Have you always been involved in the Union?
Yes! I have been very involved in the Union from being a volunteer with the welcome team where we welcomed freshers to Strathclyde and introducing them to the Union such as clubs and societies or liberations groups to join in. After this, I got interested in RAG society where we raised money and gave it to charities that needed it such as breast cancer and save the children. The other society I got involved with was the international society -I found this society very interesting as it integrated the Scottish and international students. Moreover, I also became a class rep in my 3rd year and faculty rep in congress for HASS.
What made you decide to run for VPDA the first time?
I didn’t know much about the role at first but later when I knew this role’s remit works for equality and diversity I straight away got very interested as myself I always belief in campaigning to make sure everyone is treated equally no matter what their background or their sexuality! As I was involved in International Society, I wanted to enhance integration of different nationalities. This year I have worked really hard and closely with liberation groups to maintain and awareness of issues effecting under-represented students and to help them improve their student experience. My main focus this year has been to break the barriers to education faced by asylum seekers, so that they have the same opportunities that domestic students enjoy. For the first time in our history we have a BME Society as a new strand of our liberation groups which is very effective as they are running their own events and doing their own campaigns, including fundraising, guest speakers and debates. In the future this group would evolve and can challenge inequality. We used for launching the new society was Black History Month in October 2013. For this, we ran several events over the course of a week to highlight and celebrate the contribution that black people have made to our society
How do you feel about being re-elected as VPDA?
I am really happy that I have been re-elected as VPDA again, I feel like I can do so much more this coming year as I have gained a lot of experience during my first year and I will continue to fight for students!
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What changes would you like to see within the University in the next coming year?
The changes that I will like to make this year are raising the profile of our liberation groups, fight against xenophobia, freezing international students fees, more graduate employments for international students, campaign to increase the quantity and quality of students housing and create a programme that International and Scottish students can benefit from each others language and culture differences.
For anyone that did not see it, what is Glasgow Girls about?
The Glasgow Girls is a story of a seven young teenager girls fighting against the injustice system of the immigration system and it all started with one of our friends being detained to be deported! We fought hard to keep our friend here by petitioning, writing to MSP’s and made two documentaries with the BBC on the dawn raids of asylum seekers are being detained and deported back to the unsafe countries where they escaped from.
How did you get involved in Glasgow Girls?
I got involved in the Glasgow Girls (it was later on that they called us by that) because I am a very out spoken person and I don’t believe that anyone has the right to take away any human rights from someone else and when one of my friends was being detained of course I fought for her until my last breath and thats what I did and I will do it again.
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Have you always been involved in Theatre and Drama?
I am not sure how to answer this question to be honest! When I was a child I wanted to be an actress and I was involved in my drama classes and acted as snow white for one of our shows in high school but that’s pretty much it! When I first heard that the Glasgow Girls is going to be in a musical theatre show I was like, WHAT! Very surprised as our campaign is very political and I wasn’t sure how it works in a musical but of course the director of the show has done a great job and the public loves it.
How do you fit so much in with being VPDA and Glasgow Girls?
I find time because I am very passionate about equality and strongly belief what I am doing will make a great difference in people’s life’s.
Any advice for anyone looking to get involved on campus?
My advise to who ever reads this is that if you don’t get involved you will never know what you are missing! We have to ask ourselves what is the purpose of life if we don’t try to do something good with what we have and change things for better. Actions speaks louder than words. If you like to get involved directly in the union than come and speak to me on level 7 of the union or email me ussa.vpda@strath.ac.uk