Tony Joy On Circular Enterprises And Building Resilient Rural Communities

With nearly a decade of actively working in a social enterprise, Tony Joy is passionate about rural development.

As the Founder of Durian, she supports marginalised groups such as rural people, especially women, and girls in Nigeria, to lead better lives. A recipient of multiple awards, Tony Joy, is desirous of engaging women in communities to lead the process of change as they create rural communities of the future; one that is circular, creative, and empowered by rural women. She is also a leader in the conversation on the meaning of development for rural communities.

 

Tony discusses equipping women in rural communities with the skills and perspectives to be self-sufficient and The powerful flow on benefits of communities transforming local waste and resources into livelihoods.

 

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Sarah Ripper] - To start off, could you please share a little bit about your background and what's led to where you are now?

[Tony Joy] - I have a rollercoaster of a story, that's the way I'll put it. I started off by losing my dad when I was 12. I was very much attached to my father, so losing him at 12 meant I've lost so many things. I was thrown into a world of confusion. I didn't know what I was doing anymore, I didn't know why I existed, and that was because he was the only one who saw me for who I was. I grew up a tomboy, and for so many reasons I was in the margins. In the bigger spaces, even with my family I was just one strange being who is a lady, but then looked like a guy from childhood. Everybody was trying to bend, mold, fix and correct me to just be ladylike. It was only with my dad I could sit and share my heart, so then when I lost him, I crashed. I didn't have anybody to go to anymore. All I could remember was the resounding voices of people who told me I was useless; I would amount into nothing, and I was a waste. Those are things I could remember very well.

At that point when I 12-13 years old, I began contemplating suicide, and I tried committing suicide twice. I did this when I was between 14 and 16 years old. I had also even tried it as early as 12 years old, by running in front of a moving vehicle. That was when I lost my dad because I was tired of living. I felt like he was gone, so I should go too. I felt nobody was going to listen to me and nobody cared. The voices of the people never went silent, they were always saying something about me. They always had something to say about how I looked and how I was just a child. I had no control over it; it wasn't my fault I'm this way, but people never saw that, they just saw someone they could hurt with negative words.

This negativity dwelt in me for a very long time, and I hated myself. I hated living, I hated the fact I was this person. I never believed I looked good, and I never believed I would amount to anything. At 16 years old, I ran away from home under the guise of going to university.

I did get into the university the next year, but I ran away from home early because I was tired of it. Because I left home, I thought I would go into a world filled with joy. I felt like I would finally be in a world filled with acceptance. I was living out this euphoria in my head, and now I'm free. But it went in the opposite direction. Because I was young, I didn't have money, I had nothing. I was thrown into a world of poverty, hunger, and homelessness. I had to struggle my way through everything you can think of. I experienced different assaults, everything I ran away from which I thought was bad I faced one hundred times worse when I went out. But I couldn't go back because I told myself I wanted to stay away from negativity. The turning point came eventually, it was not all sad.

The turning point came when I gained admission into university. I was sending myself through school looking rough and tattered, because I couldn't take care of myself. But I needed to go through school because I wanted to become something. I just wanted to tick that box and say, "Yes, I did it. Even though I was tired, I did something for myself." Honestly, my self-esteem was zero. My confidence was nothing to write home about. But the interesting thing is even during this time, wearing my same one shirt, jeans, tattered bags, looking scruffy and hungry, people would come to me and ask, "Tony, what can I do in this situation?" People would always come and ask questions like, "Tony, I'm in a difficult point in my life, what do you think I should do?" They would even ask, "Tony, I do not understand this thing in class, can you help me out with it?" The fact that people could come to me in my nothingness and ask for help made me feel like I was useful for once. I felt valuable. I was in a big church, and a congregator came up to me and said, "we want you to lead this music group." I could play some instruments, so they needed me to play it. For once, I felt valuable, and that was a turning point for me.

Even though my self-esteem, self-confidence and self-belief wasn't strong enough, I remember telling myself then if I could pull myself out of this mess, I would spend my life helping others to find value in themselves.

I'm going to do it as much as I can till the day I'm done. Until the day I stop breathing I want to show people they are not what the society says they are. They are not the voices in their head, they are beyond all of that. They can be, do and become anything they so desire.

As the Founder of Durian, can you tell us more about the work you're doing and why?

It's connected from the conversation I had with myself, where I said if I can pull myself out of darkness, I will spend my time helping others like me feel better about themselves. That is what has led me to working within rural communities, because people in rural communities are often said to be poor and marginalised. According to society, they are the people who are going through the height of poverty, so I felt connected with them because they've been marginalised by the reason of where they belong. I want to work with people who feel that way, tell my story and show them it's possible feel better. That led me to working in rural communities in early 2016.

Ever since then, I haven't looked back. It started as a journey of showing women the possibilities of what they could do with urban waste. That was the first step I took because I fell in love with waste. I've been told that I was a waste when I was growing up, and somewhere during that journey, I fell in love with waste. I started creating things out of waste or nothing; my journey prepared me for that strength I have now. I began showing this, but at some point, I started rethinking possibilities. I realised, "it cannot just be about me and my own story. It's about we.”

If I have this story, I'm sure there are other people who will connect with it, who will also want to join me on the journey. That led me to thinking about building an organisation, and that became Durian today. It's the same driving force, a few elements were just tweaked here and there. I started working on urban waste, but right now what we do majorly is show women in communities how to use their local resources and waste to generate livelihoods.

We don't go outside communities to empower communities; we use what communities must show them the possibilities of what they can do and how they can transform their dignity and identities.

In practice, when we go into communities, we look around to see what resources communities which they have think are not valuable but are useful. In one community, it could be agri waste. A lot of communities have lots of agri waste. Specifically in the communities we've worked, we see a lot of cocoa, bamboo, bananas, and other farm waste. Largely, we work with a lot of women across different communities.

