Latest / Chatting with The Experts with Paula Okonneh / Changing The World One Backpack at a Time

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Changing The World One Backpack at a Time · Chatting with The Experts with Paula Okonneh

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Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Chatting with the Experts TV
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show with me, Paula Okonneh, as the host.
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Every week I bring to you dynamic women from Africa, from the Caribbean,
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and in the diaspora, and what they do is together with me, we inspire, we
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motivate, and we educate women globally.
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My guests are always, I say they're dynamic.
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They're amazing.
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I love that word amazing.
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But even more importantly, they are professionals and
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successful business owners.
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They are women who are striving in every which way to make
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a difference in the world.
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So today, we are going to be talking about changing the world
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one backpack at a time, and with me to do that will be Abong Fankam.
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Before she comes on, let me tell you about her.
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Her story is one of faith, resilience, and unwavering
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dedication to children and families.
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She's a passionate advocate and stands as a voice for the voiceless, spreading
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a message of hope, love and truth.
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She's a devoted Christian and is an inspiration to those seeking
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God's love, and she holds a special place in her heart for children.
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She believes in the unique power within every child because
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she sees them as lights of the world shining in God's glory.
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Abong is the co-founder and vision keeper of No Backpack Day Foundation.
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I could tell you a lot more about her, but why don't I welcome her to the show?
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So Abong, please join us on the show.
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Good morning, Paula.
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Good morning.
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It's great to have you here.
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I said.
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I always say snippets of my guest bio because people always have such
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incredible, and you know, such long bios with all your achievements.
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So if there's anything that I left out, please feel me and my listening audience,
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or my viewing audience in with that.
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Alright.
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Well, you did a good job with the bio, the introduction.
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The other thing is I like to let people know, even though I live in the United
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States, but I am a proud born Cameroonian.
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I am from Cameroon.
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Yeah.
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2, 3, 7, it's me.
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Yeah.
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Currently in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a mom to an
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amazing 22-year-old daughter.
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22-year-old daughter.
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Wow.
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You too young to have a 22-year-old.
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That's what I hear.
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What's too young?
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I thought your daughter was like 13.
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She is 22.
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Wow.
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So you are the co-founder and vision keeper of No Backpack Day Foundation.
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Co-founder means there's another founder.
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So tell us, give me the story, please, or give us the story
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behind No Backpack Day Foundation.
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Hmm.
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Sure, I'll be glad to do that , Paula.
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Like I said, I have an amazing 22-year-old daughter, and this is really her story.
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Her dream that God placed on her heart.
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I have been somebody who truly believes in the power of helping other people, helping
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other people exist, and, just sharing my gifts and sharing the things that God
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have blessed me with the least fortunate.
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So when my daughter... she's called Mongai.
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When she was three years old, I took her on a trip to Cameroon,
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to help children that had lost their parents to HIV and AIDS.
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And that was my passion and vision at that time to help children that had
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lost their parents to HIV and AIDS.
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So Mongai and I did what I call like annual trips to Cameroon.
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And while I was out helping the kids in the different villages and
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different households, making sure that their needs are being provided for
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and they have a safe place to live.
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God was actually using Mongai in a different way, even though she
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was three at the time and younger.
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One thing that Mongai picked was that the kids not only walk long distance
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to school, but that they had to walk to school carrying their books
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in their hands or in plastic bags.
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And so God was gradually putting that into Mongai's heart without me knowing
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that that was his plan for Mongai.
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As a mother, I thought, well, I'm just going to share my home country
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with Mongai for her to get to know where I come from, for her to
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have that connection with Africa.
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But God, of course, had another plan for her.
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So when Mongai was eight years old, that was 13- 14 years ago.
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When she was eight years old , that's when she birthed the stream.
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When it came to fruition.
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And she was eight.
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Yeah, when she was eight.
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She was eight years old, a third grader at the time, and without my knowledge,
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without having any conversation with me, Mongai went to the school and
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told her teachers about the kids in the rural area of Cameroon that have
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to walk to school carrying their books in their hands in plastic bags.
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So the school decided that they were gonna help her get backpacks
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to those kids in Cameroon.
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And Mongai decided to challenge them to say, yes, we can get the backpacks, but
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why don't we walk a day in their shoes?
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So why don't we come to school one day without our backpacks and
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carry our books and school supplies in our hands or in plastic bags?
