Annita
My name is Annita Tsolaki
and I am from Cyprus.
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I have studied Sociology and Social Anthropology at the University of Kent and then I continued my studies in International Relations here at the University of Cyprus. Currently, I am writing my master thesis on the rapes of the 1974 Turkish Invasion of Cyprus from a feminist perspective.
In 2018 I have started working at YEU Cyprus as a youth worker and as an ESC Coordinator Officer. Now I am a project manager at the Center for Social Innovation, and I am also a board member at YEU Cyprus and a coordinator of the YAS project.
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The following goal would be Reduce inequalities. I think we have a lot of inequalities here in Cyprus, both social and economical and I would like to see a country where people would not be discriminated because of their gender, sexual orientation, religion or ethnicity. Considering the migration crisis for example, it had to deal with a lot of nationalist narratives.
Finally, the third goal would be Quality Education, because for eliminating inequalities and for fostering peace you need to educate people about what is happening, their history, the importance of other religions and ethnicities and in this way avoiding a nationalistic kind of narrative that limits the potential of our country.
Speaking of which, I think that education is the most effective way to make people know about SDGs, especially by using more informal and experiential learning tools, such as organizing workshops and public interventions, and to teach them how themselves could be the ambassadors of change.
On the other hand, we should also keep in mind to push the policies making and to try to change the mentality of the government. Moreover, we should also be active towards changing the mentality of the state through advocacy and policy making. What we need is a holistic approach and a better collaboration between institutions, otherwise it would be Impossible to achieve the SDGs. In fact, I don’t think that they will be achieved with the system that we have now because capitalism is being driven by economic interests. We might need to rethink what the foundations of our systems are and see what we can do as organizations and as individuals. The power of people is very strong, and I believe in it!
I believe the SDG’s cover all the necessary things that should be done in order to establish a tolerant sustainable society and that’s why they should be implemented globally. I don’t know if they will be achieved to the extent we all want, but at least this is an opportunity to start thinking about sustainability as an important topic and to collaborate together for this common goal.
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Which SDG are you most interested in if you could choose one?
Personally interested I would be, as I said, in Goal 16 related to Peace and Goal number 10 related to Inequalities and Gender inequalities.
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What would be the SDGs that need more action and attention here in Cyprus?
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More attention would be needed in Peace, Justice, Strong institutions and in the representation of women in the decision making.
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For the people reading the interview, what are your recommendations regarding the SGD’s, either for them to take an action, either to educate themselves? If you could send one message out to the people, what would that message be?
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Learn, educate yourself and act!
As a matter of fact, the organization I work with, the Center for Social Innovation, is trying to find solutions to challenges that exist in societies And aims to help improve the quality of life of our communities and of individuals. We have various projects working specifically on migration, gender, environment and entrepreneurship that try to reach sustainability from different points of view, aiming towards a bottom up approach.
In Cyprus, there is lack of attention towards social and environmental issues: reaching equality in society is still a challenge and the environment is not really handled by the government. Natural resources are exploited, the pollution is huge, especially due to the cars (each family has five cars, this is ridiculous!) and to a lack of public transportation. We have polluted our water and our lands and there's an excessive use of plastic. I feel that all these aspects do affect me.
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The same issues exist for the gender inequalities that exist in Cyprus. Women are not represented in the peace negotiation and conflict resolutions discussions and often they are not in power position in governmental institutions. Besides this, sexual orientation is still a taboo.
To improve things, I think it would be important to change the laws and the legislations in general, in order to establish a good foundation to work upon. Then with the collaboration among the governmental institutions and non-governmental organisations we could establish a network that could engage people from several groups working towards a same goal
Furthermore, we need to change the way we educate young people about the challenges that we are facing at the European and global level so they can be active citizens and be able to analyse critically while reading or listening. It is crucial to be active towards change and to unite our forces and work towards a common goal.
