Cork student is among voices on EU children's council

RAYAA Onog is a 15 year old of Nigerian heritage, based in Cork, who completed her Junior Certificate this year.

I relished chatting to her and discovered that Rayaa got involved with the Cork Migrant Centre (CMC) at Nano Nagle Place when she was 11 years old.

Due to her interest in science and technology, she soon became involved in STEM programs, getting involved in the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, Technovation, and going on to win a Scifest Teen-Turn ‘Eirgrid Climate and Delivering a Cleaner Energy Future Award’.

Beginning her term this year, Rayaa is now representing Ireland on the Euro Child Children’s Council which I myself hadn’t heard of, but I learned from Rayaa, that it involves huge responsibility!

In 2017, Rayaa became involved in Cork Migrant Centre. Her mom was already active with the centre and she went along with her to a painting and dance workshop CMC were organising. Despite planning to do the art workshop, she gravitated towards the dance one and ever since, has been going to dance every Wednesday.

Reflecting on her experience with Cork Migrant Centre, she said: “For the youth, I think their main job is just to bring people together from different backgrounds to emphasise your culture - you know, to know about other people’s culture and diversity.

“They do the same thing for adults, they bring people together for maybe like African day or there are different workshops that they do so that people from all over Cork from different countries can come together and have fun.”

In other words, they celebrate and appreciate different cultures - which may sound like a small thing, but racism is speckled throughout the fabric of our society and so embracing others and where they come from can be an important way of breaking down stereotypes and halting discrimination.

According to the Central Statistics Office, 82.2% of Ireland’s population are ‘White Irish’. People outside of the identity ‘White Irish’ are in the minority and despite the many similarities between all people, our differences are what tend to divide us, with racism reported as a structural issue in our society. Therefore, Psychosocial Wellbeing and Integration Hubs like Cork Migrant Centre that encourage and value diversity by creating a sense of community are of vital importance.

Rayaa thinks “Irish people are accepting in general.”

However, she said the Irish Government could be doing more for migrants.

“Direct Provision, I think that needs to go because I don’t see the benefit of it. The people who go there, I mean, some people get help, but for most people it’s shameful… to the children especially.”

She notes the poor conditions, cramped living spaces, lack of rights to work, lack of independence, vulnerability and the inhumanely long waiting times. For the people currently in Direct Provision, it isn’t set to be abolished until 2024 and it is of utmost importance that all of us are critically thinking about the alternative we will watch come to life and whether it is in line with human rights.

CELEBRATING HER ROOTS

As I prepared for this interview, I was excited to chat to Rayaa about her Nigerian heritage and delve into the positives of migration after we’d shone a bright light on the issues with how migrants are treated here.

She told me she is Edo, which is a tribe, and there are lots of tribes in Nigeria. Rayaa lived there for eight years. She recalled: “I got to really experience it [Nigeria] first-hand; the food, the culture, the people and the language. I can’t speak it but my mom can and she’s trying to get me to learn it.”

“I really like the food about my culture, it’s the best thing.”

I watch her eyes twinkle in the very moment she starts recommending Nigerian foods to try, and she spoke to me about her favourite dish, which is jollof rice.

“It’s my very top favourite, the next one is dodo gizzard. It’s like plantains and peppers and gizzards and we just, like, stir fry them.”

A LOVE OF ALL THINGS STEM

It was in Ireland that Rayaa became interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering).

She won science competitions in her secondary school and during lockdown, and Cork Migrant Centre sent her more opportunities. She applied to more competitions like Teen Turn. Most of them she did by herself but she was most excited to win the ones she worked with friends on.

Rayaa is adamant to use this opportunity of having her voice shared with The Echo readers to promote women in STEM fields.

“Even with my friends, they’re like ‘Oh, how do you do it? It’s the boys that really excel in science’, and I’m always telling them that’s not true. So if there are girls reading the article, I want them to know that they should get involved in it - to stop the stereotype that only boys do engineering or become mathematicians and stuff like that.”

A ROLE IN THE EU

Rayaa is an advocate for children’s rights and has taken this interest to a global stage.

Euro Child Children’s Council are, in Rayaa’s own words, “an organisation that strives to put children at the heart of Europe, meaning that they are trying to implement more suitable children’s rights around Europe.

“As well as doing that, they want to put children in there to make the decisions for themselves; not adults making decisions for them, and that’s what I do.”

In the European Parliament, Rayaa represents Ireland on the Euro Child Children’s Council.

“I’m working with 10 children around Europe and we have routines every month and we discuss child participation.”

She says that they can help her get in touch with ministers and the Taoiseach to actually implement these laws and changes around children’s rights in Ireland, but she hopes to move onto involving more countries in Europe next.

HOPES FOR THE FUTURE

To conclude this piece, Rayaa shared with me her dreams, both for her future and for the world.

Personally, she’d love to be a paediatric surgeon when she grows up, she’s quite certain she will be something in the medical field.

“For the world,” she carries on, “I’d like that, when I’m older, people are able to make decisions for themselves in a good way and that children [and adults] aren’t discriminated against.”

As a young person in Cork, this dream is what she wants to use her voice to communicate.

I was enthralled to learn more about her Nigerian heritage and to uplift Rayaa Onog’s thoughts on inclusion in Ireland, her culture, on STEM and on children’s rights.

Next week: Amy O’Brien talks to Sofia Rea, from Bishopstown, about her dreams. Sofia has recently completed her Leaving Certificate and is a young, self-defined gay woman.