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Phillipa Mukome-Chinhoi
Youth Interactive Correspondent
Deprivation and social exclusion that cut across many stratums of societies are usually associated with geographical locations.
In Zimbabwe, geographical locations have been picked as one of the major barriers to career development, especially for youths who have grown up in the countryside and far from beyond.
A few exceptions have been witnessed where one would defy the hurdles that come with geographical locations to excel and reach greater heights.
Vongwai Mukamba (22) is amongst the list of young girls who defied disadvantages posed by geological locations to reach greater heights.
Having been moved from Harare’s street lights to live in rural Goromonzi, Vongwai has become an inspiration to many.
She walked from the dusty footpaths of Goromonzi into the University of Zimbabwe corridors, where she is studying biomedical engineering.
“I moved from Budiriro 4 in Harare, where I did my primary education at Budiriro 3 Primary School, my high school at Mukaro High School and moved to Goromonzi,”.
Vongwai, who has three other siblings-Tehila, Praise, and Dumisani, to heed her parent’s advice which was hinged on determination. She is also a Shasha Network scholar and helps teenagers with career guidance and development.
“I have a passion for social entrepreneurship, education, and innovation and I also volunteer with different organizations. I am working with Shasha Network to recruit students aged between 15 and 17 years for the Rise Program, which is an opportunity for them to get lifetime support in their careers from mentorship to scholarships,”.
“Shasha Network is an organisation that is developing talent and champions across the world through their flagship accelerator program and various programs for the Shasha Bridge Program Alumni, I am part of the organisation as a beneficiary,” she said.
“I also work with a Ghana-based organization called ‘Build SciTech’ as a remote research leader where I am working with four members to develop Agro Premium, which is a web-based AI-powered application to enhance farm management, fair trade and efficiency in the agricultural sector,”.
“The challenges in the agricultural sector include low agricultural productivity due to poor agricultural management, poor coordination among farmers, consumers, agricultural distributors, and unfair trade, as well as poor communication in agricultural trade,” she said.
Last month, the young woman broke the geographic boundaries and landed in Germany where she represented Agro Premium at the Green World Tour. “One of the solutions the start-up brings is a web application that leverages AI and natural language processing to optimize fair trade practices, improve communication, and enhance efficiency in the agricultural supply chain, the solution targets both Ghana and Zimbabwe,”.
“As Build SciTech our main goal as a firm is to build solutions in different sectors and collaborate from our different contexts, building a multi-national community of tech enthusiasts across Africa. I have been privileged to be the team leader of Agro Premium. We entered into a competition called the Smart Green Ideas Competition early this year and qualified in the top seven. One of the benefits was a fully funded trip to Leipzig, Germany,”.
“As a team, we got the chance to attend workshops on financing start-ups, business system design, and enterprise management, among other important topics.”
“I have always enjoyed collaboration with people from diverse backgrounds. As a rising entrepreneur, it helps me to learn from people with different perspectives and that has helped me grow.
I believe that Agro-Premium is a solution that our country needs considering how lucrative the Zimbabwean agricultural sector is,” she said.
Vongwai expressed her passion for STEM education, and working with young innovators to apply their knowledge to everyday problems. She indicated that she was currently engaging young innovators to employ STEM to create relevant content, increase their visibility on a global stage, and support their innovative ventures.
She is optimistic that the project will grow into a registered organisation by the end of this year. “What motivates me to work with young people is that I believe they have untapped potential and often a times our society hinders their growth in the name of ‘they are still young’ but it is at this young age that one explores and discovers themselves,”.
Vongwai is inspired by Knowledge Chikundi, a founder of the Zimbabwe Science Fair and Africa Science Buskers Festival.
She described him as a simple man, but a great achiever.
“He is that one person who strives to see students succeeding especially in STEM innovations,”.
“I have drawn inspiration from his passion for student innovation and driving change. He is also a high school teacher. I can describe him as the best teacher I have ever seen so far. His teaching goes beyond the classroom and the school,” she said.
She also mentioned Eugene Jamu-the founder of Netro Electronics as a source of inspiration. “What inspires me is the work he does, he has founded about three start-ups, which are feeding into each other.
Online Reporter