SustyVibes Engages Millennials to Participate in Sustainable Community Development

Sustyvibes is a social enterprise created by Jennifer Uchendu to redefine sustainability and advocate for millennials in Nigeria; through online and offline activities, they are creating a platform for young people to engage in the sustainable development agenda.

The initiative has been endorsed by Federal Ministry of Environment and UN Deputy Secretary General, Amina Mohammed.

The founder, Jennifer Uchendu talks about the inspiration behind the initiative:

Inspiration
I started dreaming of a career in this sector since I was in undergrad. I had stumbled on a research work on biofuels and biomimicry, and so I thought that the environmental space would be something to get involved in …since I was not sure about gynaecology anymore.

However, the more I learnt more about environmental issues, the more I discovered an even greater concept – sustainability. This led to the whole sustainability love. Having been involved in a lot of volunteering gigs, I decided to start up something to bring passionate enthusiasts like myself together to do more.

SustyVibes is social media driven, and though we occasionally have networking events to share ideas, learn new ways to increase awareness of the global goals – we are really interested in changing the way the concept of sustainability had been understood in the past and to get young people vibrant and active toward sustainable development

We believe that young people can channel their energy into more rewarding causes, to redefine advocacy for millennials means that we have to hip and cool and get everyone active and ready to our future from catastrophic issues like climate change, poverty and inequality.

Achievements So Far
SustyVibes has taught over 500 school children the SDGs, launched the Campus Clean-up Initiative with Clean-Up Africa, published an e-book on business sustainability in Nigeria, hosted two Susty parties in Lagos and Abuja, held four movie screenings, interviewed over 30 experts, and are now building a database for Nigerian recyclers.

Action plan and deliverables
We want to make Sustainability cool and find ways to get into various sectors to get young people interested in doing more for the environment and of course to implement the Sustainable Development goals in the medium and long term.

We have done with this our movie screenings – finding ways to use film for advocacy.

We have also use parties and networking events as a way to bring people together to discuss sustainability issues 

We have made a case to break the litter culture in Nigeria via our Stare Down On Pollution campaign – with social media activities, our recently concluded Mushin Street Conference and our My Recycle Story project that links households to recyclers near them.

Ethos, Vision, Mission and objectives
Our Vision is to create a network of passionate youth committed to Sustainable Development in Africa

Our Mission:  Making Sustainability a part of everyday life in Africa

Ethos – We believe in young people and their ability to drive sustainability in Africa; we know that if we begin from a tender age to imbibe cultures of social harmony, equality and planet prosperity – everyone will be carried along.

Our Objectives: 

• Increase youth participation in sustainability in Africa
• Increase responsible and green consumerism
• Promote women development and Education 
• Increase Climate Change Awareness and action via Community Engagement 
• Develop innovative frameworks for Sustainabilty Education and Conceptualization

Partners
World Bank Connect4Climate, UN Sustainable Development Network Youth, CommonWealth Youth Council, Wecyclers, RecyclePoints, BestMan Games, CSR-in-Action, Connected Development and so much more.

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