Skip to main content
Kwanda
Join

Agriculture

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

Person wearing a yellow rain hat planting a small tree in a lush, green forest setting. Complete

Fund capital used

$2,820

A nine-month pilot project in Ngoumou and Bankomo, Cameroon, supporting marginalised young women to train in regenerative agriculture and business skills.

Through classroom lessons, hands-on farming, mentorship, and startup support, scholars will launch their own agro-enterprises while restoring 10 hectares of degraded land and improving food security for 5,000+ households.

Join to contribute
Local partner:
Kuta Cornelius

The Story

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.

Man smiling while holding soil in his hands, standing in a lush, green garden with trees and a pond in the background. In 2023, Wandusoa was formally established to scale this vision. Backed by a small team of five experienced farmers and local agronomists, Kuta has already trained 21 youth entrepreneurs, most of them displaced girls, and reached over 500 farmers through school and community programmes.

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.

Person wearing a yellow rain hat planting a small tree in a lush, green forest setting. Wandusoa’s model tackles these barriers head-on. It pairs hands-on regenerative training (agroforestry, permaculture, beekeeping, and livestock) with business skills and mentored startup support, turning students into soil stewards and income earners. Scholarships make this pathway accessible to young women who would otherwise be excluded.

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.

Graduates in caps and gowns proudly hold certificates, posing with faculty and family in front of a decorated venue. For the young women, a scholarship means stability: daily meals during intensive farm days, protective gear (boots, raincoats, gloves), tools, and a seat in a classroom that leads to real income.

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.

Technical stuff

The Details

Updates

From the field

12 of our scholars graduated in Cameroon as we won an international gold award

Posted by Kuta Cornelius

Posted 28 May 2026

This month we held our graduation ceremony at the Government Bilingual High School in Mfou, Cameroon, where the latest cohort of our regenerative-farming and business programme qualified as what we call “Architects of the Soil.”

Students in brown uniforms holding certificates in front of Government Bilingual High School Mfou's painted wall sign.

Government officials, local authorities and our partner organisation RELUFA joined us, and we unveiled the International Gold Level Award the programme won from the School Enterprise Challenge (run by the UK charity Teach A Man To Fish), with a virtual keynote from its chief executive, Nik Kafka.

We held our scholars to a high bar, and 12 of the 20 met the full requirements to graduate. The clearest proof of the model came from Pitou, one of our graduates, who presented the business plan she had built for an organic poultry and vegetable farm. Her pitch was strong enough that a guest in the audience pledged to invest in it on the spot, and she is now a business owner preparing to employ others in her community. Each graduate received a certificate, and we gave letters of recognition to the school's staff.

Two women holding certificates and posing outdoors in front of a building, one making a peace sign.

We spent £1,200 on project kits, logistics and training materials, plus 175,000 CFA (about £225) on the ceremony itself, covering catering, refreshments, transport and certificates.

The eight scholars who did not graduate this round mostly face difficult economic circumstances, and we're planning more intensive mentorship to help them through. We're also assessing a site near Ngoumu, in Mbankomo, for a permanent Ecological Learning Centre, where we want to scale the programme to reach more displaced young people. International transfers for our running costs have been slow to arrive, so we're working with partners in the United States to streamline that.

Attachments:

Scholars sell first harvest and enter global enterprise competition in Cameroon

Posted by Kuta Cornelius

Posted 26 Mar 2026

This month, we moved from classroom theory to a running school enterprise at Government Bilingual High School Mfou, and submitted our Annual Report for the Global School Enterprise Challenge, officially entering our 20 scholars (12 girls, 8 boys) into the "Top School Business" category.

We harvested our first crop of organic spinach and huckleberry. When standard 1kg bundles proved too expensive for students' daily allowances, we created 250 XAF "Mini-Bundles" (roughly 30p each) and sold out within 48 hours, reaching 60 community members. Scholars rotated through Finance, Sales, and Production roles so each one gained hands-on experience running the business.

Students in orange uniforms and casual clothing pulling plants from tilled soil in an outdoor garden plot. The dry season hit hard in February, threatening our vegetable ridges. The production team pivoted to deep mulching and a strict 5am watering schedule, which saved the harvest but demanded significantly more physical labour than planned.

We spent 40,000 XAF (roughly £50) this month on market research stipends, logistics to move produce from farm to market, data bundles for scholars to upload business plans and the annual report, and branding materials for the first Harvest Day.

Our scholars are now completing individual business plans in the Enterprise Adventure App, and we are preparing for a formal graduation ceremony between late April and early May, where they will transition from students to independent soil stewards and entrepreneurs.

20 scholars in Cameroon begin digital entrepreneurship training alongside dry season farm preparation

Posted by Kuta Cornelius

Posted 9 Feb 2026

We successfully registered all 20 scholars on the Enterprise Adventure app, starting the final three months of the programme where they'll each design a business plan. Alongside this, we continued intensive fieldwork to stay ahead of the dry season, with an early-morning watering schedule for 100 ridges and preparing the nursery for spinach, huckleberry, and other vegetable seeds. Despite limited access to smartphones and slow internet connectivity, scholars progressed by sharing devices and supporting one another through peer mentoring.

