Njemo Naomi is a Cameroonian social entrepreneur, communication strategist, and passionate youth advocate who has spent over six years nurturing young leaders across Africa.
In 2019, Naomi founded Youthkonnect, a pioneering edtech initiative born out of the sociopolitical crisis that disrupted education and displaced thousands of young people in Cameroon. Witnessing the despair around her, Naomi had a powerful realization: if youth couldn’t reach the classroom, maybe education and eempowerment could reach them instead.
Njemo Naomi shared with Today Africa the story of Youthkonnect and how it all began.
Could you please tell us about yourself?
My name is Njemo Naomi, I’m a social entrepreneur like you already know. I’m a mom, I have two kids, and I’m married. And I’ve been on this leadership journey for over six years now. And aside from my social entrepreneurial journey, I am also a manager, an administrator at a higher professional institute here in Cameroon.
Throughout my leadership experience, I’ve had the opportunity to be able to meet with young people, young leaders across Africa from different African countries.
And I’ve been able to have a piece of impact in their lives through what I’ve been doing with Youthkonnect, which of course came into existence back in 2019. So I think that’s just predominantly it.
I have a background in journalism and mass communication, and I’m currently pursuing my masters in communication, strategic communications to be precise and I think that’s pretty much who I am.
What inspired you into starting Youthkonnect?
I think this whole journey began right back in 2019, like I said, but the seed was sown in 2017. If you’re very conversant with my country, Cameroon, you would understand that in 2017, we began experiencing one of the most terrifying and the longest social political struggle we’ve ever had in the history of my country.
Due to this particular crisis, it saw the shutdown of over 5,000 schools across national territory. The atmosphere was maxed with great insecurity. Youths lost hope and state of emergencies were declared.
People had to stay indoors for a month, two months, and no movement. And people were living, but they felt dead. At that juncture, as a young girl that I was then, I was still in the university.
I became very bothered because I had to drop out of school because of the crisis. And I saw the great negative effects this crisis had on youth in particular. Because in every given society, education is the backbone of development.
When education is seized away from the people, especially the youths who constitute the most vital section of a country’s population, when education is seized away from them, it gives rise to armed robberies, vandalism, violence, etc.
I asked myself, how can I come into this picture, you know, and create change, even in the midst of all this mess? That was when I had a light bulb moment. I like calling it that. It got done on me that I could do something.
Within the confines of my home, I didn’t need to go somewhere or I didn’t need to be somewhere different. And I remember very well it was in my room and I went straight to my diary and I began scribbling down the items that just came on me.
And I asked myself this question; youths can’t go to school, is there a way I can bring education to them? If they are not able to go to schools because of the crisis, what can I do to bring education to them?
Secondly, what can I do to create a safe space? Because actually, the number one problem was safety. We did not have safety. We did not have security. And that is why schools were shut down.
So I asked, what safe space can I create to enable these youths learn from the confines of their homes. And as I began answering the questions, I began getting clarity.
I began seeing the need to come up with something far greater than I am, something that could unite these youths, irrespective of where they were, irrespective of what they were going through.
I’m talking about a situation where you had internally displaced youths who would leave everything they have worked for, everything they have known, and they are forced to move to another location just to look for safety.
So I was looking for something that could act as a beacon of hope. And that is how Youthkonnect came into being. What is Youthkonnect? I call a safe space for youths to be able to explore, engage, interact, network, learn, and leverage the experiences they’ve had.
Probably from their community, from their environment, from the local regions in which they find themselves, to leverage those experiences and see how they can be able to grow as leaders, to nurture those values and pay it back forward.
Because our value and our intent is paying it forward. And that is how Youthkonnect came into existence in 2019. We could only establish it in 2019 but we had our first prototype ever virtual meeting in 2018 and it was massive.
We had over 100 youths who were present virtually. And what gave me so much joy and fulfillment was seeing these youths, I could see in their eyes, I could see that they found something they could hold onto.
I’m talking about youths who had lost their homes in which they grew up in, either through fire, either through just destruction from the separatist fighters and all that.
They saw this as an opportunity to rise up from the ashes and be something better. So that’s how Youthkonnect came about.
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Tell me more about Youthkonnect, including the services you’re offering
Youthkonnect is basically an edtech clarity hub or initiative centered around three pillars. And this is youth education, youth development and youth entrepreneurship.
The reason why I mentioned the word safe space is because all our activities are virtual. So ranging from our three flagship programs, which include the Global Citizenship and Sustainable Leadership Conference, the Next Elites, and the Youth Level Up program.
