Mercedes-Benz USA recently released its latest Greatness Lives Here hero vignette featuring Dr. Derreck Kayongo – The CEO of the Center for Civil and Human Rights. Born in Uganda, Kayongo, his family fled to Kenya as refugees. He later moved to Atlanta to attend college. Dr. Kayongo holds an honorary doctorate from Oglethorpe University and is a graduate of the prestigious Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Today, he is a successful entrepreneur and human rights innovator.
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After immigrating to America, Kayongo was appalled to find that hotel soap was thrown out after one or two uses. Using this as his inspiration, he started the Global Soap Project, which is an organization that takes used soap from hotels across the United States. Instead of ending up in landfills, the soaps are cleaned and reprocessed for shipment to impoverished nations such as Haiti, Uganda, Kenya and Swaziland. This Atlanta-based non-profit has grown tremendously and is currently active in 32 countries. In 2015, Kayongo was selected to be the CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and continues to make a difference through his work there.
In this video, Dr. Kayongo highlights his experiences — and a seemingly endless font of innovation and enthusiasm — to make a difference as the founder of the Global Soap Project and CEO of the Center for Civil and Human Rights.
