Why do some young people end up on the streets rather than residing within the safety nets of their families? This is no doubt the question many ask when seeing street youths wandering the streets of some cities. The story of Hamza Youssoupha, a street youth, and the lessons learned from the experiment on “Which innovative solution can enhance the resilience and inclusion of street youths and women running small street businesses?” tell us more. This experiment, conducted by the UNDP Cameroon Acceleration Lab, will provide a better idea of the reasons why young people roam city streets, as well as introduce an innovative solution that could help get them off the streets. 

The story of Hamza Youssoupha, 31 years old

Hamza is a young Cameroonian, aged 31, from the Bororo ethnic group (one of Cameroon's minority indigenous communities). He is the only boy in a family of five children. In 2001, at the age of eight, he lost his father (the family's main breadwinner). This led to great tension in the family, fueled by the unquenchable appetite of his uncles to unlawfully take the modest livestock bequeathed to him by his late father. Unfortunately, his vulnerable mother herself could not do much against his uncles. Hamza, disoriented, had only one objective: to take charge of his own life to alleviate his mother's suffering. So, he took the difficult decision to leave his family in Bertoua and travel to Yaoundé, Cameroon's capital city, some 335 km away. He traveled through Belabo, where there was a train station, to infiltrate a train with a few of his peers. Despite the passage of time, he has not forgotten the day he arrived in Yaoundé on February 7, 2001 (which remains engraved in his memory). Not knowing anyone in the town, he ended up on the streets, joining the community of street youths commonly known in Cameroon as the "Nanga Boko." To survive, they had to beg and sometimes resort to illegal activities. A paper written by Marie Morelle, entitled "Street young people and "street culture" in Yaoundé (Cameroon),"  published in 2005, tells us more about the activities of these young people on the streets of Yaoundé. But Hamza's aim in carrying out these street activities was to get out of this precarious, difficult, and vicious environment as soon as he could.

[Hamza's story is similar to that of several other street youths among the 1,822 interviewed in 2023 in Yaoundé, Douala, and Ngaoundéré by the RESUC (Unified Social Registry of Cameroon) with the support of UNDP Cameroon as part of the PIJER project (Project for the Reinsertion and Socio-economic Inclusion of Street Youths/EDR)]. During his time on the streets, he learned how to make snacks. In a bid to get off the streets, he bought a makeshift kiosk where he could offer passers-by quick snacks. But the business did not prosper, and he returned to his usual street activities. Later, with the support of the Association OCALUCOPER (Cameroon Organization to Combat Street Children Phenomena), he succeeded in obtaining another kiosk, which we found him at when we were carrying out field surveys as part of our reflections on this experiment. Discussions with Hamza revealed that this activity enabled him to survive, but presented several constraints, namely: the impossibility of storing his perishable goods; the inability to sell at night due to the lack of light; and the exposure of his supplies to bad weather. As a result, he expressed the need for improved solutions to enable him to better carry out his business and deal with these constraints.

This was made possible with the support of the UNDP Cameroon Acceleration Lab. Today, Hamza is looking to the future with a little more hope and ambition, as he is currently testing the use of a solar-powered mobile kiosk equipped with a fridge to store perishable goods. The kiosk also has a lighting system, so he can sell at night with the option of recharging his phone and ultimately innovate his street eatery services.

After a few months of experimenting with his new kiosk, we paid Hamza a visit. Based on his small accounts, he told us, “My incomes have increased." In fact, after analysis, his daily turnover has increased by almost 60% compared with the system he was using before. "I can now sell at night, which I couldn't do before because of the lack of lighting," he says. This enables him to generate new income, with the added advantage of not having to pay any energy bills.