#MEET Women and Youth Empowerment through Waste Paper Recycling and Reconversi

#MEET Women and Youth Empowerment through Waste Paper Recycling and Reconversion

This is a short interview we conducted with Emelone Tochukwu Edwin, the founder of “Women and Youth Empowerment through Waste Paper Recycling and Reconversion”. If you like the concept of this idea and would like to vote for it, click HERE.

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• What is your background?

My name is Emelone Tochukwu Edwin. Am 33 Years Old; born in the beautiful City of Calabar, Cross-River State Nigeria. Calabar -- prides itself as the only city in the whole of Africa that host the famous street Carnival "The Calabar Carnival" once every year. Am a Biochemist and an Entrepreneur; the Ceo E.T. Edwin Industrial Company Nigeria (Eteicon), with over 5 years Entrepreneurial Experience in Waste Paper Recycling and Reconversion. Eteicon specializes in the conversion of Waste paper into Low Grade Toilet Tissue for Low income families to use.

• Describe your idea or project in two sentences.

We gather Waste Paper from dump sites through the help of Waste pickers, bale and supply to Topan Advance Agro Paper Mill LTD where the Waste paper is converted into Low Grade toilet tissue Jumbo Reels for us to reconvert into various sizes of affordable Toilet Rolls. Through our activities, we have created jobs for 12 Rural Women plus 10 Young Men working permanently in our factory and 2 Teams of (--8 Members each) of Waste Pickers whom through the Salaries we pay them, have been empowered to take care of their families (feed, Cloth and House their family Members respectively); Hence, the theme of our project "Women and Youth Empowerment through Waste Paper Recycling and Reconversion".

• What are the benefits you take from the Entrepreneurship Campus?

Entrepreneurship Campus have given me the opportunity to really meet fellow Young Entrepreneurs from across the Globe who share the same ideology as I do on Entrepreneurship and Job Creation; and have really brought us all together on board one platform (The Youth Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition) to exchange Ideas, Discuss our Challenges, Share our Success Stories and above all, Network amongst ourselves.

• What motivates you to be an entrepreneur?

Two major factors that moved me towards becoming an Entrepreneur are; 1). Massive Youth Unemployment faced by Graduates in Nigeria and 2). Huge menace of Waste (Paper, Plastics and Aluminum) deposits caused by increasing population in our community and Nigeria in general. The urgent need to help create immediate Solutions to these problems and the Conversion of Waste back to Wealth, Motivated me to because an Entrepreneur after my Graduation from the University in 2008.

• Imagine you have ‚supreme power’ to create and innovate: how would your world look like? What changes would you like to make in your community and/or in the world? Share your thoughts from a ‚supreme power’ and entrepreneur standpoint.

If I have the "Supreme Power", I will create a world where Women are Fully Empowered; because if you Empower a Woman, you Empower a Family also, if you Empower 10 Women, You Empower a Village.

• What would you say to potential voters who may be reading your interview?

To all those reading our interview today, I encourage you to VOTE massively for our Project "Women and Youth Empowerment through Waste Paper Recycling and Reconversion" because winning this Competition will help us Scale-up our activities in Eteicon and also help us to Clean-up our Environment through our Waste Paper Recycling and Reconversion processes which will also amount to Creating more Jobs for Women and Youths in our Community. Thank you very much in anticipation as you kindly support us with your Votes.

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• NOTICE: If you want to see more submitted ideas and projects at the Youth Citizen Entrepreneurship Competition, visit BEST IDEAS and BEST PROJECTS and VOTE for the ones you think deserve to WIN the Competition!