Restoring soil and livelihoods in Cameroon through youth-led regenerative farming scholarships

This project is led by Kuta Cornelius, founder of the Wandusoa. For years, Kuta informally trained smallholder farmers and displaced youths in sustainable farming, driven by a simple conviction: healthy soil is the backbone of healthy communities.

With this project, we are backing Kuta’s leadership, providing scholarships for displaced youth and a model that connects livelihoods with ecological restoration.

Why this matters

Degraded soil is undercutting food security and livelihoods across Cameroon. For displaced and low-income families, the stakes are immediate: unreliable harvests, rising food costs, and few pathways into dignified work. Women often carry the heaviest burden yet have the least access to tools, training, and finance.

What the project will change

For young women, this project will be life-changing. Instead of seeing displacement, poverty, or lack of opportunity as the end of their story, they will gain tools, knowledge, and startup capital to grow something new.

For the wider community, these young women become multipliers—restoring plots, modelling climate-smart practices, and sharing knowledge with neighbours. As graduates move into the three-month mentorship phase, they’ll develop viable plans to launch enterprises on Wandusoa-linked land, contributing to healthier soils, steadier harvests, and more resilient local food systems. Families will have greater access to affordable, nutritious food. Ten hectares of degraded land will be restored, improving biodiversity and climate resilience.

Over time, these graduates will become local leaders, shifting practices, mindsets, and futures from extractive to regenerative.