You can't see anything right, so you start to find a way to "see". Then you use your flashlight, but turns out after 15 mins it was not sustainable, the battery is dead.

Fortunately, before that flashlight died, you are grabbing twigs, wood, rock, and you have like oil on your bag. With a knowledge you receive at school, you start to make a fire. Then boom, fire is there, and you make it more bigger.

And you are so hungry right now. You try to find something, you see there's a only one plant who have a berries, but the color is suspicious. Because you didn't have any option and no food left, you eat it.

But the things is, after you eat, you feel itchy for a few minutes but after that it's okay. Then you eat that a lot with a same symptoms, itchy and it's fine again. After you full, you sleep near that fire with your sleeping bag on your tent that you bring on your bag.

After approx. 2 hours, you woke up because you feel nauseous, dizzy, and you are more and more itchy and it was soo hurt. Your fire is dead, and you can't make fire again because you sick.

Now imagine, if this person didn't being found by rescue team with an abundant resources, what happen with him? dead or alive, right.

That was the reality of open waste burning in a long run.

Open waste burning occurs because inadequate of infrastructure. We can't blame the community, because they have lack of option. So they try to survive in any ways they can.

Though there is an opportunity I still need to understand the fashion industry as a whole not from the sustainable perspective only, exploration of business strategies that will ensure the success in the future coupled with mentorship. Well with exposure in a way I haven't understood yet.

In the same way, people resist using Gayami’s recycled bags because they are unfamiliar and outside their habit. But once they realize the long-term comfort, beauty, and protection for the planet, these bags can become their preferred choice — just like choosing the tree over the grass.

But here, most people have never tasted one. There are no local recipes, no one knows how to grow the trees, and the few existing saplings are hidden in private gardens. So, everyone keeps farming the same old crops, while the potential for this transformative harvest remains locked in the ground, unplanted.

If that’s true, then to reach the top, I need tools such as efficient Black Soldier Fly rearing systems and waste conversion units; skills in insect farming, feed formulation, and agribusiness management; and approaches that involve training farmers, building partnerships, and promoting awareness about sustainable feed alternatives. With these, the climb becomes not just easier, but purposeful turning waste into wealth and feeding both people and the planet.

Without timely diagnosis, crop diseases become a ticking time bomb, waiting to destroy months of effort in a single outbreak rendering all the months of hardwork and patience wasted.

If that's true, then the tools I need are a sharp machete (clarity), a reliable compass (my vision), and the resilience to keep moving when the path disappears. Reaching the top means emerging into the clearing, not just for myself, but to show others the way is possible.

What Would Help: Instead of stronger arms to carry buckets, I need knowledge of how to make water flow downhill naturally using tools already available at the hilltop - like learning to set up FBT systems that work with nature using local materials (sawdust, coffee husks) so the work does itself.

The Key: The solution isn't working harder at the same task, but learning from those who've already discovered the spring (successful FBT farmers) and redesigning the system so nature does the heavy lifting while I harvest the rewards.

Residents are readers who don’t know what to do with each book, so stacks grow, spill into hallways, and block access to essential services.

Our challenge is like healing a tired, overworked soil—just like a doctor restoring a patient’s health after years of neglect.

Reflection:

If that’s true, we need the right “medicine” (biochar), the right “diagnosis” (understanding soil types), and the right “care plan” (training farmers and continuous monitoring). With the right knowledge and teamwork, we can help the land breathe again and sustain life for generations. 🌱

We pour immense resources: water, energy, hope into the land, but the outdated system is so broken that most of it leaks away before it can do any good. My project isn't about finding more water, it's about fixing the crack.

If that’s true…
Then I need tools like patience and innovation, skills in design thinking and technology, and the approach of collaboration and continuous learning to nurture that seed into full bloom. With mentorship, community support, and persistence, I can ensure that what starts as a small idea becomes a lasting impact.

Reflection:
If that’s true, then what I need are tools to see through the fog and stay steady on uneven ground.
That means:

• Clarity tools: Mind mapping and journaling to clear my thoughts and define small milestones.

• Endurance skills: Patience, consistency, and time management to keep moving despite uncertainty.

• Guidance approaches: Seeking mentorship and feedback — like a compass pointing me in the right direction.

Reflection:
If that’s true, then what I need are tools to see through the fog and stay steady on uneven ground.
That means:

• Clarity tools: Mind mapping and journaling to clear my thoughts and define small milestones.

• Endurance skills: Patience, consistency, and time management to keep moving despite uncertainty.

• Guidance approaches: Seeking mentorship and feedback — like a compass pointing me in the right direction.

Image idea: a hiker with a lantern walking through mist toward a glowing peak 🏔️✨

The challenge of fast fashion and discarded clothes is like a broken tapestry. Full of loose threads, torn edges, and forgotten patterns. Each piece of fabric represents lost value, wasted resources, and the fading craftsmanship of artisans.

If that’s true...

Then my project YAMA is the needle and thread that helps us weave it back together by connecting consumers, artisans, and brands to repair what’s torn in both fashion and our relationship with the planet.

To reach the top, we’ll need:
- Technology – to stitch people and services together seamlessly.
- Empathy and storytelling – to make repair beautiful and desirable again.
- Community building – to empower artisans and inspire conscious consumers.
- Design thinking and circularity – to reimagine fashion’s broken system into one of renewal and care.

Metaphor: My challenge is like climbing a mountain made of Agri-waste, every step upward transforms what was once discarded into something valuable and sustainable. 🏔️🌾

Tools & Skills: Innovation, persistence, collaboration, and empathy, to turn obstacles into opportunities and lead the way toward a cleaner, cruelty-free future. 🌱✨

“It feels like I’m trying to plant a seed in dry, neglected soil.”

