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Anne Gacer is a student in the Fraud Examination and Forensic Accounting program. In this blog entry, she describes her experiences of partaking in the 2022 PRME SDG Multimedia Contest.
I joined the SDG Multimedia Contest without a sustainability background. The concept, however, was always in the back of my mind. I have always been an inclusive person and when I worked for a company that encouraged diversity and inclusively, I realised I was working in a place where my values and beliefs were being manifested.
When I came to Seneca I was excited to work with people from different countries. I find it very rewarding getting to know people from diverse backgrounds and getting to know their perspectives. Working with people who come from different parts of the world is a great opportunity to challenge one’s own beliefs and points of view. People’s sense of right or wrong may be different from ours, but this allows us to find a new point of view and grow from this – this comes when we refrain from imposing our perspectives and are accepting and open to seeing other points of view. We have to work on our patience, because our understanding of the world around us is brought about by our own experiences, our cultural background, the influences that shaped our view of the world, the places we have travelled, and the books that we read. Any time we meet another person we need to understand that they have not had the same experiences as us and this connection will allow for mutual growth.
When I made my video entry, I gathered the friends I knew from course group projects and I asked them to be my guest speakers. I tried to ensure that different parts of the globe were represented and I asked them about sustainability. The word sustainability is known as “Adigide” in the Ibu language of Nigeria, “Pagpapanatili” in Tagalog language in the Philippines, and “Ṭikā'ū vikāsa” in the Punjabi language. They all contain the meaning of preservation and continuity.
While speaking with the guests in my video, we shared insights into each respective part of the world of how sustainability can be seen in their communities. These are all in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). On the topic of gender equality, there is a slogan in India called Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (बेटी बचाओ बेटी पढ़ाओ ) which means, “save the girl child, educate the girl child.” In Bermuda, people in the community contribute to food security by planting vegetables and fruits in their gardens and exchanging food with their neighbours. This allows the community to save money and builds its unity as younger generations help the elderly to garden. One of my guest speakers from Brazil is recycling clothes from the dumpsters as there is so much trash in his community. He redesigns and remakes these clothes to make them wearable again and helps removes trash while offering something back to his community.
Image by Bob Dmyt from Pixabay
When I presented my entry, I said that there is one book by Yuval Noah Harari that made me think of the UN SDGs – the title of the book is “21 Lessons for the 21st Century”. At the time the book was written, it mentioned how there are 7 billion people in the world and now we are almost 8 billion. As I read this, I thought to myself of all the ways my guest speakers spoke of sustainability happening in their communities. Imagine all the ideas that could come from 8 billion people if we all thought of how we can better contribute to the UN SDGs. What existing ideas do they have that may be better than the ones that we are currently using or are planning to have in place? Or perhaps, we can better share our experiences and perspectives and replicate great ideas throughout the world.
In the end, I did not win the SDG Multimedia Contest, but got a lot out of the experience. One of the professors told me that it was good that I tried, that in my own professional sphere, I had the awareness to promote it, and to me, that is more than just encouraging, to me that is the acknowledgement of the efforts I made. I may have not won, but it made me feel like a winner.
Anne Gacer
Fraud Examination and Forensic Accounting
Watch the full video entry here.
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