Making my way into the UN, step by step
First, I was an intern in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, then, a consultant for the UN Agency for Refugees, and now, I am an officer within the International Labor Organization (ILO). Up to date, I was looking at these 3 contracts as separate entities, without linkages, because gosh there has been several years and many, many other adventures in between each one. But today I am looking at this as a whole cycle, an evolving trajectory, and it feels so good.
When the results were announced, my universe filled with beautiful colours. With a hand pressed to my chest, I slowly breathe out, releasing the pressure I had accumulated during the past few weeks. I had just got a ticket for my dream profession. A good thing I was sitting because everything was spinning around me. I felt an indescribable sensation of freedom as if I had run my best marathon, win my most tough match, swam my longest distance, pushed back the barriers as far as I’ve ever done before. I’ve done my most beautiful travel, written the most beautiful page of my life, reaching the stars. Only a tiny circle of people know what I have gone through to manage it. So to thank them and to pass the torch to future candidates, with or without sight, I decided to broadcast this experiment.
As part of our project on inclusion, my teammates Susanne, from Germany, Melissa, from Scotland, and myself have been designing an online workshop for the non-profit sector. In Scotland, where volunteering is the most common route to work, disabled people are less than half as likely to access volunteering than other people. And even when they get a volunteering position, at the end they are not offered a job as often as other people. 
In January, I have come over to Edinburgh as a volunteer through the European Solidarity Corps, an initiative empowering young people to engage themselves in the response to societal challenges. Despite seeing many expats escaping their host country due to the current pandemic, I have not considered going back home earlier. I have lived in different countries over the last decade, and not being set apart from the local community, whatever happens, has always been my philosophy. 