These three programs are tied around the three pillars in which all our activities focus on. And just recently this year, we had to re-evaluate our mission, our vision, and see how to become more inclusive with our activities.
This led to the birth of our fourth flagship program, which is Lee Change. It’s an all-female Lee Change conference where we target young female leaders across Africa.
I know the question is after they do attend these programs, then what next? Since our focus is not just on gathering youths virtually to attend programs.
We are more interested in ability and they eat forward to their various communities, impact other youths of their communities, leverage the skills, leverage the knowledge they’ve attained.
So we have put in place a well-placed system, a well feedback, and follow-up system where we have an intense mentorship program of six months.
We have consultants on standby who mentor these young leaders for a period of three to six months, depending on the program in which they got accepted or enrolled in.
After the mentorship, we have partnership with local organizations. And if they wish to leverage that knowledge and experience, then they can apply for a volunteering position. And we send them to these local NGOs to be able to volunteer.
For other young leaders who are in the underserved areas of the community, because actually that’s our focus on the underprivileged, on inaccessible areas of the community where there are youths that would not really have what it takes to have equitable access to education.
So there are youths who really want to get into them resource-wise. We give the necessary connections that are available, and sometimes out of our own way to be able to see how to follow up with the government or policy requirements to ensure that they are in line with what the government is required for that particular jurisdiction.
“In the midst of the mess, I asked myself—what can I do? That was my lightbulb moment. I didn’t need to be somewhere else. Within the confines of my room, I started scribbling in my diary.”
And we see how to encourage them, pay it forward to that particular community. So that’s practically what we do at Youthkonnect.
Then the second phase of what we also do at Youthkonnect is, we encourage education. When I talk about encouraging education, what do I mean? I mean, we assist young leaders who want to foster education in applying for scholarships.
We have webinar sessions where we teach them pro tips on how to be able to ace a good, successful and acceptable application for the different global opportunities because there are over eight global opportunities.
For each webinar session, we treat one so throughout the year we have gone through the different eight global scholarships and all throughout the years we’ve had so many success stories of young leaders who have been accepted into fellowship programs.
Who’ve had scholarship programs, who’ve had opportunities to go on fully funded conferences, get the knowledge, get the networks, get the experience. And they are back here in Cameroon doing massive exports.
The last phase of Youthkonnect is centered around teaching young people on the sustainable development goals, which are the SDGs of the United Nations.
We want to be engaged and integrated in fostering this particular vision of the United Nations in our own way, at our own level. So we teach these young leaders.
Because it will surprise you to know that there are still young people in Africa, in Cameroon, in my country who have no idea about the SDGs of the United Nations and the goals and how to go about them.
So we are out to see how to be able to teach them and nurture them in that particular light.
Are all these programs free or are there some that are paid?
All our programs are free. There’s none of our programs that used to charge. A little backdrop and I missed this particular part of who I was.
I grew up in a family where I was the very first to graduate from the university. So you can understand education was seen as a luxury to a lot of people who feel that education is a basic right, trust me, when you grow up in a family that struggles.
You would know it’s not a right, it’s a luxury. So I really wanted to study. I loved going to school, but I never had the privilege that a lot of kids do have. I had to work my way up there.
And I had to do jobs and I had a father who really understood me back then who went the extra mile to see that I succeeded. And luckily for me, when I got to the university, I never paid fees because I was on a fully funded scholarship.
So each year, my GPA was so good that the government would refund my fees. You actually paid the school fees at the beginning of the year. And if you exceed a particular cut of GPA points, the government awards you your school fees as a scholarship token.
So I could get my school fees at the end of every academic year. And I used it to repay my school fees for the next academic year. That was how I completed my studies.
That placed a very soft spot in my heart for youths who are struggling. I said to myself, this is what I can do and I don’t need the world to pay me but I think I find great satisfaction in what I’m doing.
And subsequently over the years, we’ve had local organizations who are partnering with us and seeing that we do what we do effortlessly. So far so good, we’re not taxing anything. So it’s all free.
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Besides the local partnerships, are there other kinds of funding that comes to you people that help in the smooth running of Youthkonnect?
We’ve had a couple of funding opportunities rather unfortunately, it’s not even from Cameroon. I recently applied on behalf of Youthkonnect for the TEP entrepreneurial program.
I’m sure you’re very versed with that because I think you’re from Nigeria, I think so. So I was privileged to be shortlisted for the award and I’m currently undergoing the training and I think that comes down to 5,000 US dollars, which is approximately 2.8 million CFA.
