Jacob Fohtung's New Entry

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Jacob Fohtung's New Entry: IlluminateBox

Bamenda , Cameroon
Year Founded:
2016
Organization type: 
hybrid
Project Stage:
Start-Up
Budget: 
$1,000 - $10,000
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Scaling strategies launched within the past 6 months:
Organizational Growth
Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

Inspiring the next generation of Cameroonian Creative Thinkers, Innovators, & Social Entrepreneurs by organizing innovation competition series, workshops, bootcamps, and seminars.

WHAT IF - Inspiration: Write one sentence that describes a way that your project dares to ask, "WHAT IF?"

what if every Cameroonian youth becomes a social innovator and entrepreneur addressing significant social problems in their local communities?
About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

Youths in Cameroon are not inspired and educated to address social problems within the society.

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

Organize innovation competition series, bootcamps, seminars and workshops to inspire youths to start thinking creatively social ills in the society and importantly innovate and build enterprises around them.
Impact: How does it Work

Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.

We are organizing an innovation competition series in high school where students are challenged to identify social problem in their communities and we provide the tools and resources for them to develop a project that will address it in a sustainable and efficient way.

Impact: What is the impact of the work to date? Also describe the projected future impact for the coming years.

One of the youths who participated in our innovation competition series suggested that job training facilities should be established in Bamenda to enable youths learn highly skilled jobs with decent pay. In the future, we want to spur and facilitate the creative thinking process of youths and enable them to become high-impact social innovators and entrepreneurs. In the next 5 years, we have facilitated the establishment of 20 young successful social entrepreneurs and in the next 10 years, we hope to get to 100 in Cameroon.

Spread Strategies: Moving forward, what are the main strategies for scaling impact?

We hope to organize more innovation competition series across high schools in Cameroon. In addition, we plan on organizing thought-provoking bootcamps, workshops, and seminars that will spur the creative thinking and innovation process across cities in the northwest region of Cameroon.
Sustainability
Funding: How is your project financially supported?: 
individual donations or gifts - 100%

Financial Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure financial sustainability?

1. Contributions from Donors and Sponsors 2. Tuitions from bootcamps and Workshops 3. Tickets from our innovation competition pitches

Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?

This is the first of its kind in Cameroon. Our main objective is for Cameroonian youths to view social problems as opportunities to create value in the society.
Team

Founding Story

After meeting and reading several young and successful social entrepreneurs in Cameroon, I realized that if we start investing in the ingenuity and creativity of our youths we could solve many social ills in our community. In addition, I also noticed a disconnect between our education system and addressing the social problems of our community. Thus, I founded this platform to inform, inspire, and educate youths about social causes in Cameroon.

Team

My childhood friend, Ebenezer and strategist of IlluminateBox shared the same vision of informing, inspiring, and educating Cameroonians youths to address social ills and become change makers in solving them through social innovation and entrepreneurship. I later on met Pelkins Ajanoh, a Cameroonian at MIT who also shared our passion and dream. We hope to get highly- skilled Cameroonians who share our vision and passion to join our team.
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