s-1
| I first heard about Estonia through a friend. |
s-2
| When searching for post graduate studies, I was intrigued by the studies in international relations and diplomacy at the Estonian School of Diplomacy. |
s-3
| My previous experience in Egypt was with media monitoring, elections, and human rights. |
s-4
| At the Egyptian cabinet I worked with media monitoring projects. |
s-5
| I was responsible for media monitoring and election projects at the Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti Violence Studies. |
s-6
| I led a team who monitored media during the elections to see whether media were biased, we put recommendations to media outlets to improve their performance and gave advice on how to be more neutral. |
s-7
| Working with the civil society sector was an eye-opening experience as I was working with human rights, tolerance issues and Syrian refugees. |
s-8
| I realized that some people really dont have any future and they need to look for better opportunities, its not something we can use against them. |
s-9
| Many Estonians also go abroad searching for better chances. |
s-10
| For me the question is why is it good for people from Europe to move within Europe, but bad when people from Middle East or Asia look for jobs in Europe? |
s-11
| Ive seen that immigrants enrich their new societies. |
s-12
| They are like teachers, because through interaction with immigrants locals learn open-mindedness and tolerance toward cultural differences. |
s-13
| Also, if immigrants are employed they benefit the economic cycle. |
s-14
| Migration consists of normal people, some are good and some are bad. |
s-15
| When someone does something it is because they are bad, not because they are from a specific place. |
s-16
| We need to judge peoples acts according to the law. |
s-17
| Through my work and volunteering experiences I have learned to look beyond stereotypes. |
s-18
| My thinking began to change when I saw that different ideas, thoughts and people will not cause me any harm. |
s-19
| If I had a very limited mentality, I dont think I would be very successful in bringing change through my work. |
s-20
| In the future I hope to work with human rights and torture issues. |
s-21
| I hope to make a difference in peoples lives and help them understand that human rights are not a luxury, but vital to being human. |
s-22
| In Egypt its not easy to convince people that human rights are part of your essential rights. |
s-23
| I hope to make this shift in thinking. |
s-24
| It is hard to change what the whole society thinks, but at least I can start with myself and know what I believe. |