Londoner Kwesia connects young inner-city people with the healing power of the outdoors
KWESIA is 24-year-old south-east Londoner, qualified youth coach, mother, mentor, podcaster and YouTuber who’s “on a mission to connect inner-city people with the nature on their doorsteps”.
There are many systemic barriers young people face, she says. From unsafe housing to low income levels, their priorities must lie elsewhere.
“Many have normalised their urban, overcrowded and sometimes threatening environments,” and “there is little room for play and exploration” in their realities.
But Kwesia, a Linnean Society John Spedan Lewis Award winner, breaks these down by being her “authentic self ” and sharing her “journey of struggle and renewal.” Kwesia grew up in Deptford, which, in her words, is a place of poverty, unmet needs, gentrification, hidden racism and discrimination.
It’s also home to communities who live with a great deal of joy and resilience. Indeed, the open space of Deptford Park is still one of Kwesia’s favourite places to spend time in nature, ID’ing wildflowers or birdwatching.
The outdoors became her “happy place” as a young person who needed “an outlet from the challenges I was experiencing indoors and inside myself ”. Kwesia cared for her grandmother, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s whilst her single mum went to work.
Soon after her grandmother’s passing, Kwesia’s aunty was murdered at the hands of her husband, who set fire to the house they lived in, seriousl
