 We can make each other great and we can walk to the path of greatness. Women, rise up in your power. Representation matters. We need to sit at tables where decisions are made. We need to do things that are bigger than us. We need to rise up and be the beacon of hope that this nation, this continent, is looking up to. We are the solution. We are brave. We are fearless. We are courageous. We are survivors. We are conquerors. We are leaders. We are warriors. You know what? Can somebody get me a dress? Because I want to be a woman so badly now. Welcome to the YouTube channel. It's your favorite village boy Mr. Ghana baby. Right here in the smiling coast of Africa. This is why I'm smiling a lot today. A big shout out to the guy who composed the Wadamaya song. From Cape Town to Cairo. And let me tell you, one of the lyrics that I love so much is celebrating every African Wadamaya. I love and appreciate every African that is doing great stuff to change the narrative of Africa. And the people that I've always wanted to celebrate is the women of Africa. I wish I could get the time to meet every woman in Africa that is doing something incredible to put them out there. This is why I'm bringing a new episode called Women of Africa and also the Strength of an African Woman. What comes into your mind when you hear the name African Woman? Strength. Yes, determination, endurance, beauty, ambition. From today onwards, you know what I want you to do? What? I want you to travel Africa and celebrate African women on my behalf. I will do that. You know what? Not just entrepreneurs, but women that are doing incredible stuff that the world is not talking about. I feel like African women need to be worshipped. I feel like African women need to be praised. I feel like African women, I don't know what to say because my mother is one of them. And you are one of them. Go check out her YouTube channel, subscribe to it. From tomorrow onwards, you will see me truly celebrating African women that are doing great stuff on the continent. Thank you. Why am I today? Why am I today? I am a treasure woman warrior. This is a young woman who lived in the United States for 30 good years and decided to move back to the continent and start a change. What change is she doing? See, where I am right now is a rural area. Listen, I think this is the most beautiful house I'm seeing so far. She was not born in the rural area. She was born in the city, worked in the city, went to America. And she felt like the women living in such part of the country needs to be empowered. Listen, do me a favor, like the video. I'm so excited man, share so that so many people can have a piece of this story. We need to inspire more people to get involved. Listen, Africa's problem needs to be solved by Africans. And if she is solving the biggest problem on the continent, then I guess she needs a round of applause. Come with me as you go talk to this young and amazing woman right here in the headquarters of treasure women warriors in the Gambia. Thank you. We're here to do the work so let's do this. I know she's already expecting me but let me tell you something. This house in here feels so therapeutic. I feel like this is the garden of Eden man because I'm walking in between neem trees and I can see my favorite plants in here. I see cassava. I'm also seeing plantain which means I can still enjoy my fufu in the Gambia. Oh my goodness, can you guys hear the chirping birds? Oh wow, I love to live here. Cheese. Oh my God. My name is Kumbad Africa, president of the Treasure Women Warrior, a woman-led organization of lifting women to financial freedom to impact their lives, their families and their communities. I don't even want to talk to you right now but I just want to tell you something. You are amazing. Oh, okay then I would say that you are an amazing warrior. That's right. It's really a pleasure meeting you. Listen, I live in Ghana. I started doing research about the Gambia and then your name popped up. Since that day I've never slept. I'm like you know I need to find you. We drove like two hours to get here. I know right. Why this location? Just strategy, peace and just where our women are. So we like the rural setting. We're country people and this is where our work takes off and we're nature people too as well. The research that I did about you actually empowering uplifting women right here. What really inspired you to choose this particular location to inspire women from this area? Were you born and raised in the rural area yourself? No, I was not. This is where in Kien Kuy Nala. It's almost in the middle of the country and it's strategically located because we work with women all across the country. So this allows us to live where we work. You see we could have lived in the open area but we would be disconnected from our people and the people that we work with. So we want that connection. We want to be part of them. We want to live with them. We want to see how they coexist and we are part of them. If you say you are working with the people, you want to be around