HEINRICH BÖLL STIFTUNG BRANDENBURG

Interviewee: Journalist Abeer Alali

Organisation: Heinrich Böll Stiftung Brandenburg

Her expertise: The Projekt „Klimaschutz – Hand in Hand“ Handbook

 My name is Abeer Alali, I’m from Syria and I’ve been here in Germany since 2016. In the project “Climate Protection – Hand in Hand“people come together, Arabs and Germans, and exchange within their cultures, between them.  I sit with them and talk about the environment, what can we do, what can we do to protect the environment? And this exchange between people, you know what there is in my culture, what we do in our culture to protect the environment, and I also know what you do. And I think this is a very good thing.

Before I worked for the Heinrich Böll Foundation, I took part in a very good workshop with other Syrians. We did a lot together, focused on different topics from the project, water, food and groceries, electricity, rubbish. And the hosts learned a lot from us, all Syrians, what do we do for the environment, what does it mean for us, what is haram, what is halal for Arabic people In the Arabic culture it is forbidden to throw food away food. We have to eat it all and we are not allowed to throw it away. Or another example, when I buy vegetables in Germany, they always come with a lot of packaging and now I’m trying to buy them without packaging.

The project “Climate Protection – Hand in Hand“ is important because this is an important topic for everyone, because the world is constantly changing. If we have to live on this earth, then we also have to protect it a little bit.

The handbook “Climate Protection Hand in Hand” was developed in the framework of the project “4R: Refugees reduce, reuse, recycle” 2018www.boell-brandenburg.de/de/klimaschutz-hand-hand-das-tandem-handbuch 4R is an educational project for refugees in Brandenburg that provides knowledge about environmental, climate and resource conservation: www.boell-brandenburg.de/de/kategorien/4r