I have previously shared my history and encounter with the idea of sustainability and how this changed my life and worldview of how things should be done. The work that I do now with young people and sustainability is not new and will definitely not end with me; it is surely evolving in that we are finding better ways to convert people to live responsibly. Being a sustyviber is fulfilling, to say the least for me, wholeheartedly and excited to share my time, resources and life to protecting the planet and getting people, governments, and private organizations to do same is truly rewarding.
I became a sustyviber the minute the thoughts around what I wanted SustyVibes to be crystallized in my heart. I was our first volunteer, financier, and supporter. But my job was not very easy, using social media and faith to gain more followers and supporters who will help build a network of committed youths aimed at making sustainability an easy topic for more youths to discuss and take action.
As a Nigerian woman who is in touch with the reality and is as much of an optimistic as the pope, Leonardi Di Carpio and my other like-minded “colleagues” in planet protection, I have come to understand that people do not see nature as a part of themselves, it will take a lot of advocacy to show people that the vision that saving the planet is saving themselves. In Nigeria, the environment suffers the very things people (women especially) suffer, inexistent rights, suffering as a result of greed and the need to control and most especially, to exploit. So, I am in the business of getting young people to open their minds to living more responsibly and SustyVibes is scratching the surface nicely.
Being a sustyviber gives me hope in young people, I have seen that what works for youths in Lagos, will not work for youths in Enugu or Kogi. I have also seen that poverty (of the mind and of the pocket) is, in fact, a huge factor for responsible living. I have also seen that most of our academic institutions do a terrible job in addressing this and there are no surprises when a Nigerian graduate can barely write a half paged letter.
I know there is hope because what the Sustainable Development Goals do for dysfunctional states like ours is to show us the interconnectedness of developmental problem and open our minds up to be solution-oriented and to demand the right things from our governments and in some cases just do what they have failed to do.
A true sense of purpose and mindfulness has grown in me, though a lot of times I get weary of doing all this good and not having a considerable spending power to do more, delegate more and even get nice things for myself.
But the work must continue.
My diary is not as interesting as I would have preferred; because I am still scratching the surface and have not reached the bottom of the pot where I can sit back and enjoy; in fact, there is no enjoying when my sisters are mutilated and sold into sexual contracts in the name of culture. SustyVibes has so many amazing people within her network, humans I am so proud to be associated with who teach me to unlearn and relearn many ideologies on sustainability and development in Nigeria. They will have more interesting and inspiring stories and you will come to realize that this is a life-changing journey of finding the core of self and what it means to live right.
But the work must continue.
And surely it will, with more SustyVibers, more partners, more resources, and more optimism, we will first end extreme poverty that has stolen sanity from the hands of men and me too, will say I tried my best, in the end, I put some seed of good into the universe and it grew and many lives were improved.