Teen earns $ 12,500 for the construction of a recycled playground, plans 3 other parks

A teenager in Nigeria has just won an international prize for the use of recycled materials to transform a waste field into a park with a playground, and she does not stop there.

Wednesday, Amara Nwuneli, 17, received $ 12,500 in the Earth 2025 Prize competition, which throws a global net for adolescents working on projects for environmental sustainability. The program provides mentoring and support for adolescents like Nwuneli to further develop their ideas.

Nwuneli said she was planning to use the price to build three other parks.

“I am delighted for the future,” she told Business Insider.

It wants to create more green spaces and shadow in Lagos, a city of 17 million people where less than 3% of the area is green, according to an analysis in 2023.

While cities warm up through the planet, green space is essential. Trees and vegetation provide shade, which cools the soil, but they also help reflect sunlight and release humidity. Unlike the roadway, green spaces do not absorb much heat, but they absorb rainwater and help reduce floods.

Parks and greenery are also good for human health. Studies suggest that they can help reduce exposure to pollution, improve mood and even reduce mortality.

Transform a dumping ground into a playground

Nwuneli was worried about the climate crisis after the floods overwhelmed his house in 2020, moving his family. She said that her parents’ spice affairs were also affected because the rains won cultures.

As a self-written “Theater Kid”, she wanted to take out history, so she started to record and share videos on floods. She says her efforts collected 2 million Nigerian Nairas (around $ 5,000 in 2020) to help rebuild two local schools.

It was the beginning of the NGO for the young people it founded, called the Preserve Our Roots. They produced a documentary on the climate crisis in Africa in 2023, which you can watch on YouTube.

She said that the reaction to her documentary had made her want to help Nigerians connect more with the environment.

“People came to us and were like, but I don’t see it in my community. I don’t see nature,” said Nwuneli.

The group therefore decided to bring nature home – starting with a small park that would not require a long process of government approval.

On an Ikota site, in Nigeria, Nwuneli worked with local craftsmen to get metal and wood recovered, as well as tires that were in the area, to build a slide, swings and a climbing wall.

The area, which Nwuneli described as a slum, is subject to floods. Many surrounding houses are built on stilts, she said. Thus, with the help of donations and volunteers, Nwuneli’s NGO has planted flood -resistant trees around the playground – among 300 trees that it says that it has planted in the wider area.

They first came to this discharge site in November. On March 1, they opened the park to schoolchildren.

“I remember when the children were like:” Now something we can really call beautiful. “It sort of broke my heart,” said Nwuneli.

In his eyes, however, it’s just a pilot park.

A central park for Lagos

With the financing of land prices, Nwuneli plans three other parks. These will not be playgrounds like the one that opened in March, she says, but multifunctional community poles with gardens, greenhouses and waste collection sites.

It aims to convert a large discharge to Lagos, pending government approval. For the other two parks, it aims at the neighboring Nigerian states of Ogun and Oyo, which also experience floods and droughts which will probably get worse as global temperatures increase.

“I am not satisfied. I have the impression that each community needs it,” said Nwuneli.

Her ultimate dream, she added, is to have a central park in Lagos.

The land price chooses the winners for seven world regions. Nwuneli is the winner of Africa. A public vote opens on Saturday to select a world winner.