them. What kind of work are you doing in here then? We work with women. As the name Tresor Women Warriors, we are a treasure where women and we are conquerors. We are survivors. We are achievers. We are courageous. We are givers. We work with women to uplift them. We aspire to be independent. We aspire to be champions in our country but politically we champion also to be financially independent. We champion to be great mothers and great wives in this country. We champion to be a very, very critical and important part of this society. So our aim really is to be the best citizen that we can in this country and by also contributing to national development. It's so beautiful. Before I even continue my questions, let me ask this question. It's very important. What comes into your mind when you hear the phrase African woman? The sourcefulness, power, tenacity and the possibility and the ability to regenerate. We regenerate. We make everything possible. We are able to just come back to life. Tell me who you are, what's your name and what do you do in the Gambia? I am Kuba Dafekar, president of the Chazel Woman Warrior. A network of 7,000 women all across the country. We are farmers. We are commodity traders. We manufacture things. We are poultry farmers. Anywhere where there's an opportunity for us to make money as women, we are actually building that enterprise. So enterprise development. I used to live in the United States. I studied in the United States. And now I'm here in the Gambia. You know, I nearly actually, with your accent, now I live here in the Gambia. I wanted to know. You lived in the United States for how long? 30 years. After living in America for 30 years. Listen, I don't want to tell you this yet, but I have so many African friends watching. You know what? When I stepped foot in America, I'm definitely not coming back. 30 years, they decided to come back and live, not living in Banjoon. And they're living in a village like this. Everything okay with you? I know. I'm not well. Times I said, maybe I'm not well, but you know, I am well. I am very well. And this is a beautiful place. I mean, you know, you live in the United States. People live in the country. I think as Africans, we need to make home wherever the heart is. My heart is in the hinterland. It's in the rural area. And this is where we make home. We build our headquarters here. And you know, we're part of the neighborhood. We're part of the sounds of nature. And we're building communities all across the country. To me, that is amazing. Imagine doing something that's bigger than you. Lifting up communities, building communities and also formalizing the informal sector that women were in. So this is revolutionary. What really inspired you? What drives you to live America and come back here? You know, when I was 12 years old, I remember I used to, because I was not raised by my mother. My mother died at a very, very early age. And I had this notion that women should never give their children away. So at 12 years old, you know, as I'm going through a lot of things that I'm going through, I said someday. Someday I'm going to be educated. Someday I'm going to be successful. And when I'm successful, I am going to work with women so that women will build their lives to take care of their families and their children. I'm just living that dream right now. Just living that dream. I'm so proud of you. And I would love to know more. So this is just an intro. I don't know if you would love to take me around your garden of Eden. We're self-sustaining. And we run on 90% energy efficient. Everything runs on solar. Here, the only thing that is not running on solar is the ACs. But apart from that, we are 90% energy efficient and totally run on solar. So the ACs are not running on solar. Yes. I'm going to do this for you. It's a year of charity. I'm making a company in Ghana. Sponsor you. How many ACs do you need? I don't know, we can do 10. Okay. I declared 2022 as a year of charity. You all know it. So I'm calling upon the CEO of SPS. This man right here deserves 10 solar ACs. And whenever you are coming, I'll come with you so that I'll put that on camera. Thank you. That is a done deal, yeah? Okay. We are actually harvesting cassavas. So we're almost done with that. But there's more here. And then, of course, we have papayas all across because this headquarters sustains itself. So the workers that work here, they pay themselves. They also pay for the electricity of every expenses. So this headquarters, the treasure warrior headquarters is self-sufficient by growing our own food and they will buy salad in the market and whatever they sell, they sustain themselves here and they pay for their own salaries. So we're self-sustaining. That's really incredible. But let me know, yeah? How many women did you start with? A hundred. Three years ago. We actually launched, we launched here at our headquarters here in Kiam, Kuinala. And everybody came from all over the country to witness it. It was an amazing event. And so now we are 7,000 strong and growing, growing