This phase has strengthened the scholars’ confidence as they begin to see themselves not only as farmers, but as entrepreneurs connected to a wider global community. Early work with digital tools is helping them shape business ideas that link food production, soil restoration, and local food security. With graduation three months away, we'll continue digital training and one-on-one mentorship to ensure every scholar completes a practical, launch-ready business plan.

We spent 68,000 XAF this period: 35,000 XAF on daily meals for the scholars during fieldwork and training, 15,000 XAF on seeds for the nursery, 10,000 XAF on internet data for the Enterprise Adventure app, and 8,000 XAF on transport for manure and tools.

Students in gold uniforms writing in notebooks at a wooden table, with an adult in an orange shirt standing nearby. Activities:

  • Registered 20 scholars on the Enterprise Adventure app to begin digital entrepreneurship training

  • Maintained a daily early-morning watering schedule for 100 ridges during the dry season

  • Prepared nursery beds and organic inputs for spinach, huckleberry, and vegetable seeds

  • Conducted one-on-one business mentorship sessions

  • Used mulching and adjusted work hours to protect soil health and scholars' wellbeing

    Students in brown uniforms studying books at wooden tables in a classroom with a whiteboard, supervised by an adult in an orange shirt.

    Maliki, a project scholar, shared:

    I used to think my world had become very small because of the things I lost, but since signing up for the Enterprise Adventure, I feel like I am standing on a big stage. Seeing students from other schools across the world doing the same missions as me makes me feel powerful. I’m not just growing spinach; I am designing a business that the whole world can see, and for the first time, I can imagine myself as a boss, not just a survivor. Students in mustard yellow uniforms studying and looking at a phone around a table in a classroom with a chalkboard.

Attachments:

School Enterprise launched with 20 scholars cultivating 1 hectare in Bamenda

Posted by Kuta Cornelius

Posted 14 Jan 2026

In the last two weeks, Wandusoa hit a major milestone by enrolling five new scholars, bringing us to a full cohort of 20 internally displaced young women. We officially launched our School Enterprise, moving from theory into active cultivation of organic spinach, huckleberry, and garden eggs. Despite the peak dry season, the team cleared and prepared one hectare of degraded land, constructing specialised ridges designed to retain moisture. We also integrated our new Accountant to manage finances, including bulk food purchases and startup kits, ensuring professional transparency as we transition from enrolment into full-scale production and soil restoration.

People in yellow uniforms bending over and working on dry ground in a rural village setting with simple structures nearby. Our main challenge was regaining momentum after the festive break, as the initial restart felt sluggish. We addressed this with an intensive re-orientation assembly. The dry season also made the degraded soil extremely compacted, so we adjusted by shifting fieldwork to early mornings to avoid heat exhaustion, and implemented strict mulching and water-rationing techniques to protect the new ridges.

Activities:

  • Enrolled five additional scholars to reach a full cohort of 20

  • Conducted a re-orientation assembly to rebuild momentum after the holiday break

  • Cleared and tilled one hectare of degraded land near the campus

  • Constructed over 100 specialised ridges to retain moisture during the dry season

  • Launched cultivation of spinach, huckleberry, and garden eggs using off-season techniques

  • Shifted fieldwork to early mornings to mitigate heat exhaustion

  • Implemented mulching and water-rationing to protect soil and crops

  • Integrated a new Accountant to manage purchases and startup kit expenses

In the coming weeks, we’ll begin tracking crop growth and preparing for our first market harvest.

Students in Mfou submit business plan and prepare 0.5-acre pilot farm

Posted by Kuta Cornelius

Posted 21 Dec 2025

This update covers student achievements at GBHS Mfou during a busy exam period as part of our Regenerative Agriculture School project.

Our student team finalised and submitted their 2025 School Enterprise Challenge business plan, incorporating revised sections on market research, financials, and impact metrics. They also secured the school canteen as the first buyer for their upcoming harvest. A 0.5-acre plot has been cleared and prepared for growing spinach and huckleberry.

Students in brown uniforms writing on paper at a shared desk in a classroom. Architect Cédric Delbeke delivered a first draft of the Ecological Learning Centre design, which we updated to meet local building codes. To meet tight deadlines, we held after-school and weekend sessions and paused less urgent work like marketing. Students continued to build ICT and financial literacy skills throughout the process.

Activities:

  • Finalised and submitted business plan for School Enterprise Challenge 2025

  • Updated business plan with market research, financial projections, and impact metrics

  • Secured school canteen as buyer for spinach and huckleberry harvest

  • Cleared and prepared 0.5-acre pilot plot for planting

  • Received first draft of Ecological Learning Centre design and revised for compliance

  • Designed WhatsApp campaign for January 2026

  • Guided students through peer reviews and expert consultations

  • Practised ICT and financial literacy by developing business plan summaries

Students in tan/khaki uniforms writing in notebooks at a wooden desk inside a classroom with a chalkboard. Next, we’ll begin tracking pre-orders and draft a funding proposal for the Ecological Learning Centre

Need help or have a question?