A few minutes with Suad Ali…

Suad Ali

…who is a student on the BSc programme in Political Science at Linköping University (LiU) and is involved in fighting poverty and improving refugees’ situation in the world.

This autumn you’ll be going to Pittsburgh in the US to take part in One Young World, a global forum for young leaders from all over the world. Speakers in previous years have included Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the UN, and Nobel Peace Prize laureates Desmond Tutu and Muhammad Yunus. Why are you attending?

“Earlier this year I attended an international conference in Stockholm on environmentally sustainable development, a preparatory conference for the UN conference in Rio in June. It was arranged by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Environment and dealt with issues such as how to fight poverty in a sustainable way and the dumping of waste by industrialised countries in developing countries.
I was asked at the conference to apply to One Young World. A few weeks ago I was informed that I had been selected as a candidate and that I will therefore be representing Sweden at the meeting. I will also be representing LiU since my visit to Pittsburgh is sponsored by the University. It would have been difficult for me to go without that support, so I am very happy I got it. I will also be blogging from the conference.”

What’s on the programme for the four days in Pittsburgh?
“I haven’t seen the programme yet, but it’s a conference for young people with leadership qualities. The aim is for us to be inspired by the invited speakers, to get to know each other and to apply what we learn in our own communities.”

You don’t just attend conferences; you are also actively involved at home in fighting poverty and social injustice. What motivates you?
“My roots are in Somalia, so I can relate to the issues – they feel close to me. However I think most people really want to help in different ways, they just don’t know how. Last summer, for instance, I organised a fund raising campaign for the famine in the Horn of Africa. It began on a small scale, with me baking bread and selling it to raise money. Then a few more people got involved, we started going around knocking on people’s doors, organised collections around the city, spread the message via social media. It grew into a huge thing, a whole lot of people got involved, really wanted to help, and the papers and TV interviewed us. In a short time we raised SEK 60 000 which we donated to Doctors Without Frontiers and the aid organisation Islamic Relief.”

You are studying Political Sciences with the intention of becoming a diplomat. What do you think of the programme at LiU?
“I’m completely happy with it. The programme gives me the necessary knowledge, and then I complement that with placements at organisations. Many of the diplomats I’ve met at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs actually have a background at LiU, which was a bit unexpected, but great of course. That’s encouraging.”

This summer you’ll be working at the UN’s refugee organisation, UNHCR, in Stockholm. What will you be doing there?
“We’ll be working with various ways of highlighting the situation of refugees in the world. But I am also taking the opportunity of a placement at the Hunger Project, which fights poverty by supporting local entrepreneurial projects. I’ll have to do that in the evenings.”

How do you have time for everything?
“I often get that question. I don’t think it’s that difficult. If you want to do it, you find time.”

14 June 2012

Academic may festival

doktorshatt

Research is no quick fix. And when it yields results, it is worth a real festival. Twelve professors, six honorary doctors - of which five are international researchers - and 56 PhD students were honoured at this year’s commencement ceremony.

New chairperson of Liu

Anna Ekström, porträtt Anna Ekström began as a chairperson for Saco’s students and she liked to make waves. Since then, educational
issues have stayed with her.

Student with power

Oskar Lyding, chairman of Consensus, went on a trip with the University Management to look at creative learning environments in Europe.

HEALTHY OLD AGE

Rockande tanter Go a little hungry and take B12. Mats Hammar and Carl Johan Östgren, professors at the Faculty of Health Sciences, have mapped out the latest findings on how we can be healthy old people.

preferably "irregular"

Peo Hansen, porträtt The expression "illegal immigrant" is no longer used at the Associated Press news agency. Per Hansen, migration researcher at the Institute for Research on Migration Ethnicity and Society (REMESO), has long argued against the term.

zebra fish - new lab animal

En zebrafisk

Operations with animals for experimentation at Linköping University expand and gather in the Centre for Biomedical Resources (CBR). A new addition is 15,000 zebra fish.

Five minutes with ...

Sofia Nyström, porträtt

... Sofia Nyström, new Secretary General of ESREA, the European Society for Research on Education of Adults.

liu student at nasa

Martin Törnros

Martin Törnros is a media and technology student at Linköping University. He is doing his master's dissertation at NASA and is working on a tool that will visualise space weather.

The humanist day 2013

logga humanistdagarna

Bigger, more intensive, interactive and entertaining than ever. Tomfoolery, circus, stand up, music, art and science. The Humanist Day on 19 and 20 April will be taken over by the playful person.

Students for a greener university

Hands holding earth

Linköping University has the potential to become the most sustainable university in Sweden. This is the vision of Fen Wang, a former student at Linköping University's master’s programme in Science for Sustainable Development.