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So we get to feel, because it's one thing about just giving, but when you get to
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feel, you get to have that experience of what it means for a child not to have a
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backpack for nine months and they have to carry their books, they have to walk
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and sometimes it's raining and they have to hold their books in your hands.
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And even if it's not raining, the more you hold it on your
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hands, the more it gets ruined.
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So their notes and all of that, they get lost.
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So the school decided that, yeah, we're gonna do what we call now, no
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backpack day, where they'll come for a day without backpack and carry their
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books in their hands or in plastic bags.
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That's when the school contacted me.
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They're like, Hey, we're getting ready to do a no backpack day.
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I'm like, what's a backpack day?
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And they explained the whole thing behind on what Mongai has been doing.
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Like for a whole week I've been sending my child to school.
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And during her lunchtime, she's going from one class to the other
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and telling them about the kids in Cameroon that do not have backpacks.
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And so, I was like, okay, yeah, that's a good thing.
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But I was skeptical, thinking that, well, these American kids, I don't think
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they're gonna want that experience to show connected, but lo and behold, I
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was surprised out of 900 students in that school, 800 kids came to school
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that day without their backpacks carrying their books in their hands
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or in plastic bags to raise awareness.
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Of course, the news was there, the TV crew with the, the televised
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Mongai, and she was on the news and other schools got whim of it.
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And they were like, oh, we wanna do a No Backpack Day.
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So in that first year itself, we had eight schools that did a No
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Backpack Day and donated 500 new backpacks and school supplies that we
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took with us that summer of 2012 to Cameroon and gave out to kids in need.
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And since then, 2012, this is 2025, 13 years after more than 100,000 backpacks
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have been collected, more than 50 schools have done a No Backpack Day,
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and backpacks have been sent to close to 20 countries, including Nigeria.
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Yes, Nigeria.
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20 countries in Africa.
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So that's the whole story.
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It's just like one little dream.
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This say one dream can change, a world can change a nation.
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And that is what she's doing now.
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Changing the world one backpack at a time.
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It's so impressive.
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Thank you.
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Wow.
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Wow, wow.
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At eight years old.
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Yes.
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She had a dream.
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She had a purpose and she went about doing it.
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And what even is so impressive to me is that she did it without you, you
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know, without telling you about it.
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She got...
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Exactly, exactly all on her own.
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All on her own.
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She surprised me.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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Wow.
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It would've been wonderful if we, if she could have joined us, but
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... I know, yeah.
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But she's at school.
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Yes.
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Busy with school at this time.
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Maybe another episode will be with her.
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Yes.
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Mm-hmm.
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So, you know, so talk about, you know, I mean, she had a dream and a purpose.
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Talk about, you know, the impact of following your dreams and your purpose.
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You know, now that you're the co-founder, how have you seen that, you know,
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like unravel into some of the children that you've probably impacted in the
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Cameroon and how they in turn are able to follow their dreams and their purposes?
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Mongai's story has really been inspiring to a lot of younger children.
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And I think also I'm one of those people that I strongly believe that
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we are not in this world by accident.
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That God created us for a reason and for a purpose.
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In life, we all have a purpose.
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We come into the world with our hands closed, and I believe in that hand carries
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your dream, your purpose, but it's now for you to find out what is your dream?
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What is your purpose in life?
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What did God create you to be?
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And for me, it was at the time in my life, I was a social worker at one
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time and I did the most difficult and challenging part of being a
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social worker was doing investigation on child abuse and negligence.
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So I saw everything that it contains children, and children
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are special parts of my heart.
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But then it was also overwhelming.
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So I started questioning myself.
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What is my mission?
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What is my purpose?
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And then came across a lady that really helped me to identify what it
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was and to write was, what is that one thing that if money is not an issue,
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that you would do it wholeheartedly?
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And to me, it was just children in need.
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It was children in need.
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So from there, I had a nonprofit on the site that was called A Place of Hope,
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and that was giving hope to children that had lost their parents to HIV and AIDS.
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And of course.
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through that, going back to Africa, Mongai has been able to also identify
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her own dream of giving back and making the world a better place for other
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children and inspiring other children.
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Like when we go to these African countries and we meet children, they
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hear her story and they say, oh, this is what I would like to do.
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You have encouraged me.
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There's some kids that have come along.
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And done No Backpack Day in different countries so they can raise the backpacks
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and give to children in their community.
