EF Challenge 2020
Hello, nice to meet you!
My name is Manuela Orozco Echavarria. I am a 14 year old student in 9th grade at the American School in Barranquilla,
Colombia.
This is my first time participating in the EF
challenge and I see this as an opportunity to express my concerns through this
year's topic "What global issue are
you most passionate about solving?"
When I first listened to the topic, there were
so many things
Xenophobia is a dislike or prejudice towards
people from other countries. An example of xenophobia would be a group of
people at school, excluding Rajid from activities because he is from Saudi
Arabia. They are not scared of him, they are prejudiced towards him because of
his nationality.
Some persons are xenophobic because they are
unfamiliar with a particular nationality, because of something that happened
historically between various countries (WW2) or they believe in stereotypes (particularly negative ones) and THE LIST GOES ON.
Recently, something shocking happened in
Germany. It was the 20th of February
2020, new year, new resolutions! Right? Well,
A 43-year-old German man called Tobias, that was a right-wing extremist shot 9
people at 2 bars in a city near Frankfurt, Hanau. Tobias was later found dead.
The reports of various Newspapers (El Pais) said that the victims were from
Turkey (five, according to its Embassy in Berlin), Romania, Bulgaria, dual
German an Afghan and a Bosnian.
Now, let`s go back in time, exactly 11 years
ago. South Africa, on May 11th, 2008, a series of riots of xenophobic roots against immigrants from Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe took place.
On June
2nd, 2008, taking into account the statistics of "El Pais" taken from
the government of South Africa there were 62 reported dead and 670 injured.
Now, the terror that the citizens and
immigrants experienced back then, was felt again a year ago. In 2019, xenophobic
attacks against immigrants were seen again. One example is Tendai Marechera, he
is a truck driver, that back in 2019, had a terrible incident in the streets
of this country when in September 20th, after stopping by a shop 100km away from the
capital, he suddenly was on his way out of the truck, a group of people
started hitting his truck and were trying to throw bricks at him. People of
South Africa were screaming "Go back to your country!"
Something similar is happening here, in
Colombia, due to the immigrant crisis caused by Venezuelan, where our own people are
attacking these immigrants because they think they are thieves who come to rob in this country.
Also, small cases of xenophobia are seen
everyday. I read a short report in the newspaper about a Colombian teacher that
went to Korea to teach Spanish, but she wasn't accepted after going to 10 schools. No one trusted her,
they thought that just for being from Colombia, she was going to sell drugs to
the kids. I'd like to become a teacher and I wouldn't want to experience that.
This has to stop! It is as simple as that. But
I believe that all begins with small changes: Report to the authorities if you
see a xenophobic attack, try to change the mind from those around you, teach
younger generations that we all deserve to be treated with respect, no matter where
you come from.
“A very crucial sign of a modern society's civilization is tolerance
towards those who are different”
― Sunday Adelaja
My name is Manuela, and I believe that we can make a change, starting with us.
Thank you.
By Manuela Orozco, Step 9