I think that these are the things that give us hope. At the level of my country, like at the level of my local government, the policies here do not actually really favor startups or young social entrepreneurs who are struggling to make change.
I’ve had my own couple of challenges, it’s not all that good. There are actually years I felt like I couldn’t continue with it because the weight was actually too much.
And I was looking for a means to just, you know, lay low and lay off because I think we were supposed to have a program in another region. Normally we have to follow protocols so I was to send out a letter demanding or pleading for an authorization to access schools.
We wanted to train or come up with a short training for secondary and primary schools in that particular area to teach them against violence in schools because stabbing in schools became a very rampant issue here in our community.
So I wanted to do something about it. Unfortunately, for me, when I sent one of my team members to the authority to have the opportunity to be able to do the sensitization, it all came back unproductive and unfruitful.
And it would really surprise you to know that our government does not really make it easier for us to be able to do the job and to do what is required.
We had to delay and postpone that particular program because we could not have access to schools to train young boys and girls on no violence on school grounds. That’s how youths kept dying in schools out of being stabbed, violence, and all that.
I think that one of the lessons that I’ve really taken home with me throughout this journey is that the path is not easy. But if the passion is greater than the difficulty faced, then definitely we’re going to reach the finish line.
What have been the challenges that have come your way and how have you been able to overcome them?
Like I mentioned earlier, the first challenge that we’ve had so far is government policies and gatekeeping.
I am not speaking just for myself, I want to use this opportunity to speak out for young social entrepreneurs who really really want to do the work but cannot.
The government really has to collaborate with young people to ensure that what they do, they do it and do it very well, especially if their work is so selfless, it’s not for their own gain. It’s for the good of the community.
Such ventures and initiatives really have to be encouraged. I’m telling you the truth over 20 young leaders like myself and ask them the same question. This particular answer I’m giving to you, it’s going to be the very first because it’s a challenge that is very much relatable.
I’m speaking for young leaders in Cameroon. I don’t know about other African countries, it’s very common over here.
The second challenge that I’ve really faced is the aspect of finances. When I started this initiative, it wasn’t as easy as it is right now.Starting up an initiative like this in the midst of a crisis.
I’ve never done this before. So I didn’t even know how to begin and there were a lot of challenges, a lot of things I really wanted to do, but I couldn’t do because I did not have the money.
But I kind of came out of that hole because I had to reach out to mentors and people who really helped me have clarity and find my way through that particular mess at that time that I could see how to begin. Then I also had the idea of doing it virtual.
“Youthkonnect is a safe space for youths to explore, engage, interact, network, learn, and leverage their experiences to grow as leaders.”
It will cost you to know that most of my ideas, most of our programs that we do, we have people of goodwill, like I said, give to help us. That is what has really given us the leverage to be able to do all we’ve done all throughout the years.
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What are the changes that you have seen in the lives of the youths who have been to your programs?
A lot of changes and that’s what’s keeping me going. Like let me use a glaring example here in Cameroon. I have one youth, many of them, but this one really stands out.
He was part of our very first cohort back in 2019 and right now I’m telling you he’s doing a lot. He’s a young professional nurse and he’s created an initiative for nurses in the South region of Cameroon.
And he’s heading that initiative like crazy. Currently, as I’m to you right now, they have what they call the nightingale week to commemorate and celebrate young health practitioners, frontliners in the suburb regions of the Southwest regions of Cameroon.
So they are practically in a town called Kumba. It’s like it’s a peri-urban town. They want to see how to be able to encourage foster quality care and encourage nurses who have decided to dedicate their lives to the service of the community.
Sometimes when I see the things he does, I’m like, wow, this is mind blowing. Sometimes he walks up to me, calls me in the morning, mom, I really want to thank you for what you did to me back in 2019. It gave me the push I needed. It’s placed me where I am.
I have another example, he’s currently the founder of Youth on Purpose. He’s doing massive work and they’re also centered around harnessing contemporary and relevant skills in young leaders in Cameroon to see how to make them ready for the job market and it’s wonderful.
I can go on and on. Two years ago, we broke through our national boundary. Now we have fellows in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda.
Currently, as I’m talking to you, my core team, I think I have just three Cameroonians. The rest are of different nationalities in Africa.
Our main idea is to be able to see how to empower one, one will empower 10, 10 will empower 20, and that’s how leadership is supposed to be. This is what really gives me joy and I’m happy to see it grow.
How do you manage your team that are outside Cameroon?
We live in a technologically advanced society, so technology has come to make the world a global village. So I do not necessarily have to be where they are, they don’t necessarily have to be where I am.
