Kwesia grew up on one of South London’s roughest estates. She had barely any experience of nature as a child, except for a private love of Sir David Attenborough's nature documentaries.
When she was 15, Kwesia’s uncle killed his wife and badly injured his three daughters in what was described as an honour killing. The tragedy had a huge impact on Kwesia – and only two years later, when she was 17, her best friend was stabbed to death. Kwesia was broken. Her mental health deteriorated, and she ended up homeless.
At her lowest point, Kwesia was offered the chance to be part of an expedition to the Amazon rainforest.
She spent three weeks in one of the remotest parts of the jungle with a group of strangers from very different backgrounds to her - they knew how to put up a tent for a start.
At first, the isolation frightened her, but after a while, the forest began to weave its magic. The distance she’d felt between herself and the others seemed to melt away.
“It was just amazing to just come across that appreciation for our natural world and understand that we are coexisting and we're not actually separate. We are one and nature is within us,” Kwesia says.
Gradually, she felt herself healing. She began to appreciate that everything around her had a purpose - the trees, the monkeys, the rare pink dolphins, even the leafcutter ants. She began to feel fully present.
“When we connect with our senses, it kind of brings us back into connecting and coexisting directly with our natural world,” Kwesia explains.
On returning to London, she created City Girl in Nature – a project to inspire young people from inner city backgrounds to connect with nature.
“It's something that really has an impact on our mental well-being, noticing the natural world around us… It’s so magical to see that childlike innocence come back.”
🎧 Hear Kwesia’s story on Outlook: https://bbc.in/41Q8wXv
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