My name is U.T. Roland MUSI, from Cameroon – Central West Africa. I was born on the 27th of April 1971 and come from a family of five children, four boys and a girl. I am the fourth child.
I was raised as a Catholic in a small town called Mbengwi in the Northwest Region of Cameroon by my single mother, working as a Laboratory Technician in the lone Hospital in the town by then.

We were rich, but never really experienced poverty. We always had a roof over our heads, enough to eat, went to school and were also very active in our local church community activities.

Since it was a small community, everyone knew almost everyone. This was especially true, if they attended the same school, church or work place.

Everyone lived in peace. Parents were allowed to discipline the children of neighbours, if they found it necessary. Child upbringing was practiced along the lines of “it takes a village to raise a child”. Life was really good. I grew up with this positive communal feeling on life.

In 1991, I lost my mother who was also my lone bread winner after a long illness that lasted close to a decade. This is when, I was about to write the General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary Level. Her death meant the end of my formal source of Care and Subsistence as there was no real support system for someone to turn to outside of the family.
To forge ahead under this uncertain circumstances and as a teenager, I had to sometimes, depend on hand outs from relatives and friends as no one was directly responsible over me.

There were several moments, I would not be able to guarantee my next meals or the fees for the coming school year.
This phase of my life actually got me exposed to real child poverty, misery and kept my mind wondering why the society is so insensitive to the plight of needy vulnerable children and orphans.
Despite all the odds, I did not give up on my ambition to keep going to school and to have a University Education. Under these challenging circumstances, I went through High School and finally the University.

The difficulties and frustrations I experienced along the way, exposed me to the various challenges and sufferings poor needy children eager to be educated, undergo.

In one of my University courses, that relate to Development and Welfare Economics, I got to understand that, it is virtually impossible for those trapped in abject poverty to break the vicious circle, without a special arrangement designed in their favour or an injection of income from outside. With this understanding in mind, I saw the poor from a different angle. As a group of people in need of opportunities which they cannot afford, such as access to Education, Health services, Financial Services etc, rather than a bunch of lazy people just looking for handout and donations.

In 1999 while I was rounding up from the University of Buea, I paid a visit to the Buea central Prison with some Christmas gifts. This was my first exposure to the prison, found the living conditions, very deplorable and decided to organized a one week campaign to raise awareness and galvanize support for them. A few friends decided joined me in this campaign and there were now, Dr TANKE Theodore, NKWENT Joseph and Lambert.

This event was a huge success and on the millennium day of 1st January 2000, we delivered the donated items to them, ranging from food items, to clothing, medication among others. We agreed not to take pictures due to the solemnity of the activity.
All these with other life experiences and especially the visit to the Prison, marked a turning point in my life. I had undergone a transformation after these visits, and decided to establish LINK-UP, designed to mitigate the effects of abject poverty in needy orphans and vulnerable children and prevent them from ending up in prison.