#32 - The Harambe Cameroon Top-20 Project Ideas ...

I came back to Cameroon about a week ago, and I haven't had more than an hour free to be online. It's crazy how busy I get once I land on Cameroonian ground. I honestly think there can not be 24 hrs in a Cameroonian day - either each hour is actually 50 minutes, and each minute is actually 45 seconds; 'cause, seriously, there must be something (apart from my busy-ness) to explain how fast the days sprint-by here... 

Anyways, enough gibberish. I have a blogpost cooking on my desktop, but I'm still writing it up, and it's taking me longer than I expected to come to a conclusion. That said, the bone of the meat I wanted to quickly share in this  post is the Competition that's happening RIGHT NOW on our Harambe Cameroon Facebook page. 

Briefly, 41 teams of 5 each applied to our July 30th Problem-Solvers' Competition, we pre-selected 20 projects that we published on our Facebook page. The ideas range from Recycling projects, Waste management, Agriculture, pre-natal Health, rural development ... Check it out on our blog here. The young aspiring  entrepreneurs applied from 5 state Universities of Cameroon and  multiple private institutions (University of Yaounde I & II, University of Douala (ESSEC); Polytechnique, Universite des Montagnes (Bagangte), University of Buea). I have to note though, without the Ministry of Higher Education of Cameroon, we won't have managed to have an outreach of about 50 000 students, nation-wide.

The 20 pre-selected teams have proposed Idea-solutions to solve local problems. We will select the top-10 to elaborate on their project ideas, by submitting their Business Plan (with more details on market analysis, SWOT test, Comparative approach, Budgetting, Profit gain, etc). Right now, the students are doing their campaigns on our facebook page for people to vote for their project-ideas online by "Liking" their project idea, in our project album (you can access it, and have a look even if you are not on facebook). The 5 projects with the most "Likes" automatically qualify for the top-10 who would submit their Business Plans, and would compete in the July 30th Problem-Solvers' Competition, for a reward of $6000 as seed-capital, as well as scholarship opportunities both locally and internationally. 

I guess the reason I'm so impressed by, and eager to share, the dynamism of our candidates (2000 Facebook Fans - Increasing daily), is that it testifies of the potential our youth have. It reassures me, once more, that if given the chance, the opportunity, the platform (with complete transparency) while empowering them with the tools and skills they need, Cameroonian youths will revolutionize our socio-political and economic spheres.

Working session with 2 out of the 3 local Harambe-Cameroon
 team-mates, at our office in the Hajal Center - Yaounde

The youth are indeed, not the problem, but the solution. And this constant reassurance and confirmation makes this initiative I embarked in, 2 years ago, worthwhile. It makes all the time, energy, and finances I have (not spent, but) invested in this endeavor worthwhile. Because the vision is materializing itself, slowly but surely, I am more dedicated to turn it into a thriving reality: Inspiring and engaging a generation of problem-solvers. 

As I wrote in an email to our Harambe friends and supporters, yesterday: 

"Our first goal has been met: we have managed to engage these youths to stop victimizing themselves, and rather take charge of their future by translating their academic knowledge into ventures that would create jobs for themselves and others. In this first phase of our competition, they have identified the problems around them in their communities, and proposed solutions to them. In addition, each team of 5 met our criteria to have a minimum of 2 women in each team (we are proud the gender-equity was respected). 

We can't underline how important this paradigm change of mindset, and youth engagement is for the socio-political and economical development of our country. With the current Yasmin Revolutions in North Africa, the world has come to realize what we have known ever since, that when the youth are frustrated, they go on the streets to lead their country's agenda. What we, Harambe Cameroon is seeking to do, is to channel the frustrations/disillusions/despair of our youth, and transform them into incentivized-challenges for each one of them to be a probelm-solver instead of a problem maker. We try to provide a platform on which they can express their creativity and ingenuity, while at the same time providing them opportunities that will help them have a positive impact in the advancement of our nation. We don't claim to be the panacea to Cameroon's youth problems; yet through our program & competition we are, as our mission states,"inspiring and engaging a new generation of leaders and entrepreneurs, who see in problems opportunities to be seized, and have the poise and werewithal to engage others to make long lasting social impact."

I encourage you all to go ahead and join our movement! It could be as little as spreading the word about what we are doing amongst your network of friends, collegues, mates, etc. Or "Liking" and sharing our Facebook page. 

Your encouragements and support could come in multiple ways: 

- Offering your time (just 2 hrs a week) to mentor a team of students. 

- Simply leave a comment/feedback on  one of the projects, so they can think about another aspect of their business idea (comparative approach, added value etc)

- Offering more opportunities to our contestants: 

Sponsor a local or international scholarship 

($200 - $500 will pay for the school year of a university student in Cameroon - in the Public university, 

$ 1000 - $5000 willl cover the tuition of a university student in a Private university) 

- Internship opportunities in your company/enterprise, etc
- Facilitate media coverage (Cameroon, Africa, US, Europe... basically, anywhere in the world.)

Of course, last but not least, Financial support is always welcome. Last year we were able to crowdfund (from $20 - $1000 donations) to keep our endeavor on the go. Here is the list of our 2010 worldwide donors. This year, we started with a $500 donation from a young man in the US - whom we've called our very own Goodwill Samarithan. 

1.5 months left before we deliver on the 2011 Problem-Solvers'
Competition (July 26th - 28th). 

If you are interested in any of these levels of 
engagement/ involvement, please contact me; or the Harambe Cameroon email: Cameroon.2008@healliance.org. We welcome all kinds of support and encouragements. 
To end, I will share a quote I read 2 days ago (from the Harvard MBA Portrait Project 2011) that has marked me profoundly, and I'm sure it will speak to you too , it said: 

"Until you have done something for humanity, you should be ashamed to die." - Horace Mann