TAIWO ADEBIYI IS EXCEL MINDS OPPORTUNITIES HUMANITARIAN OF THE MONTH OF OCTOBER 2020 (Maiden Edition)

Welcome to the month of October!

Our Humanitarian of the month is Taiwo Adebiyi from Nigeria! 

Taiwo Adebiyi is a strong SDGs Advocate, Civic Leader and an Academic Scholar. 

He cofounded the Sustainable Development Advocates (SDA) -the first registered club in the University of Lagos (UNILAG) advancing the SDGs- and became the Pioneer President; He served as the Project Director for United Nations Hult Prize on-campus event; National Executive of the first SDGs advocacy group in Nigeria; Financial Secretary, and current President of the Nigerian Institute of Civil Engineering Students’ Affiliation. Adebiyi’s childhood exposures to social conflicts in a marginalized community resulted to his passion for social impacts.

Taiwo was selected as the Campus Director for 2019 UNILAG Millennium Fellows by Millennium Campus Network / United Nations Academic Impacts, where he implemented projects with other fellows that impacted over 10,000 students. Consequently, he was selected to serve as the Africa Region Team Lead of the Class of 2020 Millennium Fellowship Global Admission Committee. Recently, Taiwo became the first Nigerian to be awarded the highly coveted Millennium Oceans Prize for his work on ending open defecation into the lagoon in Nigeria which promotes SDG 14.

Adebiyi is also a fellow of the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) - a signature effort by the United States Goverment in raising African Leaders.  He is also a Young Professional Bootcamp Fellow. 

Taiwo is a First-Class student with over two-years internship experiences in top Civil Engineering firms and five Academic Scholarships. 

He believes that we validate our humanity through our responsibilities to others.

Read the mind-blowing story about his social impacts below and be inspired!

Growing up in a community -Bariga, Lagos- where social vices is the order of the day; I witnessed firsthand the victimization of youths to such harrowing circumstances. I am greatly privileged to have risen above the norm in such community through parental guidance and my passion for the academia. I was however disheartened to see my classmates and neighbors venture into all sort of illegalities on the basis of survival and power misconceptions in the society. 

In 2017, as a sophomore in the University of Lagos, I was introduced to the SDGs and further trained on its agenda by the Sustainable Development Goals Awareness Campaign Tour (SDGsACT). Ambassador Kehinde Adebiyi and Ambassador Sheriff Gbadamosi decided to localize the SDGs on campus starting with LASU then UNILAG. My childhood exposures made the SDGs resonates greatly with me and I decided to localize the SDGs in UNILAG under the tutelage of SDGsACT.

Establishing the first registered club for the SDGs on campus required networking with passionate and bright minds -David Samson, Fasasi Omoniyi, Jemima Olisa, Anoma Moyinoluwa, David Akanmu and Micheal Owobamirin- to help make the task easier and achievable. At long last, SDA was officially registered in March, 2019.

As the Pioneer President of SDA, I was tasked with the creation of a reputable image for the organization. This made me encourage the founding members to apply for the Millennium Fellowship and ensure the selection of 12 members out of the 22 members selected on campus. This was indeed a milestone for the team as we received the Vice Chancellor's recognition for our selection and impacts made during the Fellowship program where we implemented projects that impacted over 10,000 lives.

For the past two years, SDA has been the organization in charge of the Hult Prize on campus event, the Millennium Fellowship, SDGs trainings to other campus clubs coupled with the club's genuine project which include advocacy, capacity building and community developments.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I led the SDA response team in organizing programs that would help prepare undergraduates for the post pandemic era while also responding to the social unrest -racism, sexual violence, insecurities- that arose during the pandemic. Some of our responses included massive digital advocacy against sexual violence and racism, capacity building training for our members such as application essays reviews, essays competitions, conference on the post pandemic world and a webinar on the concept of consent in sexual terms.

Profoundly, I also led the SDA team that applied for the highly coveted Millennium Ocean Prize and became the first Nigerian to be part of the winners with a given grant to construct public toilets for a community known for her prolonged open defecation issue. 

In furtherance, I double as the President of the Nigeria Institute of Civil Engineering Students' Affiliation, UNILAG Chapter (NICESA UNILAG) -a student political based platform. My interest in politics was spurred from my dire need to influence the change I have always envisaged. I have come to realize that changemakers need to see politics as one of those areas that should be corrected through our involvement to create a paradigm shift on a greater level.

My administration as the President of NICESA UNILAG is based on the ideals of the SDGs with priorities on students' academics and capacity building. Notably, my team and I in partnership with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) organized the first World Engineering Day in the University of Lagos, conducted over 50 academic tutorials and incentivized students' sports participation within three months before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown commenced. Nevertheless, the COVID-19 pandemic made us innovative and led to the establishment of the very first virtual students' body TV in UNILAG -CESS TV- with over 200 active daily viewers. This was spurred out of the need to constantly update our students on important information and sustainable advocacy for the COVID-19 safety tips and updates. I also led the team to organize a virtual chess contest to simulate the campus fun among students. 

As a passionate changemaker, I have spent a core part of the last three years of my life in the SDGs advocacy and implementation with enormous and unprecedented impacts.

Despite the self-fulfilling achievements, challenges are inevitable in my social impact career. There are times when bureaucratic approaches in our society tend to cloud my team and I, serving as a cataract of discouragement. Financial challenge is also a major challenge for myself and my team. But with the understanding of the ideals of partnerships and self-reflection on how much we've come, we are always motivated to do more.

On a personal level, I am an academic scholar that ensures my academic results are not jeopardized on the basis of my involvement in social works. As such, time management is crucial for me. I often sacrifice most of my nights to cover up the time elapsed on social works during the day. My motivation to keep thriving in being the best in my academics is on a guiding mantra of mine which says "the best way to serve humanity is to be successful". I have always believed that being successful in all I do would make me serve humanity tremendously.

HIS WORD OF ADVICE

As a strong believer of the long existed African philosophy known as UBUNTU; meaning that I am because you are.

I beseech fellow changemakers and well-wishers that service to humanity should be seen as a necessity for everyone putting in mind that we validate our humanity through our responsibilities to others.

Thanks for reading. 

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