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The 1.8 Billion Guardians of Earth
While some people deny climate change, our planet is under threat
How housing insecurity impacts your physical and mental health
It’s been said that money can’t buy happiness. While this can be true in many ways, a steady source of income can alleviate many stressors. Living below the poverty line in the United States leaves many families looking for a roof to sleep under each night, ways to put food on the table, and the means to obtain physical and mental healthcare. A recent study done by researchers at Boston Medical Center (BMC) reports that you don’t have to be homeless to experience both adverse physical and mental health outcomes from housing insecurity. The study interviewed more than 22,000 families about...
How to deafen the psychotropic negativity
As a bullied child, people were used to calling me by different names: "ugly", "chubby boy", "useless". I had never paid much attention to these different comments. After all, everyone has the right to share their own thoughts. Since the wind was carrying these words away, I kept ignoring them and growing up accepting to face this obnoxious reality. I remembered it being kind of hard, sometimes, to believe that these judgements were only dust in the air, not facts. My classmates were seeing me standing, always smiling, but they could not distinguish what was hidden behind this facade, given...
We should stop teaching hate to young people
Hello, This is Ethar Khalid. I am a 25 year-old Saudi girl, I became an American permanent resident last year. In another part of the world my dad is working in a dangerous place where the oil attack happened a few days ago, he is there to fix the damage. I feel so sad and depressed..I have been crying for days worrying about his safety there! I am desperate, scared and far far away from my family to support them. I have a small YouTube channel and there are bunch of young people watching me... But, I hate it when people still believe we should only trust people with certain identities. They...
16 child petitioners filed a landmark complaint demanding urgent climate action
What My Trip to Jordan Taught Me About My Voice
On the 14th of December, 2015 I left my home in Syria to start a special journey on Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and peacebuilding. However, because I have a Syrian passport, I had to go through many difficulties and interrogations before arriving in Jordan. Still, it was worth it. Back in the days, we didn’t need any security clearance nor a visa to enter our neighboring country. However, today, things are different. Finally, I arrived there. I entered the room and there I found 41 powerful advocates from 23 different countries. I stood there for a moment and my heart was pumping. The...
Unveiled truths about Feminism
In the everlasting struggle for human rights, the advocacy of women’s equality is one of the most controversial and complex aspects. The importance of considering the huge ethnic, religious and cultural differentiation and the complexity of the contemporary world is vital, when demanding the realization of these rights. To establish and achieve political, economic, personal and social gender equality means to consider each diversity and to treat that diversity according to the person’s values, without trying to have a cultural or ideological hegemony. So, why when it comes to Muslim women, the...
Humans without humanity
What is this world that is full of cruelty? Where should I live to find people with honesty? Humans on this earth are without humanity. They proclaim in media about freedom and liberty. But in the real world they despise me. Do they hate me because of religion, colour or nationality? Why do they treat me with racism and inequality? Ain't I a human who should live with them equally?
16 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Women
Syria sees its first major national campaign: 16 Days of Activism is a campaign that was organized by the United Nations Population Fund in Syria. The campaign succeeded in portraying the solidarity and resilience of the Syrian community. After the crisis hit, it was a great challenge for all the partners to run a harmonized program in 8 cities (Damascus, Rural Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Lattakia, Tartous and Swida). However, our goal is to keep spreading the same values we worked on in this campaign. Today, UNFPA along with 7 local partners is celebrating the success of illuminating Syria...
Back to the (ecological) future
Contrasts
They say the world is a Spectrum, More than infinite shades that fit in between Violet and Red. Mix them all up to get White, Their absence stains Black. But in this world of non binaries and, multiple mixed colors; Don't we find stark contrasts? Like Black and White derived from the spectrum. Like the poor that call slums their home and the privileged living within glass doors. Like politicians that call the Amazon their own, dissecting the planet's very lungs, corrupting it with mines, mills and more. And in contrast the people that fight for their forests to live; Sheltering the flora...
Demanding justice is not provocation
In the last couple of months in Mexico City, Mexico thousands of women took to the streets to protest against violence and demand their rights. Women from all ages carried billboards with messages asking the government to fight and actually do something to stop gender violence. According to El País the mobilization of women is not new. In 2016, after the #MiPrimerAcoso label made visible the frequency with which Mexicans suffer harassment in the streets, more women went out to report. Three years later, the situation is the same or more alarming: the #MeToo movement got women to break the...
Save mankind from hell
It’s not my cup of tea to dramatize. I might be an opera singer, but I don’t like to dramatize in real life. Actually we should keep our feet on the ground, our heads up high and act with courage and determination to what we think is important. The Sustainable Development Goals Over the past years I am fascinated by the work the United Nations does. Yes, I know, I hear you thinking “but the UN is as well a very expensive, bureaucratic system, what do they actually do?” Well, let me tell you this: the UN are saving mankind from hell. In conflict situations of war, poverty and hunger. But it...
We are India's daughters
“On campus, boys used to creep up behind us when we weren’t looking, and undo our bra clasps for kicks. In the bus, we couldn’t tell where our bodies stopped and where their hands began.” My whole life, I feel as though I’ve heard a constant commentary on the rapidly approaching change on our horizon. How the horrors of past centuries are behind us. How things are going to get better. “My friend was assaulted by one of our teachers. She never reported it though. She was terrified that her parents would pull her out of college.” My mother, reflecting on her former college life in Delhi, is...
Why The Amazon Matters
Around fifteen million years ago, the South American and Nazca tectonic plates converged into each other due to the weight of the ocean on the Nazca plate. The collision of the two plates caused the creation of the Andes Mountain Range, sitting on the edge of the Chilean border with the Pacific Ocean. The rising of the land there and the linkage of the Brazilian and Guyanese land caused the Amazon River (which had been flowing towards the west at the time) to become a broad, inland sea. With time, this large body of water became a vast freshwater lake. This meant that the marine life had to...
Terrorism doesn't have a religion
In recent years, the world experienced the growth of terrorism in many cities in Europe and outside it. From France to Finland, from the US to Belgium people were bombarded by media with news concerning these attacks in a way that created a firm division of responsibilities between “us” and “them”. With an empowered sentiment of hatred spread among the world, media showed that many of these terrible attacks were organized by jihadists groups and that the world was in serious danger. I believe the role of the media took on more and more importance in the way people reacted to these events...
From shattered dreams to championing the rights of girls
We are digging our own grave
It is renown news that climate change is affecting the environment and all the ecosystems our planet thrives upon. However, many fail to see how direct the impact is on our own kind, blinded by their daily activities considering themselves “too busy” to pay attention and take time to understand what is happening. I am here to show you why this will be fatal in the long run, especially if it is world leaders that need to take action. Ever since mankind has existed, it has depended on its surroundings. Hunting, fishing, farming and nature have been the fundamental source to the sink that is our...