Hello everyone,

My name is Hatem Affes, I am the newest volunteer in Pozitiva Samobor.

My parents are from Tunisia, I was born in Muscat, Oman, and I currently live in Budapest, Hungary. I am a citizen of the world, literally.

As I mentioned before, both of my parents are from Tunisia and what’s funny is that they even have the same last name. I’ve grown up away from the family tree for so long that we’re no longer even sure it’s a tree anymore.

Being born in Oman is a fact that many people do not know about me, not even some of my closest friends. It’s no secret, but somehow it seems to be. The fact is that I was only born there and I haven’t lived there for a long time, so I’m not talking about just that, it’s just one of those things you remember when you go to the police station or somewhere with some official papers.

I have been living in Budapest for almost the last 6 years. It was the most wonderful experience that opened my eyes; an amazing, terrifying, most challenging experience of my life and I am proud of what I have achieved. One of the reasons I'm proud of this is that there is a Hungarian proverb that says "Hungary is not for the weak" - and it really isn't.

Hungary is special in many ways, for a start they have their own language that looks and sounds nothing like other languages around the world. Some people say that Hungarian and Finnish are very similar and come from the same branch of language, but let me tell you that is not true, and the Hungarians themselves would not agree.

Apart from the difficult language, Hungary is an amazing place because of the delicious food, refreshing thermal baths that you can find all over Budapest and all over the country, and a lush, diverse and beautiful environment. Hungary is very interesting in terms of biodiversity, 30% of the county is forest, which allows a great time in nature.

I first came to Hungary for undergraduate studies; 6 years later I am still studying for a master’s degree in geotechnical civil engineering. My undergraduate studies were focused on water supply and wastewater treatment. He taught me a lot of technical things, but also brought me closer to the environment.

Analyzing waste and studying how to treat it, you also need to study how the environment reacts to the discharge of waste into it, the human impact on the environment and the balance of it all, which has shown me how fragile the balance is.

Not only is this balance fragile, but it is also most important to us humans because the natural environment plays a major role in the existence of life on earth. A healthy environment helps people, animals and other living things to grow and develop naturally. We call the environment healthy when the natural cycle takes place side by side without any disturbances.

Earth is considered to be the only planet in the universe that needs a natural environment for life to exist. However, environmental pollution has become one of the biggest problems we face today due to human activities and technological advances.

Human activities and technological progress affect the natural environment and we must all work together to preserve it. Environmental pollution negatively affects our daily lives, because environmental pollution causes disease.

In addition, there are different cycles that occur regularly between the environment and living beings to maintain the balance of nature. However, in any way, if such cycles are disrupted, the balance of nature is also disturbed, which ultimately affects human lives.

And for all these reasons, I think that the work of Pozitiva is very important. It is now crucial to educate future generations for a healthy lifestyle that does not negatively affect the environment and a harmonious life with nature, and postponing this task will only make it more difficult to pursue it in the future.

I agree that the work of small organizations may not be enough, but small efforts in several small organizations around the world can manifest themselves as a big change, and most importantly not drastically eliminate the problems we have, but face them in everyday life.

Making more environmentally friendly choices each time can help save the planet and all of us. I believe that living in a healthy environment has a positive impact on a person, can drastically improve the quality of life of an individual, and a polluted environment around us can only infuriate us. And in that regard, I really like the name of the organization, spreading positive and positive change.

We must act now if we want to save the planet, and with small actions we can make big changes!