Sustyvibes is a youth-led community of changemakers working passionately to make sustainability relatable and actionable for young people in Africa. This we achieve by partnering with private and public organisations to drive various initiatives via education, advocacies, awareness campaigns and community-centred projects.
SUSTEAPARTY 2022
To commemorate World Environment Day 2022 and our sixth year anniversary, Sustyvibes organised the Susty Party event on July 25th 2022 at the Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua Centre, Abuja, Nigeria. The event brought together Sustyvibers, partners, organisations, sustainability enthusiasts and general stakeholders to dialogue and learn about key sustainability issues and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The aim of the event was to inspire young people to take positive actions towards protecting the people and the planet, starting from personal actions to community actions.
This year’s theme was titled, SusTEAParty: Homecoming, we partnered with the Abuja Literary Society to use the arts (poetry and music) to explore the concept of related emotions young people currently face in Nigeria, ranging from insecurity, climate change, and environmental anxiety.
This was our first Susty Party since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, we used the event as an avenue to reintroduce and showcase our work in the last six years to the Abuja community. Short documentaries on our Susty Marshalls and Communitrees project were screened. Other side attractions included interviews and surveys administered to guests on our Eco-anxiety and Intervibes projects. Finally, in a bid to promote a sustainable culture and lifestyle, we provided stands for owners of green businesses to sell their products and services.
We brokered a partnership agreement with the Abuja Literary Society to invite its members to develop poetry and music works that promote the protection of people and the planet, while also expressing their emotions as Nigerians living in Nigeria. This was followed up by the committee members attending the Abuja Literary Society’s Open Mic to introduce Sustyvibes and invite members to participate in the SusTEAParty. In order to make participation in the creative session more open and inclusive, we also put out a call for creatives to register to perform at the event. This was shared across all social media platforms and by Sustyvibers on their personal handles and by word of mouth.
A total of 17 entries were received, and seven (7) creatives/performers were selected after careful review and assessment of their work based on the quality of content, versatility, presentation and knowledge.
EXECUTION
Susty-side Chat
The susty-side chat was an informal Q&A chat with change-makers based in Abuja. The questions were fun, spontaneous and focused on their work and passion. In this session, we delved into the lives, businesses and movements started by change-makers in Abuja and their accomplishments and challenges. We also endeavoured to gauge and understand the speaker’s and audience’s knowledge and feelings towards the impending climate crisis, and what actions they are taking to address the crisis, ultimately inspiring them to take positive actions towards addressing this crisis and living sustainably.
We secured young professionals engaged in the environment and sustainability sector for the Susty-side Chat, namely Rita Idehai – CEO. Eco-Barter, Valentine Onyeka Ogunka – Poet, and Bilkisu Garba-Diallo- Founder, The Upcycle Architect.
Creative Arts Expressions
Nigeria’s population boasts about 60% young people and most of them generally view the creative arts as an important part of their lives. Young Nigerians are known for their creativity, industry, skill, energy and passion to innovate and design new programs and movements that bring about positive change in society.
A total number of 179 participants registered for the event, and 125 eventually attended the event.
ACHIEVING EVENT MILESTONES
The event went as planned and was well organised, although some activities were behind schedule, all preparations were carried out in line with the new timeframe while maintaining the event date. Preparation for the event began in earnest in late May, we had physical and virtual meetings to develop a concept note, implementation plan, budget and publicity materials for the event. Payments for venue space, feeding, prints and publicity materials were made prior to the event.
Knowing this, we partnered with the Abuja Literary Society to use the creative arts as a space to explore related emotions young people currently face, ranging from insecurity, climate change, and anxiety in Nigeria. The aim of this session was to design new ways to communicate to young people the science of climate change and its impacts through a fun and creative medium that makes it relatable to them. We identified the creative arts as one of those mediums that appeal to young people in Nigeria.
We identified and worked with seven spoken word poets and musicians to perform at the event. Their performances explored topics ranging from environmental destruction and a call for collective actions to protect the people and planet to the general restiveness and insecurity challenges faced by young people in Nigeria. The selected performers included Imabong Inyang, Jonathan Oluwatosin, Omotola Abidemi, Opeyemi Mapayi, Pelemo Ava Nyajo, Stephenie Moses and Francis Alasa.
Documentary Session
This session focused on showcasing our work in the last six years and what happens when young people come together for collective action towards designing new ways of living, for ourselves, our planet and the world at large. To inspire young people towards committing to taking positive actions to address the climate change crisis, some of our project documentaries were screened including the Susty Marshall project and Communitrees project.
Intervibes Session
Finally, in line with the 2022 World Environment Day theme, #OnlyOneEarth calls for transformative changes in policies and choices to enable cleaner, greener, and sustainable living in harmony with nature. We hosted the Intervibes session which engaged participants through surveys and one-on-one interviews to gauge their understanding of climate change and its impact on the people and the planet. The aim of the session was to drive climate education while creating and raising more awareness about normalising sustainable lifestyles in people’s daily activities.
The Intervibes session showed that participants are aware of climate change and its impact on the people and the planet. They also showed a fair knowledge of ways to combat climate change through reducing waste generation and pollution, as well as through recycling.
Some responses from the session
“Climate change is about the weather and environment and how it is changing, [these changes] has caused some discomforts in some areas [like] agriculture and the environment.
I try to combat climate change by ensuring I use materials that don’t pollute the environment. I have heard a bit about recycling, that plastics can be recycled.” Damola
“Climate change is an after-effect of the increase in temperature. I combat climate change by establishing a start-up outfit that recycles waste. A constant increase in temperature will affect our emotions.” – Joshua
Climate change is alterations in temperatures that affect both living and non-living things. Climate change is due to man-made causes like the burning of charcoal, fuels, and tyres. I feel Nigeria can be clean, nothing is impossible but it will take proper awareness campaigns for people need to know the dangers of littering and how it impacts their health and environment.”- Chineram
I don’t know much about Climate Change but I know it means a change of our climate and when factories dispose of their wastes into rivers, they contribute to climate change.” – Segun
Click to view video interviews.
MAJOR LEARNING TOPICS / OUTCOMES
Through the event, we were able to create and drive awareness about environmental protection, climate action and the role young people can play in creating a just, fair and sustainable planet (society) for the present and future.
The event also created a safe space for young Nigerians to use the creative arts (poetry and music) to positively express related emotions such as eco-anxiety and the general hopelessness that comes from the security and economic challenges young people experience in Nigeria.
We also generated some data for research and policy purposes on the statistics of people who are familiar with climate education, those currently taking climate action and the best practices for sustainable living.
Finally, participants were taken through the impact stories/journeys of Sustyvibes and other change makers who have started movements and organizations that seek to address the impending climate crisis. To this end, participants were inspired to take positive actions toward adopting a more sustainable lifestyle while protecting the people and the planet.