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I want to be a Caris reporter!
Would YOU like to be a Caris reporter?Please write in and apply by telling us why you’d like to try being a Caris reporter. Please also tell us who you would pick to interview and include five questions you would ask them! Email us your application to: readers@carismag.co.uk. Please include your full name and a daytime telephone number |
Caris readers Rachel Butcher, Lily David and Nadia Sulaimen got to be
a Caris reporter for the day. So what was it like? Lily, Rachel and
Nadia reveal all. . .
Interview: We care about world poverty so we wanted to grill Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development about what Britain is doing to help!
Lily David writes:
“WHEN we arrived at DfID, it wasn’t what I had expected: it
was modern, and not as close to the Thames as I had thought it would be.
“We waited around in the reception area for a while, and were given some
ID tags. We were then escorted through to a lovely café area that sold
Fairtrade coffee, teas and snacks. The area had a glass roof, so the lighting
was very natural, and there was a water-feature made with one of the water pumps
DfID sends to developing countries.
“We followed the young PR lady through a set of double doors, and suddenly, it was as if we had been catapulted into an historic building. We went up in the lift, rather than trekking up the sweeping marble staircases (gorgeous as they were), before waiting again for Douglas Alexander. We checked our dictaphones again — I managed to lose the microphone fluffy bit from mine — and we waited for the minister to welcome us in.
“The minister was a lot younger than I had expected him to be, and
he was dressed in suit trousers, a shirt, tie and a woolly jumper. He shook
all
of our hands, which was quite embarrassing for me, as I recently broke my finger,
and
I half felt sorry for him having to touch my cast.
“His low-key office cut a stark contrast to the entrance we’d just
come through. The long room had just a small desk, a blue sofa and a few
armchairs, and a very long meeting table. We sat down on the sofas, and set up
our dictaphones.
“As we asked questions, varying from fair trade to human trafficking, he
seemed to engage well, but sometimes it felt as though he was just giving
us lines from the Labour phrase-book.
“The enormity of having interviewed a minister only really hit me after
we left the building — after we’d seen all the people waiting
to see him: the official businessmen; an American lady; all his staff.
“It was amazing to meet someone who makes a big difference, and to ask
questions about what it’s like to be doing his job.”