FRNDS Collective: Documenting important stories, building strong creative communities

Nigeria is a richly diverse country, teaming with an incredible pool of talent across music, tech, sports, and the creative arts.

Sadly, visibility and subsequent growth is often limited by infrastructure gaps and systemic challenges rather than a lack of raw skill.

And that is where FRNDS Collective comes in.

FRNDS Collective is a creative collective studio, which is committed to telling stories about people, culture, communities and issues that deserve to be seen.

Yes, you might roll your eyes and insist that they are nothing much.

But they are indeed very different.

Founded by Oluwatofumii Adebayo and Tobi Oluwarotimi, they go beyond documenting stories and we look for ways to turn them into meaningful action, by creating awareness, connecting people to resources, supporting communities or helping causes reach a wider audience.

FRNDS CO was inspired from a shared love for storytelling and desire to use existing skills for greater impact.

Armed with cameras, platforms, networks and the ability to tell stories that can move people, their drive is to create a space where creative work could have a purpose beyond producing content.

Their first project saw FRNDS CO document the story of Baba Fokansi, an elderly fisherman in Bariga, Lagos.

Fokansi’s shelter had been disrupted due to environmental pollution, leaving him struggling to meet basic needs.

And because of the brilliant way they captured this story, the response that followed was indeed heartwarming. It helped raise support that contributed to rebuilding Fokani’s home.

More recently, FRNDS CO launched Summit for Care, where Adebayo travelled with three of his friends to Tanzania to take on Mount Kilimanjaro.

The seven-day journey was used to raise awareness and funds for 20 Nigerian women battling breast cancer who cannot afford their treatment.

Beyond individual projects, they have also brought creatives together to collaborate on projects combining storytelling, community and social impact.

Their model, as simple as it sounds, works a treat: tell a meaningful story, get people to care, and create an opportunity for action.

And they are not a flash in the pan. FRNDS CO is here to stay for the long haul.

The founders want it to grow into a strong creative community and storytelling platform across Africa.

The aim remains to document more stories about people, culture, communities and social issues, while continuing to create projects where storytelling leads to tangible impact.

Apart from that, FRNDS CO seeks to create more opportunities for creatives to collaborate, learn and work on meaningful projects together.

In the long term, FRNDS CO will have a dedicated impact programme that provides storytelling support to selected nonprofits and grassroots organisations that may lack the resources to tell their stories effectively.

FRNDS CO is designed to benefit several groups.

Communities and individuals benefit from having their stories documented, amplified and, where possible, connected to meaningful support.

Nonprofits and grassroots organisations benefit from access to creative storytelling that helps them communicate their work and reach more people.

Creatives benefit from a community where they can collaborate, learn, build their portfolios and work on projects that have meaning beyond commercial work.

And ultimately, the audience benefits too by discovering people, cultures and issues they may never have encountered otherwise, and hopefully being inspired to care and participate.

At its core, FRNDS brings people together through creativity and uses the stories we tell to create something beyond the story itself.