Cultivating the Future

Kenya-based nonprofit Africa VR Campus and Center has broken ground--quite literally--on an exciting new project!

As they combine traditional skills with cutting-edge technology, they're preparing African youth for a better future.

The project? A sustainable mushroom farm, with a digital twin in the metaverse!

An addition to the curriculum

The sustainable farm and its soon-to-be-created digital twin are Africa VR Campus and Center's latest program for empowering youth.

"We realized that the next step, is to empower (our students) financially," says Africa VR Campus Center Founder and CEO Paul Simon Waiyaki.

Since 2016, Africa VR Campus and Center has been working to better the lives of girls in underserved areas of Kenya.

As Waiyaki explained in our earlier interview, he and XR Girls Africa Founder/Africa VR Campus and Center Associate Director Diana Njeri have used XR to teach the girls metaverse skills and prepare them for future careers.

And as Diana said in our interview about XR Girls Africa , the girls have thrived.

As the first African girls in the metaverse, XR Girls Africa have come up with small-business ideas, won two prestigious awards for one of their entrepreneurial ventures, and hosted their own metaverse events.

Now, they'll also be empowered with a means of earning their own incomes.

Initially, the new farm will provide employment, sixteen hours per week, for the young women of XR Girls Africa.

"The girls will receive $100 for working those sixteen hours," says Waiyaki.

He then goes on to explain that, in Kenya, $100 can easily feed a family of six for a month.

But for Waiyaki and Diana, Africa Campus and Center's vision for the future expands far beyond this current work.

Preparing for new horizons

"We have a new team (of students joining us) after our (recent) outreach," Diana explains.

And this new group, which will have on-boarded since we recorded this interview, will be co-educational.

("People challenged us, that we didn't include boys at the campus)," Waiyaki says.

"We'll be training this new group on VR, XR and AR."

Waiyaki and Diana offered a closer look at the new sustainable farm project, explained some of the technical aspects and previewed their plans for the future.