Agri-Aqua inclusive venture

Animal-husbandry, Aqua-culture, Heli-culture, Fruits and Vegetables

We are grateful for the opportunity to have met and worked with 41 local communities around Mount Cameroon National Park (MCNP) during our research field survey from October to December 2013 (Fig. 1). Our project was focused on assessing the level of community involvement in the MCNP REDD+ conservation projects. Results showed that food insecurity, malnutrition, land grabbing and poverty were some of the factors preventing full community engagement in MCNP interventions. Providing alternative livelihoods (animal husbandry, aqua culture, heliculture ...) to generate new income streams, practicing mixed-crop farming and interspacing fruit trees in crop farms were highly recommended to enhance food yield. Our research will be useless if we cannot lead the changes recommended in our own publications. The Forgotten Green Heroes (TFGH) inclusive venture was established in 2014 to address these issues of food insecurity, poverty, malnutrition and enhance local adaptive capacity to climate change. We started in a very small scale in 2014, however, we are ready to scale up in 2018. Stay tuned!

Some pictures from research field survey (Nvenakeng Suzanne Awung, 2013)

Webinar: Engaging African youth in agribusiness in a changing climate, 30th Aug 2017, 14:00

Webinar: Engaging African youth in agribusiness in a changing climate: Wed, Aug 30 2017 14:00
This year’s World Youth Skills Day (July 15) focuses on raising awareness about the importance of youth developing skills in all economic sectors. However, current strategies are not addressing the needs of the youth. According to the United Nations, education and training programs that are geared towards youth success in a labour market are critical in the current climate. The 2017 theme for the International Youth Day “Youth Building Peace” aims to celebrate contributions of youth to conflict prevention and transformation as well as inclusion, social justice, and sustainable peace. Climate change is contributing to conflicts for scarce resources (former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the war in Darfur as the world’s first climate change conflict). In Africa, where families are dependent on agriculture, the changing climate will cause economic uncertainties and the most affected will be women and the youth.

Register now for the webinar on engaging african youth in agribusinesses in a changing climate

The webinar will be focused on the following questions:

• What examples of innovative youth-led agribusinesses exist in Africa and what challenges do they face in a changing climate?
• How can agribusiness drive innovation in CSA to combat climate change and attract the youth?
• What policies and programmes should governments put in place to facilitate the involvement of youth in agribusiness in a changing climate?
• What approaches and opportunities exist for scaling up the adoption of innovative youth climate-smart agri-businesses opportunities across Africa?

A bunch of plantains ready for harvesting

 

Agribusiness is today’s most feasible option

If you train a woman, you have train a generation

In Sub-Sahara Africa, women’s land-rights are limited by some traditional norms. Only about 1% of women actually own land and some 10% qualify for agricultural loan. Despite these limitations, 80% of them are agricultural workers cultivating 90% of food consumed locally and producing 80% of developing world’s food.

The African woman is the greatest climate change burden bearer walking for miles across harsh terrain to fetch water, fuel-wood, cultivating and harvesting crops and this has exposed them to threat of violence and rape as they need to fetch water in faraway distances. Drought and landslide can also separate families exposing women to human trafficking, starvation and loss of life in a blink of an eye.

Train a woman and you would have train and maintain a household, which is the fundamental unit of any community. There is need to provide enough support and training on sustainable agriculture, agro-forestry and other income generating activities like animal husbandry, aqua-culture and small businesses to alleviate poverty, improve livelihood and helps mitigate and adapt to climate change. Empowering women to embark on sustainable agricultural and socio-economic activities enable them to improve their lifestyles and fully participate in community development. Women have proven to be the backbone of any economy.

We would sensitise the men and broaden their views to understand the essence of including a woman’s place at discussion table. Women will be given the right tools and training to build assets and income so that they too will realise their rights, access basic social services, be self-reliance and fully participate in sustainable community development. Support us raise awareness and change the life of marginalized women for improved livelihood and well-being of their families and communities.

"Let's lead the change before climate change changes us"

Dr. Nvenakeng Suzanne Awung

African baby names - full of meaning

Does your name reflect your personality?

Names of African native derivations are so exotic, full of meaning and significant - Barack in Swahili means ‘blessing’. In Africa, it is believed that the choice of a child’s names greatly influence the life of a child as most of them have specific meaning. Some names reflect the day of birth like Kwame meaning ‘Saturday child’, while some depends on the prevailing circumstance at that time or the environment such as Lekan which means ‘my wealth is growing’ and  Ayodele meaning ‘return of happiness’. Some names carry high expectations such as Zuberi which means ‘powerful’ and some could even have significant repercussions in a child’s life, like Ashanti which means ‘aggressive, warlike’.

