Slovenian environmentalist and writer Martina Sumenjak Sabol is not a UAE resident. But 67-year-old's heart and soul belong to this country which she has been visiting every year since 1995.

Hailing from the tiny village of Jarenina which is full of farms Martina started hearing and reading about this desert country when she was a young girl.

Stories about the Father of the Nation the late Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and his futuristic green vision for the country fascinated her.

"My friend Julka's husband Nick from Holland who worked as a greenhouse agriculture expert in Abu Dhabi used to visit us every year with stories of development happening in the UAE" recollects the writer who keeps the topic of sustainable development close to her heart.

"I dreamt about this country ... and my biggest wish was to meet Shaikh Zayed."

Her dream came true in 1995 when she first landed here to conduct research on the strategic development of the UAE. The very next year Martina could also fulfil her desire of meeting Shaikh Zayed.

Ever since she has been visiting the UAE every year and stays here mostly for a month during each visit. She has closely followed the works of various ministries and top leaders in the UAE and attended several conferences meetings and other events related to energy economy environment agriculture food health and other sustainability related topics.

"This country has continued to amaze me. Every year when I come I see new developmental solutions with sustainability at its focus" says Martina who is a guest writer with a prominent Slovenian magazine for energy economy and environment and a contributor for other Slovenian media houses and Sweden's BioEnergy International Magazine.

She is also President of the Slovenian BioMass Association - Slo-Biom - which promotes biomass production and applications in her home country.

Growing up in an entirely different terrain Marina has been close to nature.

"We were poor. But we had the highest quality of life. Everything we ate came from our organic farm. My grandfather and father were beekeepers. We never had food from outside ... and we never had sugar on the table. Even the beverages we had were only water from our well honey or freshly made fruit juices."

Martina may sound like an odd-one-out in a very large crowd when she says "Even now I never wish to go out to eat. When I travel I carry my own little wooden grinder to make freshly ground wheat."

Also she says life has proven that her natural way of life is the best solution to stay healthy in the increasingly polluted world.

"Our food and natural way of living have been treatment for our health.... I have an experience of my own respected professor who was hit by cancer improving his health condition drastically after he switched to completely natural food as I suggested" says Marina who had to apparently discontinue her PhD in Sustainable Development at Bern University in Switzerland to take care of her professor.

A former teacher of political economy in University of Maribor Martina says the way forward for the UAE Solvenia or and any country for that matter is to respect nature and find sustainable solutions for development.

Martina is happy to see the legacy of Shaikh Zayed being carried forward by his son the President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. She is looking forward with great optimism to sustainable developmental plans from the new UAE Cabinet under His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai which she feels will be very important not only for the UAE but also for the rest of the world.

Martina says she has never felt like being a visitor here. "I'm at home here and I have a wonderful family with a lot of love" she says referring to the family of Emirati Kaltham Abdulla.

For over 15 years she has been staying with Kaltham's family while in the UAE.

Though she enjoys their homemade Emirati food Martina makes it a point to bring kilos of organic wheat all the way from Slovenia to spread health and happiness in her "Dubai family."

And no doubt she has a wooden wheat grinder at Kaltham's house.

Sajila Saseendran