Hi Kinge Emma! First of all, what scares you the most?
Ehmm… tough question. Very few things scare me, like mosquitoes, lions etc., but I think what scares me the most is hunger. I have seen people living in poverty and hunger and believe me it is scary.
Wow! You are a Hunger Fighter. What was growing up like for you?
Growing up for me was normal or so I thought at that time. It was not until recently that I realized the situation I grew up in was not normal but it seemed normal at that time because it was similar to everyone else’s. I know this might sound like a cliché story to others (those who can relate) and might sound like some made up lies to others (those who grew up in rich homes) but I grew up in a poor rural community and like most rural communities it is characterized by all the problems of the country: bad roads, poverty, HUNGER, illiteracy you can name the rest. But somehow we managed to live happy lives and I think my growing up helped influence and shape me into who I am today and what I fight for.
What scares you the most about the path which many young people are towing today?
We youths of today are consumed by social media and social life. Don’t get me wrong, I am hyped about Snapchat and I am not saying social media is bad. But it has gotten to the extent where youths care more about getting Facebook likes than their futures. We forget we are the leaders of tomorrow but how can you lead tomorrow if you do not prepare today. The few who even think of trying to work to create the future get laughed at and made fun of. Youths, in general, are just interested in cursing the system and pointing out the weaknesses and corrupt nature of our African administrators but very few think of constructive ways to repair or change the system shout out to my friend and brother, Kachi Dominic for the work he is doing with ceraphys.com in Nigeria. I guess my fear is if we as youths don’t change and become more active in changing the present political atmosphere, Africa might be worse than it is at present when we become the leaders, but I am positive things will change with the recent rise in the number of youth activists and good young leaders.
Very interesting. I love the passion in which you tell your story, now it’s time for people to actually know who you are.
Not too much to say about myself. I am a young soon to be 21-year-old Cameroonian born into a family of 6. I enjoy playing video games, shopping when I have spare cash, watching movies, and I’m an entrepreneur and a leader in the making. I study Agriculture and Natural Resource Management at the university and I am getting into my final year of undergraduate studies.
At California State University, Chico, you presented a startup business called HUNGER FIGHTERS, tell us about this.
Just from the name, you can have a clue of what the business does. Hunger fighters as we call it is an Agro-based business that aims at starting up integrated organic farms in rural areas in Africa with three main goals. Firstly to provide healthy organic food products which are relatively cheaper and would go a long way to end malnutrition and hunger in sub-Saharan Africa, secondly, hunger fighters aims at creating job opportunities in Africa by giving priorities to youths and women living in rural areas who constitute the bulk of the unemployed, and finally, we aim at generally improving the standards of living for the majority of Africans living in rural areas. In summary that’s hunger fighters for you. I hope I did not forget anything.
You are so interested in agriculture, why?
Because many youths are shying away from it so I’m making the difference (laughs). Anyways, when God created us the first job he gave us was an agricultural job (gardening) but that’s not my point yet, Africa is blessed with fertile agricultural soil which we need to make use of. But the actual reason I’m interested in Agriculture is that I want to end world hunger. The dream sounds too big to comprehend but that does not stop me from trying. I believe I will end world hunger one day through agriculture, one rural community at a time starting from where I grew up. Even if I end up not ending world hunger maybe my actions might motivate others to take up the course.
Why should youths be interested in Agriculture?
There is money in agriculture and most of our industries in Africa are agro-based, also there will always be a high demand for food because people will always need to eat and as a result, agriculture as a business would always be relevant. So why not make money while fighting the noble cause of feeding a multitude.
Do you have any past businesses? If so, tell us about it.
Yea sure I have tried a few businesses in the past such as online marketing using just WhatsApp where I sold mostly gadgets, partnered with a friend to start up a fashion business, although it failed terribly, and I am currently running a small integrated organic farm which consists of poultry, a tomato and a maize farm for now.
After your trip to the US, do you have any future projects you’re working on?
(Laughs) I have lots and lots of projects in my head but right now and I am focusing on two. Firstly, I am scaling up my integrated organic farm and adding more components to it; that is more animals and animal species, several crops and a bigger farm and it has a name now BETTER LIVES INTEGRATED ORGANIC FARM or BLIOF for short Better lives farms. And my second project which would start as from September is called project REACH OUT still sponsored mainly by BLIOF is a crazy project which I intend to embark on, it is a one year project during which I intend to visit all the orphanages in Cameroon, I intend to reach out to all the orphans and in one way or another help empower them to realize their full potential.
The project is under the theme; cloth an orphan, feed an orphan and educate an orphan because to me those are the 3 key steps in empowering anyone. The reason for the project is simple life has been good to me and just recently I traveled to the US for 6 weeks for a fully funded trip so I decided to also impact the lives of other what better way to do so than breaching out to the orphans. By the way, we are accepting donations for the project REACHOUT distance is not a barrier.
That’s great! What is your advice to young people in the university today?
Two words RISE UP. Youths, we need to rise up and accept our position as the future leaders of tomorrow and start working hard today to achieve it. I would like to end here by thanking BlankPaperz for this wonderful opportunity you have given to me and which you give to several youths and Africans in general to tell their stories I am grateful and I encourage you all to keep up the good work
Wow! This is so beautiful Kinge! Thank you so much for this eye-opening interview. It’s beautiful to see an agro-preneur like you, passionate about your work. Hey readers, wanna know more about Kinge and get in touch with him? Over here!
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