Andreas Rodrigues Charalambous
Andreas is a freelance journalist and has been involved in multiple projects regarding active citizenship and democracy. He is also passionate about sustainable energy and eliminating food waste, but most importantly about making a difference in Cyprus.
Q: Who are you? Tell us a bit about yourself.
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I am Andreas Rodrigues Charalambous, I'm 30 years old and I have studied Communications. I am now a freelance journalist, I write articles in newspapers, in national newspapers, and I will soon finish my master.
I used to have my own pub, but not anymore, because of COVID. I also used to have projects, European projects, mostly related to training on active citizenship and democracy, but neither that is happening at the moment.
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Q: Could you give us some details about your projects, past or present initiatives?
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Right now, I'm building a platform. It will be called Elections Assistance Platform and it will help voters to decide upon the candidates they will vote for. The platform will be based on a questionnaire, a list of 21 statements which the candidates will agree/disagree with or leave with no comments, following for the voters to answer the same. The result will be a percentage of how much the voters agree with the candidates. All the answers will be also saved in a secure database.
Q: How will you reach out to the candidates?
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We will ask them to participate, Of course, we cannot force them, but in the end it is going to be for their own sake, as this could be a way for them to connect with more voters. I think the candidates will need this platform as much as the voters do. The problem in this democratic age is the fact that most people do not know much about the candidates. Also, I think that they are not equally represented.
If you come from a big political party or if you have been into politics for ages, you can get a lot of TV hours and you even have the possibilities to advertise yourself in the media. However, young people don't have the same opportunities and they don't get equal representation. So this is what I am trying to fix. I've been in similar projects in the past related to human rights and environmental causes, but this is the first time when I am taking charge personally and I think this has been my top project so far.
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Q: What are the SDG’s that you interacted the most with in your work?
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Well, I'm concerned about Zero Hunger. I was in cooperation with UN when they started the food program and tried to bring it to Cyprus.
As for the environmental issues, I'm very concerned about sustainable energy and I'm trying to promote this concept. Also, my final paper will be about climate diplomacy, which is mostly related to renewable sources of energy.
Cyprus has an abundance of solar light, but not solar energy because we don't harvest it properly. There are also other ways of course, but since we have the sun, we don't need those, so we must find means to store this energy and use it. Portugal made it and I will use this as a case study in my paper, in order to give the right example to Cyprus.
Other than this, I would also mention the democratic values and the active citizenship through youth participation, as my concerns.
Q: Coming back to the current situation of Cyprus, which SDG’s would require more action from people and organizations?
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Well, something that we certainly need besides renewable energy is peace building. And this started happening. For example, I was involved in a youth initiative, the only youth initiative that was connecting north and south. We are also trying to build a platform where such projects and youth peace initiatives will come together. And this is something that Cyprus is certainly in need for, to bring the Cypriots back together, the people from different communities, for a better future.
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Q: What would be the best way to draw the attention of people in Cyprus around the SDG’s?
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Well, if you make people understand that they are going to save and make money through the SDG’s, they will become definitely interested. You could try telling them that their bills will be considerably lower if they start using solar power and make this message clear and feasible through statements, such as: “If you pay now 200 EUR per month, once you will start using solar power, you will start paying 40 EUR. In one year, you will be saving around 2000 euros”.
I think this is the sort of information that will make people interested. Other examples could be related to the sustainable food production, where people or new enterprises could also have some cost cuts. Actually, I think many of these SDG’s open new opportunities for the labor market.
In the end, I think the majority of people function best with incentives. There are of course environmentalists or people who care about human rights, but they are a minority unfortunately.
Q: Do you think Cyprus has a serious issue when it comes to SDG 2: Zero Hunger? Are there many people whose basic needs are not met?
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Well, the number is rising. Ten years ago, if you would have asked Cypriots if there are any homeless or hungry people here, they would have said “none”. Today we can certainly say that we have hundreds of people. There are initiatives. One example was in Limassol, where it has been said that because of the pandemic, there was a need to feed twelve hundred families. This means, probably, around five thousand people only in Limassol. That is a huge increase for Cyprus, if you take it into account the population. And the issue is not that we have many people who are hungry, but the fact that we have excessive food production, especially with animal products that we don’t use. For example, during Easter, there are 3500 tons of meat produced, so in this case, if you do the math, every person in Cyprus will have to consume 5 kilos of meat during this period. For every celebration, such as Easter or Christmas, half of the food produced is being dumped by the producers themselves and half of the food that is going on our tables is being dumped by us.
So this is one problem with food waste. People don’t really care about throwing food away, while other people out there are starving. Also, if we produce this much, it means that we have the capacity. And I think we could offer part of this production to people in need, countries in need. We are so close to Africa and Middle East. Yemen is really close to Cyprus. And we have the ability to help, but we don’t. This idea should be part of the governmental projects. Volunteers and organizations do as much as they can, but we cannot replace the state.
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Q: Do you think the SDG’s are achievable until 2030?
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No. Of course, it’s good to set aims, based on principals, however we also need to consider the big pictures and all the countries that are being part of this. Some of them will be able indeed to achieve the goals, but some others will not be able to keep up. And on a long term, this will become visible. The ones that will not succeed will bring the others down. This has to be a collective outcome and hence a collective success.
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Q: Do you have any suggestions regarding the SDG’s for the people that are reading this interview?
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Pick one! Pick your favourite SDG do something about it. Let’s say Life under water. Today I’ve read that one seal died in Cyprus. We had 19 and one of them got trapped in the fisherman’s net and she died in the buffer zone, which is somewhere where we couldn't go and help. So, yes, pick one, there are lots of things that you can do for any of those SDG’s. Pick your favourite, focus on it and do something about it. If everyone does so, we could actually make a difference.
