Mariam Arain

By YMM Parent Team on June 20, 2019 0 1039 Views

Age: 16

Birthplace: Scarborough, Ontario

School: Westwood Community High School

Grade: 11

Future Goal: To find a profession in the medical or social studies field

“I believe youth have a lot to share and often youth voices are being muted despite us being a large and important segment of society.” — Mariam Arain

Written by Kendra Mercer

Mariam Arain is a voice for the youth in our community. She has been actively participating with the Youth Voices Rising: Resilience in Wood Buffalo project for the past two years.

She even represented the project at the 2017 Human Rights Conference in Fort McMurray. Mariam also helps out her community by volunteering as much as she can with different organizations.

“I do a lot of volunteering with the Adopt-A-Road program,” she said. “I’ve been a part of it for the past seven years. I help with collecting for the (Wood Buffalo) Food Bank, volunteering for the Multicultural Association, and World Hijab Day.”

After the 2016 Horse River Wildfire, Mariam decided to join the Youth Voices Rising campaign because she believed it would those in her age demographic to further express their concerns and initiatives.

“I helped manage the Resilience Design Team through the arts, social media campaigns and songs that were made to help youth share ideas that are important for healthy rebuilding. I was also selected to be the one who presented our findings to the Mayor and Council,” she explained.

When Mariam finishes high school, she plans to seek a career that will help others and is interested in the medical field as a nurse or a profession in social studies.