Dear Diary,
I first stumbled upon SustyVibes on Twitter in May of 2017. I saw a tweet on the environment that caught my attention which led me to check out the SustyVibes website. I was captured by all the interesting information the website had to offer and SustyVibes just happened to be recruiting at the time. I decided to apply.
My first SustyEvent was the volunteers’ hangout in Lagos where I got to meet a couple of other SustyVibers who shared the same passion about the environment. It was a potluck and everyone was to bring edibles. I didn’t bring anything, so it felt sort of odd eating when you contributed nothing but thanks out to Eric and the gang, they taught me that we are a family and there’s love in sharing and that’s part of what SustyVibes teaches. I had a taste of Ijeoma’s famous banana-bread and it tasted divine. Thumbs up Ijeoma!
I now take edibles to hangouts, in the spirit of promoting friendship and community.
In my undergraduate days, my journal articles mostly focused on protecting the environment and its inhabitants. It only felt right that I join the writers’ team. Tairat, thank you for pushing us to write.
Sometimes, it’s difficult balancing the life of a Commercial Lawyer, getting professional certifications with other extra-curricular activities and still have a ‘me time’. My friends think I am more of a SustyViber than a Lawyer, in my opinion, Sustainability is basically living every day in a way that conserves the environment and leaves future generations with resources to harness. If that makes me more of a SustyViber, that’s awesome. #Ecofeminist
With SustyVibers at an SDGs event
Volunteering with SustyVibes has taught me, no excuse can prevent you from getting the job done. SustyVibes has provided a platform for beneficial discourse on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), proferring solutions to some of Nigeria’s problems, an opportunity for capacity development and most importantly, self-consciousness (aka ‘big brother is watching’). You should hear SustyVibers speak, there’s just so much passion.
I learned to conserve energy by switching off appliances when not in use. Whenever I turn the full volume of the tap unnecessarily, I hear a voice asking if that’s really the best way to conserve water, considering some other people have to walk miles just to get water (however clean).
I literally turn red when I see people indiscriminately dump trash on the road or in a drainage. People have the mindset that cleaners are there to pick up after them , so they make no effort to dispose properly. Also, the notion that the environment will take care of itself is harmful, our actions have consequences and they are manifesting in the form of environmental disasters caused by climate change.
An individual can make a change. Collective, simple, small actions are enough to save the world. I properly dispose of my waste, even if it comes home with me. It’s my trash, not someone else’s.
My greatest achievement as a SustyViber has been inspiring consciousness in people to do the right things to protect our planet. I once went out for a meetup and saw an acquaintance leaving a soda bottle by a pedestrian bridge. When I confronted him, he said: “I would definitely not leave trash here if a SustyViber was around”. That got me really thinking. The work we do at SustyVibes is felt in places we don’t even know yet.
Till we have more SustyConvos about the kind of clean, pollution-free, carbon-free air we would love to breathe, and the green environment we would love to live in to prevent what happened to Monday, dear diary, I am still Susty M.
