Press Change is a 10-day-long youth community journalism project, supporting a small cohort of young people to develop their skills, confidence and agency in raising their voices, whilst exploring local environmental and societal issues across Dundee.
Through diving into climate change themes like deforestation and intensive agriculture, Roaa explored how green Scotland is in comparison to Egypt and Syria, where she lived previously. Passionate about crafting little things from scraps, her creation and poem shine awareness on how we’re endangering the health of our planet earth.
A little bit about me
Hello, I am Roaa. I am so happy and grateful for my project to be shown here. Thank you so much!
I will start by telling you a little bit about myself. I am Roaa Arabo from Syria. I have been in Dundee for nearly 6 years and I am so happy to be in such a welcoming country that doesn't make me feel any different from its people.
As you can see, I love art. I have been doing it ever since I was 8 years old. I find it very therapeutic. It's like putting all your feelings on a paper or a sculpture or anything I am making. I love helping people and my dream is to be able to help people with my art. I also love making poems, ever since I was 8.
What actually inspired me?
My auntie inspired me as she works in the community – every week she goes to a shop and gets all the stuff they couldn't sell, because otherwise it would go to waste, and she gives it to people in need. She also always tells me about the importance of reusing things and taught me things I never knew before about climate change.
But also as we all know nowadays we have been experiencing a lot of natural disasters, animals are slowly decreasing, icebergs are melting, a lot of wildfire has been happening, some countries have been flooded and the list never ends.
We are technically killing the earth.
And we don't want to do that, do we?
What motivated me to take part in Press Change?
Because I love trying new things. I didn't know much about the programme before I joined, but what made me want to join is to be able to meet new people and make a change. I also wanted to get as much experience as possible to be able to hopefully get accepted to the university of my dreams. I want to pursue a career in art.
And I'm really, really grateful to be a part of it. I learned countless things. I learned more about my community.
I really enjoyed meeting other people of my age group who have the same interests as me. It felt like a little family. We always hyped ourselves up and I never felt any negative thoughts while I was there. It's like a safe space with no negative thoughts allowed. I felt very welcome and happy to be able to do the things that I like. We developed many new ideas and it increased my confidence.
All the people were truly amazing. I hope to keep in contact with the people I meet through the programme, as I really enjoyed their company. It opened my eyes into many ways in which people can be creative.
Tell us more about your project?
I started my project with roughly sketching my idea first. I also did research about different pollutions.
I came up with my poem before I went to sleep one night, not all of it, I just had a few words in mind, so I wrote them in my notes app. Then, the next day I made it more professional.
Within my research I discovered that farming cows is harmful for the environment because beef and dairy cattle, in particular, are responsible for the release of these gases because of enteric fermentation during digestion. That's why a lot of people are becoming vegan nowadays.
I also learned that the environmental impact of cocoa production includes deforestation, soil contamination, and herbicide resistance. Farming chocolate is bad for the environment, and that's sad.
And to finish this, I just want to say if you want a good life for us in the future, please start doing something, it's never too late!
Thank you so much 💛
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