African is the second largest and second most populous continent in the world. It covers 6% of the earth’s surface area (about 30.2 million km²) and 20.4% land area which habours about 15% of the world’s population. In this massive continent, many languages are being spoken within the hundreds of Ethnic groups with diversified believes and religion. Due to the fact that each ethnic group can even have hundreds of different regional or tribal dialects, names often vary from one region or village to another. In the North of Africa, most names turn to have Arabic origin (mostly Muslim) while the Central and Southern Africans bears some European names as a result of European colonization and partial Christianity. But still the majority in sub-Sahara Africa bears names from Africa native derivation with specific meaning which provide a wealth of naming heritage, a tradition passed down through generation. Below are some of them:

Names	Meaning	Names	Meaning
Amaka (f)	God is gorgeous	Lesedi (f)	Woman of light
Ayodele (m)	Return of happiness	Masego	Divine favour
Bongani (m)	The grateful one	Nala (f)	Successful
Chukwumeka (m)	God did great deeds	Nkechi (f)	God’s present
Deka (f)	The pleasing one	Nkiru (f)	The greatest will come
Ebele (f)	Compassion	Obasi (m)	In God’s favour
Ekene	Acclaimed	Olufemi (m)	Adored by God
Femi (m)	Adored by God	Onyeka	God is great
Ife (f)	Woman of love	Rufaro (f)	Joy
Imani  (f)	Faithful person	Sade (f)	Honour bestows a crown
Jaheem (m)	Dignified	Simba (m)	Lion
Jelani (m)	Full of strength	Talib (m)	Ones who seeks
Kanye (m)	Freedom	Tumelo	Having faith
Katlego	Achieving	Wekesa (m)	Harvest child
Kwame (m)	Saturday child	Zuberi  (m)	Powerful
Lekan (m)	My wealth is growing	Zula (f)	Unclear

My African native name Nvenakeng originated from the Bangwa tribe in Lebialem Division, South West Region of Cameroon. I was named after my paternal grand-mother who nursed me as a baby just like my mother is nursing my children. It has a specific meaning in the Ngweh language spoken by the Bangwa clan.  Nven means plants and Nkeng or Keng refers to the Peace plant. Therefore, Nvenakeng means a symbol of peace. Of all the plants in the forest, I am that which brings peace and harmony to its folks.

The peace plant (Lucky  Bamboo)– called Nkeng or Keng, in the Ngweh dialect.

During the ‘Graffy’ (Grassland Bantu clan) tribal wars around the 50s, the peace plant - Nkeng was used to make appeasement. During tribal wars if your opponent comes out with the Nkeng plant, you were not allowed to harm him, the war has come to an end and only a peaceful resolution will be sorted. Today it is use to settle dispute and restore peace and harmony in many Graffy clans. This plant is also use to evoke peace and blessing when Twins/Triplets are born most especially during the Essieh dance – a special dance in the Bangwa tribe to welcome twins/triplets.

Suzanne is my Christian name meaning ‘Graceful Lily’. According to SHEKNOWS (2013),people with this name have a deep inner desire to serve humanity and to give to others by sharing money, knowledge and experience, or creative and artistic ability. People with this name tend to initiate events, to be leaders rather than followers, with powerful personalities. They tend to be focused on specific goals, experience a wealth of creative new ideas, and have the ability to implement these ideas with efficiency and determination. They tend to be courageous and sometimes aggressive. As unique, creative individuals, they tend to resent authority.

Awung is a short-cut of my family name which is Awunganyi. 'Anyi' refers to mother of twins/triplets/quadruplets while 'Awung' means catering for or taking care of. So Awunganyi literally refers to a person that caters for the mother of twins/triplets (Anyi) and her offspring. In Bangwa tribe, this refers to someone who has a strong desire to serve humanity, to cater for and improve the livelihood of the community.

I have grown not only to bear these names, but wish to keep and above all deserve them. I did not choose any of these names, but yet have grown to understand their meaning and that is just who I am. This is the purpose of my being and I call on you all to join me in serving humanity, lifting each other on our way up. Support us have control over the odds so as to achieve TFGH’s objectives. 

Thank you for leading the change,

Dr. Nvenakeng Suzanne Awung

Our aim and objectives

     

                                       

Aim: The Forgotten Green Heroes is a non-governmental and non-political organisation that seeks to build capacity among the local forest communities and indigenous people at home and abroad, to better engage in decision making about issues that involve them; and to improve and safeguard the livelihood, well-being and culture of the people living in and from the forest (the indigenous people and their elites where ever they are).

Objectives:

• To enable human resource development through focused training, mentoring and learning by doing approaches.
• To strengthen communication, education, awareness-raising and knowledge sharing on climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies  at community levels.
• To encourage and strengthen full participation of Indigenous people and integrated approaches in planning, decision-making, implementation and monitoring of communities' interventions.
• To promote sustainable forest management, animal husbandry, aqua-culture and fruit trees planting to help eradicate hunger, alleviate poverty, ensure food security, improve livelihoods and develop communities.

         "Let's lead the change before Climate Change changes us"

                                                      Founding members