Age
17
Country of Residence
Nigeria
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
My mum likes to design, growing up she would arrange our living room at least two times in a month, she would change the curtains, the pillows, the sitting arrangement, everything. I found it weird at first but eventually, I and my siblings learnt through this, that we could take charge of the space around us. We learnt that we could take ownership, stewardship of the world around us, we were lazy, and found the process of reimagining and caring for our spaces very hard, but in truth, after the day ended, and we sat down we admired our work and what we did together. It was this moments over the years that have helped me slowly learn what is possible, it made me see and realise that when people came together to achieve something, it became more precious, it built the connection between them. The world around is often approached with the weariness at which I and my siblings approached our chores, but if we as a community come together to steward our environment together, we could sit back and and tell a story of how we built this together as a people, this is what led to the start of my project Acaica.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
As Acaica is still relatively new from the idea stage, storytelling is something I and my team believe to be a core part of community building, and it is a core of this project Acaica, I plan to document every stage of our progress, to inspire, motivate and reflect to others what the core of this project stands for, I hope that through this project, communities will grow collectively, inter-dependently, that we would work together to preserve and care for our natural ecosystems. Documentation is one of the key ways with which I will encourage other people to join and learn from Acaica, we also plan to host workshops and design lab sessions with communities, these are plans we are still working on over the course of the next months.
How many people are on your team?
3
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
Currently Acaica is in a crucial transitioning stage from idea to prototype to piloting, and we often find ourselves going back to the board to reiterate what is working and what isn't. So far we have acquired a wasteland of 446 Sq meters space in Kwara state which we are currently redesigning alongside the community into an ecological space for community engagement as well as a biodiversity hub. We are currently still a very small but growing group. Impact we imagine would look like a national established youth-led hub across cities, working, designing, maintaining, educating and working collectively with other communities to ensure that nation wide, our communities embody communal living, ecological resilience and natural stewardship of our environment, with an hectare of space maintained, restored and redesigned in a years time, a growing network of youth (1000) and community representatives taking charge of stewarding the spaces they call home— This is what impact would look like.
Project Category
My project is an existing project that I started
Project Stage
Pilot-Stage (We’ve tried an activity or two)
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
Reimagining community spaces, with communities, and for communities, spaces that embody ecological resilience, communion, and natural stewardship.
Project title
Acaica: Carving space for earth where concrete and steel abound
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
Acaica— solves the problem of rapid Urbanisation competing against natural spaces, as well as disassociation in communities. Many communities have built walls around each other, my community is a collective kind, but over the years, the increased disconnection, between us as people and our natural ecosystems have grown high. Solving this problem by making spaces that allow for community engagement and also strengthen ecological stewardship will ensure that we reconnect as people, and that we have spaces that bring us together, to our roots and reveals the nobleness of our collective human spirit.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
Acaica.org
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
Over the course of the next month, we plan to concentrate on redesigning the space we are currently working on, alongside the community, to grow a network of local volunteers and also other youths. We are currently submitting proposals, for partnerships and contributions with other youth initiatives. Over the next few months I hope that we can straighten out our method of operation and have a functioning team that has connections with grass-root organisations and national agencies.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
Acaica is different in it's model which —Listens/See- Imagine-Design-Transform—first our model calls for communities to see the state of their environment, it allows communities to listen to each other, taking into account different community representatives, the elderly, the youths, the working professionals, the specially abled, and the environment herself. After which we look at different possibilities, we imagine collectively alongside the community, and we come to a point where our imagination works collectively, at this stage we care, we design, we transform, we restore the spaces around us as a community, in whatever capacity that is needed, as a people. This model is what separates Acaica, we do not hope to tell communities what they need, but to envision together and bring to life what can be.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
Acaica turns spaces into Ecological hubs, re-wilding and designing spaces in the city into interactive spaces that foster community engagement and conserve natural spaces. Long term this will ensure that future generations know more than the four walls of their homes but also the feel of a trees bark and the patterns on a leaf. That we as a community have communion as a people once again. Our aim is to re-wild cities, transform spaces into ecological, climate resilient green spaces for communities, with communities. The spaces Acaica will design, will be communal living sanctuaries for communities to interact with natural ecosystems. By doing this we will accomplish a model that allows communities to see that the world around them can embody unity, collective thinking as well as care. It will also preserve biodiversity in communities and aid climate resilience, through this I hope that this model will be adapted across communities, states, nations, and that we would build spaces and infrastructure that embody ecological resilience, as well as communal living.
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
My team currently consists of two brilliant women, who have founded Acaica as well as me, eventually and even currently we are growing the team. Priscillia is currently a main stakeholder who has been managing operations, research and team building, Praise is our COO specialist, who handles our social pages, as well as digital presentation, and also collectively works across operations. Eventually we are looking to get more expert consultants, and community managers as we grow.
