Tony Joy - Empowering Rural Women and Communities (Durian)

Rural Road to Health

Tony Joy is the founder of Durian, an NGO focused on empowering rural women to become self-sufficient by providing them with the knowledge and skills needed to transform their local waste into a means of livelihood.

Episode summary:

00.55 What inspired Tony to work on rural issues and with rural women?

13.45 What is the perception of rural communities in Nigeria?

20.10 What is life like for a woman living in a rural area in Nigeria?

27.15 What is Durian? What does it do?

35.40 Why is it important to engage rural women?

39.00 How has the mindset transformation impacted women that Durian works with?

44.20 What does she hope for the future of Durian?

49.15 What projects is Durian working on?

Key messages:

Young people are often told they are not doing anything, that they are good for nothing and that they are not contributing to the economy in the African context. These are also things that people in villages are told.

In 2016 started a project to show the community how to transform plastic waste into new products.

Realized that they needed to use local waste and local resources to solve problems. There is no community that does not have some kind of resource. The community needs to understand how to use those local resources as a tool and own it to find solutions and a means of livelihood.

Rural communities are seen as places to exploit. They are the poor, marginalized and forgotten places. The new drive towards exploitation as they are seen as green areas that real estate agencies buy to turn into new property developments, or large businesses buy the land and use the natural resources for business purposes.

Rural communities are losing all their green areas, it has been filled up with houses and shops. Farmers have lost land in their own communities and they are having to lease land in other areas so that they can continue with farming.

Women are already disadvantaged, rural women are even more disadvantaged. There is a culture that says that a man is in charge of a woman, they determine their life, where they can go and what they can do. Young women are encouraged to get married early. These women have dreams but do not have the opportunities to achieve them.

Women do not have rights to own land. It is seen as culturally wrong. Questions start to be asked about where she got the money, if she is trying to compete with men, or who she thinks she is.

Nigeria is a large country with diverse cultures. In some areas the women are the owners of the land or own small businesses.

Choose the name Durian as it is a fruit that stinks but tastes good. This reflects Tony’s story and the story of the women that she works with. Rural communities are poor, marginalized and underdeveloped, but they are the future. Waste is the future and supports sustainable communities. Encourages to see beyond the stink, the obvious and the ideologies, look beyond that and see the opportunities that exist.

Durian is working on creating sustainable systems and structures in places where they are told that they can not do it. Showing communities that they have a resource that can be used to develop their livelihood. Supporting women to become the drivers of change in their community. Creating new identities for the women and their communities.

Women are incredible story tellers, they can take knowledge from one generation to the next easily. When they work with a woman they transform the future of their whole lineage.

Many communities already have an idea of what they want to do. Durian supports them in developing the skills and knowledge that they need to achieve this.

If you want to create sustainable change in a community and have it a system then you need to engage local women. Women have always been silenced, and creating a space for them means a lot of transformation in communities.

If you want to work in rural development, you need to be there and you need to invest time to see real change and transformation. A lot of work to be done with mindset, ownership, resource management, green environment and more.

Rural Rights Network - they learn about their rights and they stand up for their rights now.

Durian hopes to become the leading organization in Africa for sustainable, systemic and human centered rural development approaches. An organization that is redefining rural and highlighting the beauty and strengths of these communities. They want to close the gap between research and implementation. Rural people need to speak for themselves.

Durina has started a Green Fellowship which trains rural enthusiasts around Africa (Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, Nigeria). They are looking for partnerships to support fellows in implementing projects.

Rural Rights Network looking for partnership with human rights organizations to support legal processes when this is needed.

Durian is looking for research partners to improve the products and processes that are being developed with waste and repurposing in rural communities.

Learn more about Durian here: https://www.durian.org.ng/

Contact Tony: [e-mail]

Thank you for listening to the Rural Road to Health!

Rural Health Compass