We are delighted to share a blog written by student Talia Koussayer from American International School Riyadh, who is part of a team delivering a Global Goals project for the 2019-20 Global Goals Competition.
Their project is among over 957 social action projects currently running as part of the GSL movement and we are excited to be supporting them to design and lead positive social change in their community.
A challenging and frustrating journey, but at the finish line I felt rewarded and proud that I had achieved 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals toward making my community a better place
Project Overview
Overusing energy is a very serious issue in Saudi Arabia, due to the fact that a lot of people are not concerned about the cost of energy resulting in them overusing it, and because we live in a very hot environment so we use energy a lot for many daily errands. Furthermore, the aim of my project is to educate the public about the dangers of overusing energy, and change their behaviors toward it. I planned on doing this by going around classrooms and talking to them about the issue and discussing with them what they can do to help.
Our Journey
Throughout my journey, I have developed many skills, ones that I will use in the future, ones that will help me develop. I have become more organized, able to communicate with others better, reflective, and have the ability to socialize and empathize with a person. This amazing journey has opened my mind and made me learn more about myself, I have come to realize that I am the type of person who likes to take action and make a difference which was one of the small things that helped me overcome my biggest challenges.
My biggest challenge was probably coming up with an efficient solution that would actually impact my community, I overcame this barrier by researching and talking to my friends about what would make them change their behaviors and we all came to the conclusion that I needed to present something memorable so I decided to make a slideshow, this might sound like a basic idea but my slideshow was not only filled with knowledge but also games related to my topic. In the beginning, I was a little nervous that my solution wouldn’t work, but my worries went away when a few students started calling me and telling me that I had impacted their lives.
The Next Chapter
So far, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, everyone has been quarantined, making my project a little harder to achieve, but I have planned for the future. I have decided to continue to impact people’s life by getting in contact with as many students as I can and talking to them, I have also arranged a speech for the virtual 8th-grade assembly where the MS principle has allowed me to present my project. And for even farther in the future, I have decided to grow my Instagram account so people around the world would notice it and hopefully change their behaviors toward the overuse of energy.
Overall, I would definitely recommend to others to get involved in similar projects because it will help them develop better leadership skills and impact the world! Therefore, I encourage young individuals like me to get outside of there comfort zone, push themselves to achieve bigger things, and never give up on their passions when things get hard because I can now say that the end result will feel very rewarding and you’ll be proud that you played a part in making the world a better place.
The 2019-20 GSL Global Goals Competition is now open and runs until June 2020. If you belong to one of the 700+ teams of students currently delivering a social action project as part of the competition we would love to hear from you and feature your blog and project photos on our website to inspire others.
