Talal
Talal Kawar lives in Nicosia and collaborates with many different solidarity and sustainability causes and initiatives.
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As an interpreter, Talal often works with organizations as Hope For Children, Caritas and Red Cross helping to communicate with refugees and migrants.
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He has also a long experience in radio and runs the show Music is Memory on Lemoni Radio. As Talal explains, memory registers and associates music with events and times of our lives and he takes the listeners down these memory isles every Thursday by playing and talking about music from the 80s, 90s, and 00s,
My name is Talal. I am originally from Lebanon but I grew up and was raised in Cyprus. I have been here for as long as I can remember.
Who am I? That’s something I’ve been always trying to find. I think that’s the search of our journey: find your purpose and how to make the world a better place.
I am not totally involved in the SDGs but I have worked with entities that are based around them or connected with them. I can tell you what I am related to - the points that make a difference to me, The ones that make more sense to me, let us put it like that. Because I work with refugees, I am very interested in the no poverty (SDG no. 1), the education of people (no. 4), helping people find decent work (no. 8) - because people come here looking for a better life -, and peace and justice (no. 16).
I am actually an interpreter. I am a private interpreter and I work with NGOs like Hope for Children, Caritas and Red Cross that call me - because I speak arabic - when they need support to communicate with refugees and migrants.
I also work with my church, the Saint Paul Anglican Cathedral. Together with other entities, we provide monthly meals. Now that there’s a lockdown we will be doing weekly deliveries to houses of people in need - anyone in need who contacts us. As a result of the way things are happening these days around us because of the pandemic situation we are facing, a lot of offices and other government places are closed or restricted. So they are not providing enough services or the tools needed for some people to survive. We are trying to compensate for that gap.
In the last year people have suffered in ways that they would never imagine. It made them realize that not everything is as comfortable as they thought it was. Everything can change in a split of a second. Usually people are very comfortable in their 9 to 5 routines: wake up in the morning, go to work, come home, kiss the wife goodnight, wake up in the morning and do the same thing again, wait for the weekend, take those 15 days off for holidays… you know? We became so attached to such a routine lifestyle and it changed completely overnight. There are people struggling with a paycheck that was entering the household and that all of the sudden was cut by half or disappeared. I think people are opening their eyes more now, becoming more conscious. I am not talking about conspiracies and all that kind of stuff. People can get lost in their own imagination, it’s a rabbit hole. I am not talking about that. What I am actually saying is that when all of the sudden their wages are cut by half people become more open minded to seeing how other people feel and the struggles that other people face. Their shoes are being filled the same way other people’ shoes are filled. Before they could think “endaxi, it happens” but when it’s close to their own doorstep they start to look at things in a different way.
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Which of the SDG's would need more action and attention from the people in Cyprus (both individuals and organizations)?
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One of the biggest challenges that I face - because I am Arab, I am Lebanese-Cypriot - is the language. It is important to provide a better education system for foreigners when they come to the island, whether they are refugees or migrants; being able to provide more or better Greek lessons for people so they can get involved in the community and become citizens. So, I believe the education system (connected to the SDG no. 4) should improve on certain aspects.
Something that also needs to be improved in Cyprus is the partnerships and the communication between different organizations, NGOs and governmental offices; connecting dots and putting the right people together.
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From a personal point of view, what SDGs do you feel the most strongly connected to and why?
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Because I work with refugees, I am very interested in the no poverty (SDG no. 1), the education of people (no. 4), helping people find decent work (no. 8) - because people come here looking for a better life -, and peace and justice (no. 16).
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Do you have any suggestions/recommendations for the people that are reading this interview?
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Be flexible, do things from love and not finding an internal gain first. Do things for others, help other people.
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I am more of “do one act today and change one person’s life” and hope that with that I will help and trigger a ripple effect on other people. To change the world in one time is impossible.
How do you change things? Try and change things locally first with the people that are around you. One by one and in hope that you will do it for everybody. Step by step. Person by person. And if you do it with love things will happen.
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When the right person listens to the right message they will be able to work on it.
That’s my thing. If I can help one person a day it will make me happy. But imagine 1000 people helping one person a day. Don’t go for the masses, go for those 1000 people and tell them to help others. To pay forward. If you do something for someone tell that person to not thank you but to do the same for someone else.
That is the way I see it.
