I’m William Asefaw, a builder, entrepreneur, and believer in ideas that restore what should already exist. My story didn’t start with technology. It started with contrast.

I grew up in Sweden, a country where light is constant, structured, and reliable, but my family’s roots trace back to Eritrea, where the absence of light has a very different meaning.

My parents fled war to give us the chance to live with stability. That journey, from displacement to opportunity, shaped how I see everything. What’s taken for granted in one part of the world is fought for in another.

Years later, during a visit to Kenya, I saw that truth up close again. When night fell, entire streets disappeared into darkness.

Children stopped reading, shops closed early, families gathered around kerosene lamps that filled the air with smoke. It wasn’t poverty I saw, it was potential without power. When I came back to Sweden, I couldn’t let it go.

I began experimenting at my kitchen table with salt, water, and metal scraps, trying to see if something so ordinary could become extraordinary. Most nights it failed. But one evening, a faint light appeared. It lasted only moments, but in that small glow I saw an idea, a reminder that innovation doesn’t always require new materials, just a new perspective.

That was the beginning of Saltchi, a lamp and power source that runs on saltwater.

A simple idea built from necessity, designed for the billions who live without electricity. Since then, the work has evolved into something larger: a mission to prove that real progress isn’t about what’s next, it’s about what’s missing.

I’ve been fortunate to receive recognition for this journey from foundations, innovators, and institutions that believe technology should begin with empathy.

But awards aren’t the goal. They are reminders that people see the value in human-centered innovation, in building not just for markets but for meaning.

Today, my work continues through Saltchi and beyond. Each project begins with the same question that started everything: Why doesn’t this exist yet? And every answer is a step toward a world where innovation feels inevitable, not exclusive.

A world where light, dignity, and opportunity are not privileges but rights.