Kwesia grew up in Deptford, an inner city area of South-East London. Along with many of her friends, neighbours and peers, she experienced a great deal of challenges that come with living in an area, and with people, who have been neglected, excluded and marginalized.
At 17, Kwesia found herself homeless, moving from sofa to sofa. Her life was chaotic, often harsh, without any meaning and lacking a clear sense of direction or purpose.
At her lowest point, Kwesia received an opportunity to become apart of a British Exploring Society’s expedition to the Peruvian Amazon Rain-forest. Grabbing the opportunity, Kwesia spent 3 weeks in a remote part of the jungle, with no phone, and no contact with the outside world, with a group of individuals she barely knew.
It was a life-changing experience for her. She experienced the beauty of nature, there was no judgement, just new friendships, new energy, a chance to be herself, to experience new energy and to think about new opportunities.
On her return to the UK, Kwesia wanted to give back to her community, she wanted to connect with young people like herself, and inspire them to spend time in nature, to give them new opportunities and new experiences away from their life of poverty and hardship.
Kwesia created, City Girl in Nature. This was her way to share her love and passion for the outdoors, and her belief that everybody should have the chance to be healed, to be nourished, and to live a life filled with abundance.
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Show notes
- Who Kwesia and what she does
- Being based in South East London
- Growing up in Deptford
- Being homeless at 17
- Not getting on well with her mum
- Struggling to get support and the challenges of finding housing
- Not having a place to call home
- Dealing with inner city trauma
- Having to be resilient from a young age
- Going to college and working as a football coach
- Getting the opportunity to go to the Amazon with the British Exploring Society
- Not having any experience of the outdoors
- Being open to learning and connecting with others
- Going on a practice weekend and getting to meet other members who were going on an expedition
- Heading out to the jungle!
- Being sponsored
- Concerns about going on the expedition
- What camp life was like
- Being apart of a “fire” group
- The lessons learned from the expedition
- Being a leader
- Taking a while to process what happened on expedition
- The power of spending time in nature
- Speaking at the Adventure Mind conference
- Being featured in Belinda Kirk’s book - Adventure Revolution
- Trying to figure out how to give back to her community
- Her Youtube Online Series
- Speaking with Rhiane from Black Girls Hike
- Getting out into nature
- Top tips for women and girls for getting into the outdoors
- Why its important to find what you enjoy
- How can people support and get involved with City Girl In Nature
- Final words of advice to share with you.
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