and growing. Across the country. Across the country. Do you qualify to be part of Treasure Women Warriors? If you are a giver, if you're courageous, if you're somebody who wants to build something bigger than you, if you want to uplift yourself, and you want to uplift others, and you have the tenacity and the perseverance and the determination, you are a Treasure Women Warrior. And so now we have also bananas and plantain on the other side as well. And I see how you did it. Mopapapayas, yes. And then also we just planted okra here and we're going to be demarcating to put more okra there. And we're also bringing animal husbandry. It's coming. Is it the only farm that you have because I would love to see some of the women that are doing stuff in here. Is it possible for you to go and see them? Yes, yes, we can. Yes, we can. We can. And we have six farms all across the country. All of them doing different things. But the farm that is in Jami, so we have actually young men and some women working there. That's the only farm that we have actually young people that are male that are working there. The one in Burkama. This is our other farm. Okay. And here we have orchard too as well for hectares in Burkama, Jami. We have maybe about 1,500 trees and still planting more. It's like the organization. Isn't it an organization? Yes, the Treasure Warrior Women. It's an organization. Yes. So it means that organization is all about farm. Is that the main thing or main function for the organization? No. The Treasure Warrior Men has different branches. This is... Agriculture is a branch of the Treasure Women Warrior. One of the branches of the Treasure Warrior Men we have education, entrepreneurship building and enterprise development. So, but we are very, very big on agriculture. Why agriculture? Because we need to feed ourselves food sovereignty and food security. Africans need to grow their own food and they need to feed themselves. They talk about food security. We talk about food sovereignty because we have to provide for our people. And the Treasure Warrior Women are part of the solution and we are absolutely providing food for our nation and also for our poultry farmers. So this is fantastic. This is amazing and we are very, very excited. Wow. I would love to feed myself now. I would love to feed myself. With this... I would love to feed myself. Is that loud? Yes, you can. Yes, take it. Take it. This is bigger than my head. My head is bigger than this one. This is why I think I love Africa. You eat everything fresh. Yes. From the farm. Yes. And this is an organic farm so no chemical fertilizers. Everything is organic. We have poultry so we use the chicken feces as poultry. Now I know why this purple looks like this. I was about to ask you what chemical did you use? No, we don't. No chemicals here. Organic farming. Everything is organic farming here. What would you say that it's a blessing to be an African? It is more than a blessing. Just the land is gold. It's a gold mine. Being an African and being an African it's like we struck gold and we're here in the land of gold and trying to reap the benefits of it. You went to America for 30 years. You were 10 back. Do you think or will you agree with me that Africa is a land of opportunities? Yes, I mean having the opportunity to live in the United States for over 30 years and living here is like we're creating something that's bigger than us. You are a farmer. Yes. Do you think it's worth it to be a farmer? You know, it is. It is more than worth it. I mean to be able to put food on people's table and it becomes some food is medicinal and to be able to eat that food and feel good about yourself and you know be healthy it's just something very rewarding. And I think as a farmer we don't only look at the monetary aspect of it we look at the solution we are becoming to Africa. Yeah. I mean the youth of today want to sit in a bank want to sit in an office do you think that I mean wearing my gears coming in here at least by the end of the month I will be able to take something home? Why not? I mean everybody needs food everybody buys food. If you look at it even just fruits we have over 1,000 citrus trees here I mean just the fruits that we harvest if you have one bag of oranges like one big sack of oranges you can make $50, $100 from that. Imagine you have how many of them? You have 1,000. If you have 1,000? That's a lot of money. Can I eat that? You don't have oranges here? Yes we do. We don't have oranges. We just harvested just for the last couple of days and I think over there let's see I'm making sure I have 100 bags today So I'm getting 100 of this with 100 bags I'm going to take it to Ghana and I'll definitely be able to do it. I want to know what has been the major challenge that you faced when you established this? It was the mindset being able to change the mindset of the people to be self-reliant and for them to accept that we have to do the work and sacrifice today so that we will be able to reap the benefits tomorrow. You know people want quick money and