Rising entrepreneur Ernest Yuori and his mother Josephine – an ATE cook – are the living embodiment of Action Through Enterprise’s incredible ‘ripple effect”. This inspiring family is changing its own fortunes – and those of their community.
Little did Josephine Yuori know when she began working for ATE as a cook, it would be beginning of a relationship with the charity that would reach down through generations.
Today, her eldest son Ernest is an innovative young entrepreneur with an exciting business in bio pesticides – and the recipient of one of our new ‘Entrepreneur Acceleration Grants’, aimed at businesses with the potential to scale and bring employment and opportunity to the Upper West.
The story began when 25-year-old Ernest was in at senior high school with Kanyiri Kuube-isaan, now our Impact Manager. Kanyiri mentioned there was a vacancy for a cook at Girls’ Model School in Lawra Town and Ernest encouraged his mum to apply. Her salary made all the difference for her family of four children, and when Ernest went on to tertiary college, Josephine was able to help with his fees and living costs.
“My Mum gave me everything I needed to succeed,’ says Ernest, whose father is a teacher. “There is this thing with Africans, that we kids, we tend to call our mums as compared to our dads. You rather lean on your mum. And her working at ATE, it’s been great.”
After college, having become aware of the impact of chemicals in agriculture, Ernest decided to doing something about it. “I realised how harmful these chemicals are, not only to us humans, but the environment as well. I got to realise that there’s a lot more we could do other than just sit back and then expect others to do.”
With friends and co-founders Doozie Ludger and Zaagbeb Fidelis, he set up CitraBloomm in 2024, making pesticides with locally-grown, natural ingredients. “We engage market women who sell oranges – usually they throw away the peels – now they dry the peels and we buy them for 100 cedis (£7) for 50 kg.”
Other women are employed to gather neem seeds, which are abundant in Lawra – and Ernest is looking at opening up that opportunity to women in our SNAP disability programme, so that mothers of disabled children can benefit.
CitraBloomm is growing – with nine employees and plans to buy a grinder and take on apprentices to speed up production and expand to new districts. The ATE grant, as well as training and mentorship, is key. But the collaboration is about much more – it’s about values.
“To be honest, as a business, you’ll be thinking of making profits. But we are also driven by the impact we will make in the community. We hope in the next five years, we’ll be able to create at least 600 jobs, with 50 of them being direct employment. I’m so grateful to be part of the ATE family now because of the impact its creating. Together, we can eradicate poverty in Lawra.”
And the final word goes to Ernest’s mother, Josephine, who serves up hot meals every day for 113 pupils at Girls’ Model School and gave Ernest the chance to follow his dreams:
“I am so proud of Ernest. He is hope.”