We work across seven communities now, and we're showing different women how to use their bamboo to make different products. They're making handcrafts, tables, chairs, anything we can think of which they can make out of bamboo. Then we're branding and creating a cooperative with the women. They're selling to a larger market. The women who work with cocoa wastes are using it to make the African black soap, which is one of the most organic soaps I know of. Every aspect of that soap is natural. They're also making organic butter for the skin. It's a mix of shea butter as well as other essential oils.

We have a group using fabric waste to make different things and people in the agricultural value chain using cassava waste to make feed for livestock on farms. All this system we are creating in communities are ones that celebrate eco friendliness but also systems of circularity. One group’s waste feeds another organisation’s value, and then it just goes round and round. But very importantly, the women are becoming agents of change in their community, and they are beginning to see themselves as people of value. They are creating a new identity; they are feeling more valuable. We are indirectly breaking traditions which say a woman should sit at home and do nothing in rural communities. There are a lot of traditions in communities which bench women and make them feel voiceless.

The system we've created and the platform we've created for women to come out, do something and earn from it is changing the narrative within the communities we've been. We have Reached over 26,000 people across all these communities using different programs, and strategies.

We work around different sectors to engage people in communities and drive conversations. Then from these 26,000 people, we have different people who are working across the craft sector, either in the value chain of bringing the waste to the facility where the women are producing or throughout the value chain of selling products. We are connecting communities, but they're also becoming drivers of change and women are having a voice in their communities.

As a Nigerian female leader, what are the challenges and opportunities you see?

For me the challenges are the opportunities. That's the way I see it, because the challenges are a lot more what we talk about generally and globally, such as women not being represented and involved. This becomes the opportunity because it means we have the platform to break a lot of glass ceilings. Those are the opportunities I see every day, the opportunities to stand up for and represent rural women in conversation that matter. We can bring stories of rural women to the forefront and show that rural communities are not just about poverty. The opportunity is to tell their story of resilience, hard work, and dignity; the story of a single mother who sends all her children through to school even while experiencing difficulties. Those are stories I want to bring forward through the challenges I face every day, because without the challenges, there wouldn't be any need to drive forward.

We need to get the stories of the hard work, craftsmanship, the communal life, the Indigenousness of communities out there. For me, some of the common challenges we talk about when it has to do with being a marginalised woman can extend to being a young woman also. As a young woman, when you walk into a room you might realise you are the youngest person in a room of people making decisions. They may be creating the guideline for a project happening in the next two years, and because you're the youngest nobody is listening to you because they're always attacking young people in these meetings. Again, this gives an opportunity to do things differently. The challenges are the opportunities, and they walk side by side.

What are some inspiring projects or initiatives which you've come across recently that you feel are creating powerful social change?

Because I work in the circular economy space, almost all the projects I see I find very inspiring. I was inspired by what TexFad is doing in Uganda. They're using banana fibres to make fabric, and that is stunning because we have a lot of banana waste here in Nigeria. We're also looking forward to doing something like that here. I'm also inspired by the work of Ved Krishna, he runs Chok. It's a company based in India. What they do is convert sugarcane waste into sustainable products. They create plates and cups from sugarcane waste, which creates extra income for the farmers. I find this all inspiring because it's showing that something can be made from nothing.

To finish off, what books or resources would you recommend to our listeners?

This year, I've had to read a couple of books, and so maybe I'll just mention a few of them. If you're interested in learning about money, The Psychology of Wealth by Dr. Charles Richards is a book which gives a different perspective on money. It's not talking about just money; it's talking about money in terms of esteem and confidence. If you're thinking of learning about habits, The Power of Habits is a wonderful book by Charles Duhigg. It's a wonderful book about how you can change your habits and what you need to think about when you're doing so. If you want to learn more about marketing, I read This Is Marketing by Seth Godin. It breaks down marketing into its simplest form, so you can understand what you need to do and why you need to focus on the right things. I absolutely love this book because it gives a different perspective. Another book which does this gives a different perspective to life and leadership, and it's the book by Robin S. Sharma The Leader Who Had No Title.

I just love the book. For me, I found it deep because it shows different aspects of leadership. Leadership becomes a lifestyle, not a title.

For anybody who wants to get a different perspective on leading without a title, that book works. If you're struggling to find out what you should do with life and understanding what your purpose is, Ikigai worked well for me. It's a book I would always go back to and read repeatedly; it helps with understanding the Japanese cultural thought process. I'm also currently I'm reading the book by Michelle Obama Becoming, which just encapsulates the beautiful story of how she became who she is now. Her writing is interesting and incredible. For anyone who wants to read something interesting and look through a story, that book works. Besides that, I would say anything could become a resource. For instance, social media can be a resource, and sometimes a group on LinkedIn or Facebook will be inspiring. It could be attending conferences like SEWF online or offline which is inspiring. It could also be following the World Economic Forum or FAO. Most times what I say with regards to resources is know exactly what it is that you want to learn and find resources around you. Find all the groups around you on social media or through official media and use websites that will make you connect with the knowledge you want to learn. This is a very common thought; everybody says that Google is one of the best schools you can be in. Keep Google close because anything you want to know; you can find it on Google or YouTube.

Tony is a speaker at the 2023 Social Enterprise World Forum in Amsterdam. Join us there!

 

Initiatives, Resources and people mentioned on the podcast

 

You can contact Tony on Linkedin. Please feel free to leave comments below.

Find other articles on social innovation.

Social Innovation, Social EnterpriseSarah RipperSocial Impact, Social Enterprise World Forum, Women, Africa, Community, Circular EconomyComment