I am passionate about change, I think change is important and when I say change I’m talking about changing people's lives and changing the way we do things. I think it’s sad that in schools we focus so much on academia, and we don’t focus as much on how we treat other people. People should be concerned with thing s like why does bullying happen- and I think bullying happens because people have been brought up to think that how you treat other people is not important ,so what do you expect? How are you regard people is something you can be taught ,and it’s something that should be taught because bullying and mistreatment of others doesn’t just happen in childhood, it can continue into adulthood, it continues in the workplace and it continues on a wider global aspect and to me that’s one of the things that matters because I am always fighting for change.

I always look for people that are similar to help fight to change, and I’m lucky, I have found some very good allies, and that’s what keeps me going.

My human and civil rights awareness happened when I was about three or four, and it happened watching the television, and basically it was watching your standard Western of Indians and cowboys and I just turned to my mother and I asked her why are the Indians and Cowboys always fighting? She explained it as clearly and simply as she could, and she said basically the Indians had land, and their land was invaded, the Invaders were greedy and wanted more and more. for some reason that stuck with me because it seems so unfair because the Indians were always betrayed as the baddies and yet it seemed to me that they were the ones that were in the right not the wrong and I became completely obsessed.

I used to read anything to do with Native Americans and their culture and their lifestyle and their rights

I was 15 and I went to Canada, I met with the Native American chief and what was interesting was that she was a female which was quite something she was called chief Mary Leonard of the shush back tribe- I was kind of gob struck.

At that time Native American people started to object to the churches. They had these residential churches and they would take Native American children away from the reservations, they would indoctrinate them with the Christian religion but not only that they would deprive them of their culture by cutting their hair which is very significant, forbidding them to use their language- the whole idea was to remove any trace of the Indian. I was a 15-year-old that was the time in that movement to stop all this was taking place.

At the time I didn’t realise the significance of it. When I was a student in London- it was a very interesting time to be an activist because there was lots of changes in central America there was a war in El Salvador the Nicaraguans were at war there was a cultural movement going on, there was a revolution going on not just in terms of war and strife but also culturally there was a reaction against cultural imperialism.

The anti-apartheid movement was going on because apartheid was a big thing, and I was a part of that as well and there was chilli solidarity that I was part of.

The place I studied, that was actually the place that Jeremy Corbyn studied at which was called the North London Polytechnic. I remember seeing Corbyn on these demonstrations it was a very interesting time. There was a lull after after the 90s I think people were either defeated or depressed. I remember the poll-tax much and I have never seen anything like it ,there was a sea of people everywhere and it was peaceful, it was massive, it was incredible, the only other march that I can think to compare to that was the one against the war in Iraq .

And then I think when people saw that after this there was no change I think something inside died, I feel that people thought what is the point of demonstrating , nobody is listening and so we’re stuck with this, what can we do- and that’s kind of sad.

In spite of everything I think we have hope, in spite of the disasters that we’ve made and in spite of the rise of the right that’s one of the things I am concerned about because I don’t see the rise of the right just in Britain I see it in all the parts of Europe.

Online I see people talking about Italy and saying if you’re a person of colour you’re not welcome there, they’re saying it’s one of the most racist places to be, don’t go to Italy- and I’ve been to Rome and I’ve been to Italy and I love them and I don’t see why people should be deprived of going to a place because of ignorant people.

And it definitely wasn’t like that, I mean I’ve known Italians and I’ve loved Italy and the Italian culture , the language, and for people to be deprived of that because of this horrible climate of fear that we seem to be in is heartbreaking

I moved to Leeds in 2002. I had activist friends that were here already and I was part of the newspaper called La Luna. People are all part of that were political. So I wasn’t an activist in the way I had been in London but I was surrounded by people of similar minds and that awareness is always there