agriculture is backbreaking work and a lot of people are not attracted to that so just getting the right people the human resources was a major problem in setting up farms and even the work that we do to bring people together because people want things that are quick but not to do the work. You started a fund in Biosauce? Yes I well we funded this project here was self-funded yes by me and my husband my wonderful, amazing husband out of my car big fella big fella a big fella so this is a dream I had I sold the dream to him he bought the dream and you know we funded the dream How does that make you feel knowing that you've made impact in people's lives? Well you know very very rewarding and every single day we get to pinch ourselves that we're becoming a solution and I think as Africans African problem African solution We have six women that came in also in the Tresor Warrior Men they're funding one of other women too and we opened a bank we have a bank now we have a yes in Yamina How old is the bank? A year and a half ago No we understand through this organization yes in the bank yes we opened is a village microfinance and what we do we piloted we piloted this is our year and a half of piloting it and our women are doing exceptional and we are looking forward to building women millionaires and we are actually on track just I wanted to say that we are on track to do that and other women women millionaires are coming and wanting to make other women millionaires so women who are actually trailblazers they're leading women they also want to uplift so many other women we ensure that not only do they build themselves you have to build yourself and build somebody else it's a requirement so that's why the mentorship part is also another very key important element and part of the treasure women warrior is that tough? yes yes you see African this is why why you just ask me African problems African solutions you know what is really great I'm glad you actually mentioned tough african global this actually poultry house was donated by tough african global tough? yes tough you know since you donated a poultry here tough I told you I need just one thing I mark for my new studio I'm not leaving gamia without you I didn't even know it okay tough did it he's an amazing man now tough is amazing he is amazing you know let me tell you I actually when I was this little literally he's one of the people that raised me when I was so little I ran off a plus for my boss our boss no I ran off a plus for my dad you can't say our dad no no you can say your dad you can't say our dad your greatest struggle when you started this I mean this is not a challenge but your greatest struggle something that you closed your eyes you still remember that this happened to me when I started this and here we are today when you're doing something as Africans do as well sometimes I feel like we want to watch you either flourish or fail or to see how you are going to how you're going to evolve but we can do it together partnerships we can do it together we can support each other we should not let others fail we need to hold each other's hand and we need to be a motivator we need to be the wind beneath people's wings to allow them to fly we need to love more we need to give more we need to be more generous and kind with our words if you have a message for all African women watching us what would that message be? the message is the woman next to you is not your competitor is your collaborator we need to collaborate we need to harness the power within women we can hold each other as sisters we can empower each other we can make each other great and we can walk to the path of greatness women, rise up in your power representation matters we need to sit at tables where decisions are made we need to do things that are bigger than us we need to rise up and be the beacon of hope that this nation this continent is looking up to we are the solution as women we need to build ourselves to be strong so that our daughters will look at us and build a future that is even bigger, grander and more beautiful for our sons and may our sons look at us and may we become an inspiration to them and build them to accept women great women on a mission because I will leave you with this a woman on a mission has to be with a man who accepts and loves a woman on a mission you know what can somebody get me a dress I want to be a woman so badly now I want to say thank you so much for talking to me if somebody wants to reach out to you how did they reach out to you? we are on social media handles we are on Instagram Tresor Women Warriors T-R-E-S-O-R Women Warriors and we are on Facebook Tresor Women Warriors and we have our website too as well TresorWomenWarriors.org so this is Rubio email TresorWomenWomen at gmail.com and I know there are so many who love to invest in your business yes we join us to uplift and change lives of women I want to say thank you so much for watching I really appreciate your time my name is So what am I the one and only I know him village boy in Ghana I'm out