🌱 Tools :

• Research & Prototypes: Biodegradable materials, reusable designs.

• Cost Models: Affordable pricing for low-income communities.

• Environmental Impact Assessments: Proving sustainability.

👐 Skills :

• Human-centered Design: Understanding the real needs of girls and women.

• Community Engagement: Building trust & partnerships with schools, NGOs.

• Storytelling & Advocacy: Turning a product into a movement.

🌍 Approaches

• Education alongside product: Teaching hygiene, dignity, sustainability.

• Local Production: Empowering women to produce/distribute locally.

• Circular Economy Mindset: No waste, long-term cycles.

| ✍️ Journal Page

Just say “Make the board” and I’ll start it.

If that’s true, then my project is the pin holding the bomb together before it detonates as people need to be aware that these waste generated from such a booming industry is only bound to grow and expound in a manner no one sees coming.

The challenge I'm working on is like finding the Alchemist's Lost Formula to transform society's discarded, "worthless" industrial waste into societal gold.

The Lead (Input): This represents the polluting, technically "worthless" non-recyclable industrial paper waste (glossy magazines) that the current system discards.

The Lost Formula (Method): This is the interdisciplinary knowledge that fuses technology, creativity, and social skills. It's the science of transforming waste paper into high-value collage art materials (via EÜ R&D) combined with the art of turning untapped human potential (NEET women) into an economic force (via the Hub Model).

Societal Gold (Output): This represents the high-value outcomes returned to the community: accessible art materials, economic independence for women, regional development, and a cleaner environment, providing assurance and prosperity for all.

The Alchemist (me): The project founder, who unearths this formula by merging diverse knowledge to achieve the seemingly impossible transformation.

Tools, skills, and approaches: To reach the top, we need strong “engineering tools” user research to understand both sides, marketing to spread awareness, and technology to make the bridge seamless, safe, and efficient.

The tools I would use are AI, drones, social media and local law enforcement support.

The tools I would use are drones, AI and social media.

Right now, farmers pour in effort, time, and resources, but the system leaks through unstable prices, waste burning, and dependency. Instead of patching leaks, Paradox Energy wants to redesign the bucket

Tools & Skills: systems design, financial modeling for steady payouts, community trust-building, policy integration.

Tools & skills: marketing and designing tools to create the solution more attractive to students.

Delving deep

Sugar that is consumed or applied onto a cut or would yields different results.

Applying sugar to a wound can lead to a healing process rather than a sharp, burning pain.

A happy healthy society ☺️

A rapid burst of stirring energy, right? Does it last though?

The overreliance on agro-chemical enrichers by small holder farmers is like a long-term provision of soil with bottles of energy drink, stimulating crop development for a while but then diminishes its in-situ vitality, rendering it inert and heavily dependent. 

Reaching the top demands that I apply robust competencies in strategic research, stakeholder engagement and the unconventional approaches to the challenge, combining with the lateral mindset, deploying logical procedures of assessing  the agronomic nutrients and County accreditations as well as approvals from precise bodies. Moreover, applying the human-centred design would be imperative to co-create viable Biochar-centered mitigation frameworks with small-holder farmers, especially women and youth.

🔥 If that’s true…
We need to rekindle the fire! That means:

• Fuel: fresh energy and new ideas (fun events, themed planting days 🌼)

• Spark: communication and connection (talking to past volunteers ❤️)

• Air: visibility and excitement (social media posts, local press 🗞️)

The tools to reach the summit? Smart AI mapping that customizes solutions for each city's unique context, modular building blocks like your Green Wall Cooling Units that adapt anywhere, local partnerships that provide on-ground knowledge, and knowledge transfer through The Academy that teaches communities to build their own solutions. You're not building temporary relief—you're creating an entire ecosystem where cities learn to cool themselves, one adapted blueprint at a time, across a $650M+ market where you're the first mover.

It symbolises new beginnings, hope, and a brighter future.

Just like a basket meant to carry essentials that’s now overflowing with unnecessary items, Zimbabwe’s consumption and waste systems are burdened beyond capacity. Every discarded device, every overused resource adds to the weight, making it harder to carry forward. Unless the basket is emptied, reorganized, and reused wisely, it will break — spilling its contents and harming those who depend on it.

If that’s true, what tools, skills, or approaches would help me reach the top?

• Innovation tools: Design thinking, prototyping, and material testing.

• Collaboration skills: Partnering with engineers, environmental experts, and local communities.

whwhilr alsp

Roots (community connection) to stay grounded.

Water (collaboration) to nourish shared growth.

Sunlight (hope & purpose) to guide our direction.

Time (resilience) to allow regeneration to unfold.

I can connect it to an analogy like; if we are in a society where we have many people. However, many are marginalised due to multiple forms of discrimination. These tiny animals are also like that.

My challenge is turning the fragile, short-lived "Bloom" (fresh tomatoes) in the "Arid" environment (Isiolo's rapid decay) into a shelf-stable product—a preserved treasure that retains its value long after the harvest.

After years of exploitation, nature needs time, care, and consistency to heal.

To reach the top: I need patience, scientific knowledge, community trust-building, and fundraising skills to ensure long-term restoration and sustainability.

Another perspective; My project is like a half built bridge. Innovation and adoption stand on opposite banks of a river.
Researchers and designers have built toward each other from either side, but the bridge remains unfinished and ideas don’t yet meet in the middle.
To complete it, we need translators (storytellers, curators and communities) that connect these worlds.