Catering for Students at Affordable Prices on Campus
Lowbousky Fabian Kaalushu is a social entrepreneur, a young achievers empowerment youth project member, and an APLI (African pathfinder leaders initiative) ambassador.
With the high rate of unemployment ever on the increase in Namibia, Kaalushu made a bold decision to become a social entrepreneur to make ends meet, create employment, and give back to society. According to him, getting a job had become an impossible mission, whether one has a formal degree or not. This was his motivation to get up, be creative and venture into business thus Kosmima was born. He chose the name “Kosmima” because according to him, it represents everything that he stands for and believes in. Kosmima represents idealism, intuition, romance, generosity, creativity, wisdom and tolerance.
Growing up as an orphan, Kaalushu knew how it feels to have nothing. For 5 years, he stayed in the Young Achievers Center, a group that became his home; they gave him shelter, clothes, and food.
“One of the group’s motto is to teach the youth how to be self-reliant and as a result, I decided to put what I have learned into practice and become a social entrepreneur.” – explains Kaalushu.
Kaalushu currently runs a fast food business, selling food to students from food cart/trailers at two universities, the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) and at the University of Namibia (UNAM). He set cost-effective prices, to ensure that all if not most students can afford it.
“Knowing how it feels not to have much, part of my business is to give back to the community.” – says Kaalushu.
Kaalushu gives 10% of his profit after every 3 consecutive months to orphanages and nursing homes. He prepares breakfast and lunch for them, and also collects clothing items and gives them to the children. Besides, he does motivational talks for high school learners, mentor particular learners and also hands out sanitary pads to underprivileged school-going girls.
However, with any business, challenges are inevitable. His main challenge is a lack of proper cooking equipment and utensils due to their high prices; as a result of this, his food carts are not fully furnished will proper fast food trailer kitchen equipment. And like any goal-oriented business person, he has aspirations. Kaalushu plans to have food trucks, a feeding, and a mentorship program that would help with the process of creating employment for others.
“Finally, I would like to end with a quote from my grandmother, she would say “good, better or best do not let it rest until your good is better and your better is good.” – concludes Kaalushu.
For more information, please check Kosmima’s Instagram page.
Photo credits: Lowbousky Fabian Kaalushu