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The kids that have started something on the side because of
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what they've seen Mongai doing.
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Wow.
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I'm still blown away by, you know, the impact of an eight year old's dream.
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I myself, I'm blown away.
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Every day I look at it, I cannot believe because yeah, she's my child.
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I'm proud of her and what she's doing.
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But I'm also happy that God is using her in a mighty way to give hope to children.
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And it's just amazing how much recognition because when I look
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at her accolade, I'm like, wow.
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You are just 13.
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You are just 15, you're just 18, you're 22.
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And look at all of this.
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She's had the support of Leymah Gbowee from Liberia who won the Nobel
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Peace Prize as she has endorsed her.
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She's had the support of African First Ladies.
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She's been to the Senate to talk to world leaders about, she's been to the UN and
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I'm like, wow, just this little voice.
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Just this little dream.
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And that's the importance of dream because it never goes away what you
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are called to do, it's your choice to say yes to it or to say no.
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But it will never go away from you.
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Right.
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You're called, but it will never go away.
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It doesn't.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, we struggle with it.
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Fear.
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We are afraid to fail.
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Hmm.
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And sometimes we're afraid to succeed.
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Yes.
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'cause when we succeed, it puts us in a different level, right?
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Yes.
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And then when you succeeding, you come to realize that your tribe is shrinking.
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It's shrinking.
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And because you don't want to be in a small tribe, you wanna be in a big tribe.
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So you are afraid to succeed, to say what?
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Because you're thinking, what are people gonna say?
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People are gonna start running away from me.
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So there's a fear of failure.
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I don't wanna fail.
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And then there's also the fear of succeeding, because when you
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succeed, it means the times that you're gonna be all by yourself.
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But hey, you are called by God.
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You're called by God to do it.
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Yes.
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Indeed, there's your strength and your source and you put
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those dreams and purpose.
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Purpose is in us, you know, and as Christians, we know that, you
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know, we can depend upon him.
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Mm-hmm.
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Guide us, to lead us, to instruct us, to show us the way to go and it takes a
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while, but sometimes when we understand that the purpose and the talents it comes
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from him, then we can depend upon him to do the guiding and hold our hands.
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That we're not alone.
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That's right.
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That's right.
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It does.
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To a younger child like Mongai, yeah, it took a couple of years.
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But the people that takes 20 years, it takes 30 years for them to finally
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identify what their purpose is in life.
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So, which every, it depends on each individual.
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Yeah.
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Yes.
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So one of the things, I know you mentioned your own nonprofit, Place of Hope.
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I know we are talking about changing the world one backpack at a time.
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But tell me a little bit about that, because that, that you
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are the founder of that one.
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Yes.
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Mm-hmm.
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Yes.
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So tell us a little bit about that.
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The Place of Hope was founded in 2005.
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Yeah.
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And that's when HIV and AIDS was a pandemic in Africa and children were
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losing their parents with HIV and AIDS.
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You had households that were being headed by minor children, and that
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really, really did break my heart.
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And again, just that my love and passion that I have for kids and
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being able to help kids here.
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And then thinking about the kids in Cameroon and different parts of Africa
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that do not have mommies and daddies.
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How can we help them?
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So I founded this organization called The Place of Hope, and the whole
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idea was to help children that had lost their parents to HIV and AIDS
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to make sure that they live in the house that is headed by an adult.
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And also that they enrolled in school and their tuition are being paid for.
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So with that, we were able to raise enough tuition that we
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paid tuition for 758 orphans.
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And also was able to build a school in one of the villages in Cameroon.
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So that's my life.
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That's my story.
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And what it makes me realize is that, you know, the apple doesn't
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fall too far from the tree.
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So Mongai...
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That's what I hear.
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So Mongai had you as a visible, you know, like a mentor or
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someone to look up to and...
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Yeah.
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Follow in your footstep because what she's doing is, you know,
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very similar to what you are doing.
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Yeah, exactly.
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Overall, the same purpose.
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To help.
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Yeah.
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To help.
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To help, yeah.
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Yeah.
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But again, it's, yeah.
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One thing I'm happy, it's she's living her dream.
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She's living what God wants her to do because there could definitely be
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an apple there that she's watching, but like, no, I'm not gonna do that.
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That's your thing.
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I'm going away.
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But yeah, it's like, yeah.
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Absolutely.
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That's so right.
