Tony Joy: She creates art, eradicates poverty with recycled trash

Tony Joy, 25, is the brain behind Durian an offspring of Making a Difference (MAD) Foundation – a non-governmental organization empowering rural women in Imafon community of Ondo State. She speaks about creating art and constructing items from recycled scrap. Book covers from meshed fabrics, jewelry created from bottle covers, back packs from fabric waste, […]

Tony Joy, 25, is the brain behind Durian an offspring of Making a Difference (MAD) Foundation – a non-governmental organization empowering rural women in Imafon community of Ondo State. She speaks about creating art and constructing items from recycled scrap.

Book covers from meshed fabrics, jewelry created from bottle covers, back packs from fabric waste, mirrors embellished with scrap, hand bands and head gears created from discarded plastic and fabrics, are some of the items that women of Imafon – a community on the outskirts of the Ondo State capital, Akure – have learnt to make from discarded items.

They scavenge for their raw materials from the obscurest to the most conventional sources including dump sites, relaxation spots and tailoring shops, among others. After sourcing their raw materials, the filtering and selection process begins. It involves matching plastic bottles with covers, sorting fabric pieces by sizes and colours – an exercise the children excitedly participate in.

The women’s motivation to engage in this was as a result of their encounter with Tony Joy.

When a community development project took her to Imafon, she immediately fell in love with its people and environment. For a community abundantly blessed with several acres of luscious cocoa and bamboo farms, game and timber, it was rather disappointing that its people lived in the kind of poverty that she found them.

Rather than complain and tell them what they should have done or could do, she immersed herself in empowering them with skills which they would acquire in the comfort of an eco-friendly environment. This brought about her ambition to build Nigeria’s first eco-friendly crafts training centre for the rural poor.

The backdrop of her enthusiasm to make a difference was planted as a young volunteer in church, as well as her experience of having to struggle for survival.

She said, “At age 11, my family became Roman Catholic following my father’s suggestion. I immediately became a member of the junior presidium of the Legion of Mary. Every week we had outdoor activities which included visiting hospitals and cleaning up homes of the poor.  I think this caused me to start seeing the need to help others.

“I was very close to the Notre Dame sisters in Ilorin, where I grew up and working in their convent was an amazing experience. I went around with them, watched them teach people and work with children. This experience empowered me to be able to do the same.

“Also, as part ofthe St. Vincent de Paul society, and going around with boxes soliciting funds for the needy, the way these were disbursed, parties organized for the elderly and needy, all had a direct or indirect influence on my life and my decision to help others. This period in my life, transformed the way I saw people and appreciated their situations.”

The lifestyle of one of the Church’s icons for charitable works, also rubbed off on Joy.

“Listening to the story of Mother Theresa and what her congregation is still doing even after her death is a major driving force for me. We can do so many things in little ways. Our little is enough. I’ve learnt so much from the Church’s ability to reach out to people and show love unconditionally.

Joy said, “At some point, it wasn’t about being Catholic or not. It was about going out to help people. They didn’t say go out and help a Catholic. The instruction was “go out and help people.” This made me see that we are not limited and we can do something to improve another’s life.”

Narrating her own firsthand encounter with poverty and lack, she said, “I grew up with a lot of low self-esteem, depression and a very high level of poverty where I couldn’t afford two meals a day, cloth myself and other basic necessities of life, including housing.”

Rather than leave her dejected, her circumstances caused her to look inwards.

“At some point I discovered the creative energy within me for arts, for music. I started creating from waste and with that drive I realized that I could spend my whole life with people like me who have gone through what I went through or who are still poor and marginalized. This is what drove me into rural communities in Nigeria.”

In a bid to get the women to be a part of the change process from scratch, she spoke to the Imafon women leader – Iya Obirin – who supported Joy’s initiative by leasing a portion of her land to the cause.

It is Joy’s ambition that with income generated from the sale of works produced by the women, they would be able to purchase the piece of land and make it their permanent address. That still seems like a tall order as they still need about $2, 500 to complete the centre and equip it. They have so far spent over N500, 000 to get it to its current stage.

Work began on the site in 2016 with a goal to train women, kicking off with six of them. “Of these six, some were on off and this kind of behaviour is reflective of the culture and ways of the people here. They

want quick money and are not very patient to rise through each step of the ladder.

“Of the number that started, only two have stayed consistent but two others have joined them, making four now.”

Margaret Ogar is one of the two earlier beneficiaries of the initiative. She joined the group after facing some financial challenges.

“I had tried working for salary but the pay comes late. When I heard about Tony Joy teaching women how to make money for themselves, I decided to join because I know that wherever I go to, I can make money with the knowledge I gain from here. She is teaching us how to catch fish, not just to eat it.”

For Joy and these women, it has become a relationship of sisterhood. Their appreciation of her impact on their lives and those of their children is glaring in their excitement when she returned to the community after seven months of being away in India on training.

“T-Joy is here” were the words which rippled through the about 1, 000 population community as Joy alighted from the motorcycle which dropped her off. In no time there were screams of “hey, she is back,” and several welcomes all accompanied by seemingly choreographed dance steps.

“We have missed you,” the women chorused as their children held on to Joy’s legs, hugging her as far as their hands and heights allowed them. It was a reunion of mixed emotions which nevertheless was laced with happiness as the women excitedly said, “work will resume now.”

As a startup organization passionate about poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability, it’s difficult to get people to come on board, for the simple fact that it is a village. Though there has been a lot of volunteers, even that was a hassle because bringing them to Imafon wasn’t exactly easy. Sometimes experts have come in midway,  like tailors, to help them improve on what they were doing.

Joy’s drive has not been challenge-free some of which she says are from the government whom don’t seem like they are buying into her idea.

“I went to the Ondo State Waste Management Board and spoke to a staff about our interest in collecting pet bottles. I was told the waste was for sale. No matter how hard I tried to appeal for us to get the bottles for free, it was a waste of time. Shockingly, the following day as I drove pass their dump site on my way to Imafon, I saw the bottles being burnt off. It was very, very painful to see this. The fire burning them went on for about three or four days.

She however commended the government for supporting Durian’s ‘Keep Nigeria Clean,’ campaign with the provision of trucks and the conveyance of waste.

With a Leadership and a Waste to value training holding, Joy says there is need to complete the structure to avoid being chased out by the rains, reptiles and/or their materials getting stolen.