DANIEL WANDERI

Daniel Wanderi Kamore, Kenyan of 37 years,born and brought up in Nyandarua county, a second born in a family of 6 siblings. I am graduate of communication and sociology from university of Nairobi. For last 12 years I have been doing strategic business development for various local and international organisations focused in IT, education technology,Robotics and agritech including T-square robotics(USA) as the Vice President for Strategic Business Development for Africa and emerging economies, Kartridges Kenya as the national project manager, National Youth Ambassador for Environmental Conversation(Ministry of Youth affairs, Innovation and ICT in Kenya) and recently as the founder and director at Eco Hydroponic Gardens, director at Exo Aquaponics, director at El Danny ICT Infrastructure Managers LTD

Innovate. Learn. Earn. It's no doubt one of the key things that brought about human civilization is innovation, driven by needs that necessitated people to create solutions from simple ideas. Throughout history innovation has proved to usher in a better quality of life by solving various challenges across all fields from medicine to engineering and now AI, robotics among others. I view innovation as a journey that starts with a need to solve a problem, then an idea comes on how you can solve it. As it starts ,it gives into a better idea, that where learning comes , there cannot be innovation without learning. Thomas Edison is reported to have failed more than 1000 times when he was inventing the light bulb. That's a very long learning curve that he had to endure until finally making a breakthrough. He might have learnt more than 1000 lessons until he eventually made a breakthrough which ushered in another phase, earning. He must have millions of dollars ,created millions of jobs and an enduring legacy. Innovate.Learn. Earn exemplified by Thomas Edison. Simple concept that opens doors for millions of unemployed youths across the globe. This is the idea I would like to spread across the nations that there power in turning ideas into real life solutions in which lies opportunities for job and wealth creation. In a fast paced world today, the future belongs to those who can be innovative and turn the modern day challenges into opportunities.

Armed with solid faith, unshakable resilience and daring to dream that regardless of my humble background, I could turn things around for myself and my family. However, there was a challenge despite having a university degree, jobs were extremely hard to get, neither did I have any capital to start a business. Along the way, as the necessity would teach me,I learnt the unlimited power that our mind holds, the limitlessness of our imagination , the power of innovation driven by a creative and enterprising mind. The realisation became the first step to self awareness that indeed I have power to turn my ideas into real solutions to some of the challenges that society faces today. It began in 2017 when working as an outreach and system administrator in a college that I dared for the first time to turn an idea into a solution. Kenya had just changed the curriculum from 8.4.4 to Competency Based Curriculum which emphasizes 7 key competencies among which digital literacy is one of them. The curriculum insisted integration of technology into learning thus the schools had to align but there was a gap, no single company or service provider had a holistic solution to offer in the country. I saw that as an opportunity though I had zero hours of training in education technology. For 18 months I spent time doing research and creating a suitable solution that would help schools integrate technology in education as the curriculum required. After testing various concepts, I created a digital learning program which I started with a pilot phase that involved 30 schools. We ran a successful pilot until COVID 19 hit the world and schools were shut down, bringing the program to a stop. The lockdowns brought by the pandemic brought a different challenge, the food crisis. The travel restrictions disrupted food supply chains thus creating food shortages, prices hikes and also losses to farmers as the fresh produce would not get to the markets on time. For a second time, I saw an opportunity within the challenge which was to turn the urban population into food producers. But again there was a problem, there's no land for agriculture in cities and towns except small spaces on backyards, rooftops, perimeter walls, balconies and small plots. Having realised the power of innovation, I came up with an idea of creating a garden in the balcony of my apartment which was about 3 metres by 1 metre. Due to space limitations I had to ensure my garden is vertical to optimise on space and that is how the idea of creating a tower garden came by. My first tower garden took me 3 weeks to make, I could recycle plastic bottles to hold the plants within the tower because I couldn't use soil. Spending hours on YouTube doing research on a suitable solution, that is how I discovered hydroponics which got my attention. I found it very interesting as it was soilless, I could play around with it and come with gardens that could fit what I was looking for. I grew up spinach and lettuce in my first tower, which I found extremely gratifying and would fit the solution I was looking for. Behind my chase for a solution that would enable urban communities to do agriculture, there was a very strong motivation and drive that was emanating from my past life in a slum. I had spent all my university life in the second biggest slum in Nairobi, I had seen and experienced what it takes to live there and challenge of hunger that most families were going through. The situation was even worse due to the lockdowns and disruption of the food supply chains. My mind couldn't get over that the most vulnerable communities go hungry while we can do something. That desire to create a solution that works for such communities led me to ensure the tower garden had created must be scalable, accessible and affordable to all. In a surprise turn of events, I posted one the towers I had created on Facebook and one of the reporters of a local TV station saw, sent me a message and requested for an interview. That is how I was featured in prime time news on national television.This became a validation,that indeed I was the right path to getting a suitable solution. I tripped my effort, bought more material to make more gardens and try different crops. In less than 3 months, the government of Kenya had seen what I was doing, in a show of recognition and appreciation,I was appointed as the national youth ambassador for environmental conversations in a initiative dubbed "Kenya Ni Mimi Initiative" which sought to create awareness about environmental conversation, innovation and education, mental health and government opportunities. The initiative was a national platform to rally the youth towards embracing environmental awareness and participate in creative solutions. As I was traversing the whole country doing empowerment programs, the United Nations Population Fund(UNFPA) wrote a feature story with a headline "Young innovator fighting hunger through climate smart agriculture"