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So I know off camera we talked about there's something
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special happening in April.
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Oh yes.
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So because of Miss Mongai, again, like I said, she's had the connection
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and the endorsement with a lot of world leaders, First Ladies.
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She's been invited to different African countries by African First Ladies.
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So now she is having a fundraise on April 26th.
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The goal is to raise 10,000 backpacks.
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We're calling it 10,000 Dreams, 10,000 Backpacks.
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That will be sent to five different African countries.
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And the keynote speaker is gonna be Dr. Omar Obama.
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She is the sister of President Barack Obama.
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She lives in Kenya, but she's coming here.
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She's endorse Mongai and she's coming to be the keynote speaker for the event.
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Thank you.
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So impressive.
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This is gonna be held in Charlotte.
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I'm assuming, or one...
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It's gonna be in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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The NASCAR Hall of Fame?
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Yes.
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Alright, so those of us who are not in Charlotte, is there
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going to be a virtual version?
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Hopefully, yeah.
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We're thinking about doing a link.
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Yeah.
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And I can send you the link, and those who will not be able to make it in
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addition to that, feel free to support.
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You can still make a donation or a contribution online.
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Yeah.
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To help a child in need.
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The link is gonna be in the chat so everyone who has joined
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will be able to look at it.
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Okay.
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On their own.
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Okay?
17:39
Yes.
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Amen.
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Thank you.
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So, you know, all good things have to come to an end, unfortunately.
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So if anyone wants to get in touch, well, I put the link in the chat,
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but anyone wants to get in touch with you or with Mongai regarding this
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phenomenal job that she's doing, changing the world, one backpack at a time.
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Where can they find you or her, or who do you want them to contact?
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Her or you, or both of you?
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You're the co-founder.
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Yes, both of us, but more me because now she's in school and getting towards
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the end of the semester and all of that.
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So I will be the appropriate person to reach out to now, but then the
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summer, of course it's gonna be Mongai.
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And I can give you my email address or I'll give you our email address.
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Okay.
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Which is, Abong that's my first name.
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abong@nobackpackday.org.
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Okay.
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And then for Mongai, it is also mongai@nobackpackday.org.
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Okay.
18:43
And we spell Mongai M... Go ahead.
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M-O-N-G-A-I.
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Ok, mongai@nobackpackday.org and you are abong@nobackpackday.org.
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Okay.
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You got it?
19:05
Yes.
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Social media?
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Are you all on social media?
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Yeah.
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Social media?
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No Backpack Day.
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Okay.
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On Facebook?
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Yes.
19:13
Okay.
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I guess LinkedIn and Instagram?
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Yes.
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Okay.
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Instagram, IG?
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Yes.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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Awesome.
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Well, yeah.
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Those of you who are listening and those who have joined us, I
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always say my guests are the best.
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Oh, that rhymes.
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Thank you.
19:27
My guests are indeed the best.
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Thank you.
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And you're the best too.
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Thank you.
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And so if you are a woman and I do also have men join us and would
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like to be on the show, please reach out to me on my website,
19:43
which is chattingwiththeexperts.com.
19:47
I'm also on LinkedIn.
19:48
I love LinkedIn, as Paula Okonneh.
19:51
On Instagram, you can contact me and my handle there is at chat_experts_podcast.
20:01
I'm on Facebook as Paula Okonneh.
20:04
And I also have a YouTube channel.
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Just look for or subscribe to our channel, which is Chatting with the Experts with
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Paula Okonneh and, Mongai, not Mongai.
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I'm now calling you Mongai.
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Abong.
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Abong, thank you so much for telling us about this phenomenal foundation
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that you and you are co-founder of the founder being the phenomenal,
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wonderful inspirational Mongai.
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Thank you for joining us today to spread the word.
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And again, remind us about the date of the fundraiser.
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Is it fundraiser?
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Yes, it is April 26th, 2025.
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NASCAR Hall of Fame, Charlotte, North Carolina from 6:30 PM to 10:30 PM.
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Come and have fun.
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Yes.
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Thank you.
20:59
Thank you so much.
20:59
You're welcome.
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Thank you, Paula.
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I appreciate you and Thank you for giving me this opportunity.
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You are welcome.
21:06
You're welcome.
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And of course now we open up the floor to all those who joined us,
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ask you any questions that I might have missed out on so that you can
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tell them more about how to change the world, one backpack at a time.
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Sure.