powerment FB page cassava in abundance,” she said.“ I constructed a large scale cassava processing factory which enabled the women process large quantities of cassava for sale in bulk sizes. It gave the women a source of livelihood and enabled them afford the school fees of their children.”
Her work received a recognition from the state government who mentioned that it will be replicated across the state of Kwara. It was a complete community make-over which had ripple effect on the entire community of about 2,500. Oguegbu organized for nearby markets to purchase the processed cassava, locally known as‘ garri’ from the women to sell in retail and make good financial returns.“ The extreme success of the program made me realize how much economic impact can be achieved if a community is empowered using their own inherent resources and hence Some led of our to u30changemakers the beginning of ' Glow initiative Initiative are featured.” here! and create sustainable jobs for teeming women and youth population in Nigeria, she is working in partnership with InstaSolar Energy LLC headquartered in USA to set up community centers to promote clean water, energy and education. Her organization recently conducted needs assessment research in various communities and selected 5 most economically disadvantaged villages to establish solar centers and train residents. When up and running, the project is projected to serve + 5,000 people with access to clean water, clean energy and environmental literacy.
Oguegbu’ s dedication and passion has improved the wellbeing of hundreds of people across Nigerian communities and fetched her over 10 local and international awards and recognitions – including President Barack Obama’ s Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders; Nigerian Energy Champion; and receiving a prestigious speaker invitation to speak at the University of Delaware Energy Conference in 2016.
Similar to many other laudable organizations / initiatives globally, one of the major challenges has been directly related to unavailability of capital to conveniently fund projects.“ We have a number of people who are willing to learn a certain skill but due to the fact that we do not have funds to cover their training they have not been able to,” Oguegbu said.“ Also we’ ve had the problem of indifference behavior by people. A lot of people are indifference to the subject of renewable energy and climate change. This makes our task a bit difficult and to solve it, we wrote 4 books to specifically address each strata of the soci-
Glory with the Niregian Farming Communities Photo from: Glow Initiative for Economic Empowerment FB page
To sustain the impact accomplished and replicate across various Nigerian communities, Oguegbu founded Glow Initiative for Economic Empowerment, a non-profit organization initiated to boost the economic development of communities by harnessing and enhancing their in-born resources and economic potentials to create jobs and provide a means of livelihood, ultimately reducing poverty and supporting economic growth.
In a bid to reduce poverty 28