PROMISE FORNJUM is a teacher by profession and a passionate Community Development Expert/Advocate. He holds a postgraduate diploma in Electrical Engineering from the University of Douala, Cameroon, a Bachelor, and Master degrees of Science in Business Management from the University of Bamenda, Cameroon and a Swedish Institute Scholar with a Master of Science degree in Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability from Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden.  Born in Banso, Bui Division, I spent three-quarter of my life in Noni Sub-Division, a rural community in Bui Division of the Northwest Region of Cameroon.  

As a child, I grew up in a community characterized by acute poverty where children from vulnerable backgrounds dropped out of school for lack of sponsorship. I watched many young girls drop out of school because of unwanted, unplanned, early pregnancies and being forced into early marriages or unhealthy relationships with men old enough to be their fathers as a source of livelihoods. I equally observed young men drop out of school and resort to indecent social activities such as drug addiction, armed robbery, and other social deviances.

 As a National Youth Volunteer on Community Development issues, I moved around rural communities and discovered children, youth from vulnerable backgrounds, and persons with disabilities living under inhumane conditions. I watched widows and single mothers struggling to raise children in very difficult and real poverty-stricken conditions. Children dying of poor health conditions due to a lack of medical facilities/ access to medical care and other health related issues in poverty-stricken communities.

            In the cause of discharging my duty, I observed other pertinent problems which hundreds of thousands of young people face, and which hinders them from progressing in life, which is a lack of Career Orientation and counselling. I observed that many young people fail in life, not because of the lack of mental ability, intelligence, physical ability, or sponsorship but because they lack the proper orientation to pursue their dreams base on their potentials. I also watched children complete primary and secondary education and became frustrated because they are completely ignorant of what to study, how to study it, and where to study it (inadequate information). Consequently, they get confused and resort to doing things without being purpose oriented.