Rimaz is a 19-year-old university student from Syria, currently living in Istanbul, Turkey. Rimaz is passionate about environmental issues, particularly the impact of acid rain. She has created a project to educate students on this issue, which involves treating plants with acid rain, sun, and normal rain to demonstrate the effects on plant life. Rimaz believes in the importance of young people being actively engaged in shaping a sustainable future and is motivated by her small efforts contributing to a better future.
Tell us a bit about yourself. Who’s Rimaz?
My name is Rimaz and I am from Syria, but I’m living in Turkey, Istanbul. I’m 19 years old. I’m a university student. I’m studying biomedical engineering and I’m also working as a teacher in a school for children of foreign people. I teach the Turkish language.
What are the projects you are involved in?
I’m working as a volunteer in Medicorya which is a group for young people who are studying biomedical engineering with the aim of introducing our department to other countries. I’m working there as an academic coordinator, making analyses about the university programs and researching which companies might the students need. We collect this information and present it in high schools with the aim of improving our education system.
I am also in the Yeni Dünya which is a member organisation of Youth and Environment Europe and I’m working there with international students. You can find more than 100 students from different countries. We are trying to organize ourselves into groups depending on our hobbies and our interests and I am a representative for the Syrian students.
We introduce our countries to people from other countries by holding presentations and sharing our historical heritage and geography. I’m from Syria and we have a war in Syria so I often talk about the Syrian children and try to organise people to get help for these children.
What does your engagement mean to you?
Being part of these organisations, I do not feel like I am alone on this journey. I’m establishing communication with these young people because they have fresh perspectives and innovative ideas and when we get together I feel inspired. They also provide a platform for my voice to be heard.
Why should young people be active in their lives?
Young people have a significant role in shaping a sustainable future for the next generations. Being actively engaged enables you to learn and to organise yourself with other people. If there is something that you care about that is in danger, you can have the support of the group and address it together. Even if they are small efforts, they will have a big positive impact with the potential to create big change.
What are your future plans?
In one of my projects I focus on acid rain, and how it arises due to human activity, because of industry and transport. It can affect our historical places and that means it will affect our economy and our tourist places because it destroys the stone.
I did this project and I showed the other students how we can harm our environment in this way. I will try to find some organizations, and projects that also focus on this issue. And I would like to work with like-minded people to have a common goal on this topic.
How did you start working on this project?
We had a lesson about pH and our teacher told us about acid rain and how we can know if it’s normal rain or rain with a lower pH. I started to research the environmental impacts of acid rain and its harmful causes. Then I created a project with our teacher about this and now each year they repeat it to the other students and they show it to them in other schools and cities.
What does this project look like?
You take four plants and then you treat one of them with acid rain, the second one with sun, and the third one with normal rain. In this way, you can show the students how acid rain affects the plant. This shows everyone the importance of protecting the environment.
Why should people care about the environment according to you?
People should care about it because we have a responsibility to leave a clean and sustainable environment behind us. They can think about their close ones, their sister, their children and their future. With each day it is a bigger challenge to face the impacts of environmental destruction. That is why we should get together to find a solution and be honest about environmental issues. If you are interested in this topic, I advise you to join some organizations to get engaged.
What drives you forward?
My motivation is, I believe, my small efforts that contribute to a better future and knowing this is enough for me to continue my work in this way. With whatever you start, the beginning might feel a bit difficult, but then it gets easier because you will grow and meet new people and gain knowledge about the topics that interest you. It will get easier when you see the results, you will be happy and will get stronger and more motivated to continue.
YEE aims to unite environmental youth non-profit organisations in Europe in order to enhance international cooperation, increase knowledge about the climate crisis, raise awareness of environmental problems and to strengthen participation of youth in environmental decision-making.
