Voices of the International Alliance for Localisation (IAL)- YouTube Video Project 2020

“WHAT DOES LOCAL MEAN TO YOU?”

SOURCE: Voices from the IAL

Below is a transcript of the YouTube video.

(To watch more Local Futures’ videos, please visit their YouTube channel here).

Hi everybody!

My name is Stella Nyambura Mbau, I am 31 years old. I’m reaching you from Nairobi, Kenya….. and I consult on climate resilience at LOABOWA, which is probably why I think, local to me means, resilience.

It means, exploring opportunities in our most immediate surroundings, using them to provide healthy food (this could be using our balconies to grow vegetables), clean water (from harvesting rainwater) and clean energy (by laying solar panels on our roofs), amongst other things of course. But, for us to see our balconies or roofs, as opportunities, we must be in the mind space that allows us to see our surroundings, as resourceful. This way, we build decentralized systems; that are less susceptible to heavy rains, floods, or other events.

Even more, these resources, from one, two, three homes, a community, when connected, provide an even more robust resource.

When using such opportunities, in our immediate surroundings, the sense of exploiting but leaving behind some for later, sets in naturally. That’s because, if you over-use, the suffering when there’s lack, will be directly felt by you, your family and your community. Which again leads one to naturally learn to reuse and recycle; anything that means less wastage.

This sense of tapping into the resources most available and accessible to us, of localization, is then capable of sustaining the livelihoods of those who depend on them.

We are programmed to see the grass on the other side as greener, but as in the Alchemist, our treasures, our resources, are about us, around us. This is what our brand LOABOWA, is about!

Stella Nyambura Mbau PhD

Founder & CEO LOABOWA

#localisation