My journey to becoming an SDGs Advocate!

"What would you like to be in future?" I asked the male student sitting adjacent to me.

"A president." he replied.

Impressed, I asked further, "what area would you place high priority on if you became the president of Nigeria today?"

"Food" he replied without hesitation.

"Awesome! That's a very important aspect of..."

I was soon cut off by the muffled laughter of some of the students on my right, which grew louder when they saw the surprised look on my face.

Apparently they weren't quite sure how food was connected to the SDGs.

I asked the girl who was holding the picture of the 17 goals to read out goal number 2.

It was my turn to smile at their surprised faces when they heard her read out "zero hunger."

And that was how I started to explain to them how the SDGs cover all aspects of human development including food.😁

I also went further to connect the dots between their ambitions and desire to make great impact, to the global goals, showing them how little actions from them can contribute to making our world better, even before they get to the big stage.

It was so heartwarming seeing how eager they were to know how their talents and skills like singing, playing football can be used for positive social change.

I truly had an amazing time with them!

With the establishment of the schools' SDGs club, I look forward to an exciting journey of sharing and exploring more creative ways to become excellent, young, social change makers with these brilliant minds!

And that's how I kick-started my journey to actively advocate for and teach others about the SDGs, through the youth Advocacy Program of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).