But I think that the common platform of dedication is the passion for what we do. Trust me, Chukwuemeka, because sometimes it’s difficult to follow someone who is close to you, right?
What more of someone you don’t see, someone who is geographically very far away from you. I think we are bound by the common bond of passion for what we do. And that’s what gives us the drive and restlessness.
Back in 2018, I was invited to Nigeria to teach and train some youths on self-discipline. And I told them that someone who is passionate is crazy. You cannot be passionate and you’re normal.
And I believe that that’s what has kept me and my team going throughout the years. We are passionately crazy about what we do. We just want to do it and we just want to see it done.
What we do is we have monthly meetings. We decide to choose any social conference call app. Predominantly we like using Zoom, so we have meetings once every month but the month that we have a program, we have meetings twice, pre and post.
So pre-preparatory meetings are post-evaluation because we always evaluate what we do. We see the faults, we see the cracks, we see the advantages, we see the good things we did, and we see how to re-strategize and ameliorate our next meeting to be even better.
It’s a very wonderful question you’re asking me because I just had a meeting with my team last week and I announced that I’m stepping out of the position of the president.
Actually I was acting both as the president and the founder. So I’m stepping back and we are currently on the way to seeing how to elect and vote a new president. I’m just going to be in the background and I’m going to let these young people do the work.
They’re passionate about it and I believe that’s the legacy. You pass it on forward. You see others do it and do it even better than you did. So it’s pretty interesting.
And we are looking forward to our very first ever Meet and Greet program at the end of this year. Hopefully we are trying to see how to mobilize all the resources we’ll need. We want these young people to come together.
Obviously for our very first session our converging point will be in Cameroon and subsequently we may be having the meet and greet sessions in other countries as God will graciously permit.
So for this year’s edition we are trying to see how to have it here in Cameroon for all the alumni of Youthkonnect to converge and have a moment to learn, network, interact and, build that liaison that is really needed to empower and give them hope for what they do so that they can be able to do a better job.
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What systems and processes did you put in place for the smooth running of Youthkonnect and also enables you to step back from being the president?
We have what we call a standard operation guide. I had to do that to be able to enable young people to ease the workflow within the organization.
So this standard operation guide is going to enable whosoever is going to be the president to know how things are done and when it’s done. And of course, Chukwimweka, the whole point of this, I don’t want to raise like a programmable machine.
I want to raise someone who has the free-will to be innovative, creative, and also do something that feels that it’s going to be for the good and for the betterment of the initiative as a whole and for the youths to benefit from what we do.
Aside from having the standard operational guide or standard operational procedure (SOP), that is really going to help the president come up with all the activities and all that is needed.
They have their own intuition and creativity to tap from. Then secondly, we have standby consultants; educational consultants, legal consultants that are always present to give them the mentoring, the guidance, the advice that is needed.
I am also much available to step in whenever they need my help. Also we have a constitution that binds us as an organization or as an initiative.
There is nothing that they’re going to be doing out of what we already have been doing and which is also present in our constitution as an initiative.
How do you manage being a wife, mom, founder, and other aspects of your life without breaking down?
(Laughs) that’s a very good question. Last year I had to take a break. And that was the moment I realized that, oh, it’s time for me to lay off some baggage.
It’s too much. I can’t be everywhere doing everything at the same time. I’m going to burn out. And it’s a beautiful thing to be a mom.
Truly, it’s one of the most wonderful experiences I’ve had. I’ve two beautiful kids, boys. But it’s still also not easy to be able to manage and balance my work life, my personal life, being a mom, being a wife, being a founder, it’s so much.
And that was when I decided to do a pre-test. Like I handed over, not completely but I delegated authority, tasks to my team members and they did it big time. And it got done on me that, oh, they are ready.
I’ve been working with them for years and they’ve been working with me for years. And I realized that working with them, I kind of trained them. They’re able to communicate, execute, plan, and do everything as expected.
True, it’s not 100 % perfect, but they’re doing it. Even in their failures, they’re learning. They’re taking up initiatives to do even the tiny bits of things that sometimes I overlook, even as the founder of the initiative.
Their eyes are very keen to see, to pinpoint and execute. So that really got done on me, it was time for me to lay off some baggage. It was really too much for me to carry.
One other aspect that has really helped me maintain that balance is I’ve had coaching sessions. Trust me, I couldn’t carry. I had to have coaching sessions on how to be able to maintain a balance.
That is when I began learning, even as a leader, I learned. You learn till the day you die. I began learning to delegate more and share the responsibilities.
That is how I was able to get to the point where I am fully present everywhere without getting burned.
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