Ousman Umar (Ghana, 1988) claims to be very clear about what must be done to eradicate migration and put an end to the thousands of deaths and the enormous useless suffering that occurs along the way. And he is not only clear about it, but he has already created a foundation, with a certification and a social enterprise, to achieve it. The story of this 34-year-old businessman leaves no one indifferent. As he says, he wanted to get to paradise, to the promised land, the land of the whites. There were 46 people and only six survived.
At the age of 13, Ousman decided to leave his village in Ghana to come to that land of the whites and be an engineer. He arrived five years later, after walking what he calls the road to hell, although the term doesn’t even come close to describing what he lived through. During those five terrible years that separate the 5,000 km between Accra and Barcelona, he worked as a sheet metal worker and welder on ships, with almost no salary, was captured by the mafia, abandoned in the Sahara desert that he had to cross on foot having to drink his own He urinated to survive and finally crossed the Mediterranean in a boat, a trip where he survived two shipwrecks and where he saw his best friend die.
My boys are black, they are Ghanaian, we live in Africa, but we can also program in Python, or in C++, we also speak that language, we also have internet…
Illiterate and living on the streets of Barcelona, he met Montse, his guardian angel, who adopted him and welcomed him into her home. In six years, Ousman managed to finish the Spanish school system, did a chemistry degree in two and even a master’s degree, fixing bicycles to pay for it.
Thinking of his inhuman journey, he incessantly wondered why until he came to the conclusion that the question was not that, but “what for”. “I hadn’t gotten there by being the strongest. Of the 46 who crossed the desert, only six made it to Libya alive and I was the smallest. I think I have arrived because I have two purposes: one, to be the voice of all those who did not arrive alive; and two, prevent others from suffering what I had to suffer”.
Its strategy to achieve this has three pillars: First, the foundation Nasco Feeding Minds, which he created together with his brother Banasco, whom he paid for his university studies in Accra, who was born with the vision of ending poverty and inequalities in Africa through digital education. The goal, according to him, is to feed minds in his country, instead of bellies. “It is necessary to recognize that it is not enough to lift someone who is suffering from the ground, if you cannot help them to stay on their feet, because the second fall, sometimes, is even worse”, he assures. For 10 years, NASCO has been providing quality digital training in rural communities, empowering young generations to be leaders of change and creators of prosperity, and Ousman has just arrived from inaugurating three more computer classrooms, joining the 14 they already have. working.
The second pillar is to obtain the NETACAD certification, together with Cisco Systems, globally recognized certifications in the IT sector. And the third arose in 2021: NASCOTech, a technological social company that provides IT (Information Technology) services for companies around the world. NASCOTech welcomes the talents of the NASCO classrooms and offers them job opportunities without the need to migrate, developing the technology industry in Ghana. Nascotech also provides sustainability to the foundation because, as he himself says, “we cannot constantly ask for donations for the classrooms.”
In their first year they already work with five Spanish companies, with which 18 Ghanaian workers collaborate who have managed to triple their salary. “This started simply because no one deserves to experience the torture that I experienced. We solve a real problem, migration. All the countries of the world have tried to solve it, I have the solution with a minimum part of what they invest in this problem. If with a salary as a bicycle mechanic, today we have 53 schools, more than 6,600 students per year and 66,000 since 2012, without receiving any subsidy, there really is hope. This is going to change the way of doing cooperation, but we need support”, he assures.
To develop this model, which has already been piloted and is working, it has two very clear needs: on the one hand, it needs impact investors to help finance growth, especially IT facilities and equipment in Ghana. On the other, companies that understand that talent has no color. “It seems very obvious, but every time we have to prove it. My boys are black, they are Ghanaian, we live in Africa, but we can also program in Python, or in C++, we also speak that language, we also have internet, with difficulty, yes. I need companies to trust once, not twice, once. We do not want charity, but the opportunity for an internship contract, ”he asks.
Thus, Nascotech offers companies around the world the opportunity to change the narrative of migrations, providing them with workers with the best motivation and training.
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