Jennifer Olachi Uchendu

Jennifer Uchendu is a Nigerian ecofeminist, sustainability consultant and climate justice activist. She is the founder of SustyVibes, a Nigerian social enterprise making sustainability actionable and relatable for young people through youth-led community projects that embed pop-culture to make change making enjoyable and impactful.
Following a personal experience of eco-anxiety in 2019, Jennifer decided to launch The Eco-anxiety Africa Project (TEAP) as a sub project under SustyVibes that is now focused on Climate Change and Mental Health in Africans through research, advocacy and community action.
== Early life and education ==
Jennifer was born on the 10th of August 1992. She had her primary, secondary and undergraduate education in Lagos, Nigeria. Jennifer is a 2011 graduate of biochemistry from Covenant University, Nigeria. As an undergraduate student, Jennifer discovered her interest for environmental sustainability following desk research on biomimicry, biotransformation and biofuels.
In 2019, she bagged a master's degree in Development Studies at the Institute of Development Studies UK with distinction under the prestigious Chevening Scholarship where she specialised in climate change, gender and eco-anxiety. Her MA thesis was focused on Eco-anxiety in Youth Climate Activism and became a solid backdrop for her current work at 
== Career ==
She started her career at Unilever Nigeria in 2012 where she worked as a Regulatory Affairs Officer and Quality Officer for her National Youth Service Corp. Prior to this, she volunteered for the Lagos State Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources where she worked on awareness campaigns for the Lagos Service Civil Service Employees. She then moved on to work with Jumia Nigeria, where she rose from the rank of Customer Service Representative, to Associate Vendor Development Manager between 2014- 2015, managing a portfolio of vendors on the online retail store. Before her exit from Jumia, she developed a proposal for a Sustainability Department which was approved by the management. She supported efforts towards increasing women's clothing assortment for plus sized shoppers as well as co-developing the Jumia green shop for eco-friendly products.
== SustyVibes ==
Jennifer started SustyVibes initially as a blog on the 21st of April, 2016 with a vision to communicate sustainability from a Nigerian youth perspective.
She decided to evolve the blog into an organisation following the overwhelming number of interest and support she received from Nigerian youth who desired a platform as SustyVibes. She has worked on several initiatives in Nigeria and across Africa such as the Communitrees Project with the British High Commission, the Eunice-Amoka Bankole Street Dreams Project, etc. Her work has also been endorsed by the Federal Ministry of Environment in Nigeria and the UN Deputy Secretary General, Amina Mohammed.
== The Eco-anxiety Africa Project ==
In 2022, Jennifer launched The Eco-anxiety Africa Project TEAP to engage research into eco-emotions of Africans. The project is an offshoot of the mother organisation, SustyVibes, and it seeks to understand and validate the experiences of eco-anxiety and environmental-related emotions in Africans. 
== Jennifer x UN Conference Of Parties ==
Jennifer had her first COP experience at the UNCCD COP 13 in 2017 in Ordos, China, where she was selected alongside 25 other youths from Africa to attend the youth forum aspect of the ceremony.
In 2022, Jennifer attended the United Nation's COP 27 alongside over 35,000 others in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt where she advocated for loss and damage. She was very vocal about the need for leaders to get engaged with eco-anxiety as one of the realities of climate change. 
Jennifer is currently a member of the steering committee for “Care of People X Planet” COP² a global network of organisations reflecting the knowledge, practice, lived experience of social climate and emotional resilience which was launched in COP 27.
== Personal Life ==
Jennifer resides in Lagos, Nigeria, with her husband Bernard Kalu.
Category:Nigerian people
Category:1992 births
Category:Nigerian activists