seeing that these diseases could be prevented, she knew there was a better way. SPOUTS was created in 2011 with the simple idea that ceramic water filters could be made and sold locally, providing an amazingly effective product through a sustainable distribution model.
A social business, SPOUTS of Water LTD was started in Uganda, and the first filter was sold in 2015. Recognizing that purchasing a filter was still out of reach for some communities, the nonprofit, SPOUTS Impact was formed in 2017 to serve Uganda's most vulnerable communities with clean drinking water.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
KATHY KU
Kathy is the co-founder of SPOUTS of Water turned board member of SPOUTS Impact. She is committed to social impact and is excited to see SPOUTS Impact provide clean water to the far reaches of Uganda. She likes to cook, something she found a passion for while living in Uganda.
REBECCA LIEBSCHUTZ
Rebecca is the former Sales and Marketing Director of SPOUTS of Water LTD (social business), having worked on the ground with SPOUTS starting in 2015 and transitioning into an advisory role of SPOUTS Impact in 2019. She now works in business development for a social enterprise in California that supports child welfare agencies through technology.
Rebecca strongly believes in the power of mission-driven enterprise to solve social and environmental problems. She has a degree from the University of Michigan in Environmental Science and Economics, and has also spent time in India studying sustainable development and social change.
JANAE LLOYD
Janae Lloyd is the Director of Impact for World Centric, a social enterprise based in California. Janae runs the Companies philanthropic programs, donating 25% of profits to alleviating extreme poverty. She has managed the relationship between World Centric and SPOUTS since 2014 and joined the board in 2019.
Janae also serves on the board of directors for B Local, a nonprofit representing San Francisco & Bay Area B Corps using business as a force for good.
MARIKO FUWA
Mariko met SPOUTS while working for an international NGO in Uganda. She immediately fell in love with the idea and the passionate team. She introduced the filters to projects and to her house. Since then she has been a big fan of SPOUTS. Mariko has over 13 years of program management experience in child protection, education, resilience and emergency projects in Africa, Middle East and South Asia and Southeast Asia. She is now heading for the next adventure in Southeast Asia.
LINDA NSABABERA
Linda started her career over 20 years ago as a commercial executive in DFCU Leasing and then later as their financial accountant. She also worked at the British Council as a financial accountant, the Director of Finance and Human Resources and then an internal consultant overseeing change programs in Finance, HR, ICT, Customer Management and operations being delivered across 19 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Since leaving the British Council in 2016, she started her own private business solutions consultancy. As part of her work, she has provided support for a local development company to raise USD 27M for the development of a hydropower project in southwest Uganda. Linda is also the founder of the And Now What podcast – a platform for discussion and collaboration through which Ugandans can better identify needs and come up with the solutions that are needed to make the changes that Ugandans deserve. In her free time, Linda can be found spending time with her daughters.