City and Islington Sixth Form College is a well-known school located in the heart of a diverse and multicultural part of London - Islington. This year, the college is taking its part in helping others by re-starting their Amnesty Club to “spread awareness to a large number of people and raise money to help human rights.”

The current leader of the group reported that “it was essential for a college like CANDI, that is so politically aware and engaged, to have a group like Amnesty through which students can channel this interest to produce a real change.” The college itself offers courses in Politics and International Relations which allow students to be aware of issues that Amnesty targets, especially human rights.

Last year, the group focused on the effects of state homophobia; specifically the imprisonment of homosexual people in Chechnya, Russia. In May 2016, the club successfully “had a bake-sale, raising hundreds of pounds to donate to Amnesty International for the cause, alongside hundreds of signatures which were sent to the heads of the camps.” As a well-known group within college, their aims are to “have several campaigns a year” to use these advantages within the community to raise awareness and create change.

This year their current focus is on the problem of the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. The Rohingya Muslims are a minority in Myanmar who for decades have been ostracized and treated as outsiders by the Buddhist majority despite having lived in Myanmar for centuries. Of late, however, the situation has dramatically worsened with military groups travelling to villages, burning them down and brutally attacking and killing the Rohingya people who live there. This problem is only worsened by the fact that the state counsellor of Myanmar - Aung San Suu Kyi - who won a Nobel prize for advocating for a more democratic Myanmar, is denying the military's involvement in the problem. The Amnesty Group will be “holding a number events throughout the college; film screening, bake-sales, world-sweet sale and talks in tutorials, in order to try to raise money for the camps, get petitions against the ethnic cleansing signed, and raise a general awareness about the issue.” To further target this issue, the group has decided to set up petitions in order to raise the question of what England is actually doing to help in this serious humanitarian crisis.

Members of the club have said that “everyone is very welcoming and passionate about helping people in times of crisis.” A first year student, new to the group, also recommends the group “as it’s a really good place for you to start if you feel though as if there are inequalities in the world you would like to change but don’t know how.” The group doesn’t take a “classroom approach” and instead encourages “all ideas” and has a “big sense of community”. Overall, the students hope that the club helps the college and Islington in general become an area more prepared to actually stand up and speak out. If you would like to help contribute to this issue, you can find out more on www.amnesty.org.uk .

Written by Napsugar Somogyi, City and Islington College.