FuturED#2 speakers and leaders Social Justice Group Andrea Chin and Rushabh Bohra

This week we hear from the Island School students who spoke at FuturED#2, Andrea Chin and Rushabh Bohra the Social Justice Group leaders.

Year 12 students and Island School Social Justice Group leader Andrea Chin explains; “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, whether social injustice is resonating in the international community or our local community, it is still up to us to do something. And we need to fight for justice using different and fresh approaches.”

“Helping others can be our greatest success and that was what the creation of our team strived to do. We are not asking people to be unique in their methods of approaching social justice but rather by being adaptive to the situation and providing what is required is in itself creative.”

Andrea Chin (left) Rushabh Bohra (center) Claudia Leung (right)

Rushabh talked about what the group does; “Three of us lead the ISSJ, we focus on refugees, modern slavery, LGBT+ and helpers.  We collaborate and organise events within Island School, as well as keeping  in contact with external organisations and charities.

“We don’t aim to bring about direct change, suddenly expecting a reduction in refugees, or slavery, overnight but we urge our members and the whole school to empathise with the under-privileged, to understand cultural differences, to help those in need to escape from isolation and to accept that we are all people looking for the same thing, justice.”

“The refugee committee organised a carnival which showcased refugee dancers, speakers and drummers. Students cooked and sold food from recipes written by refugees.”

“We didn’t ask students to just donate money we hoped that students would connect with refugees on a deeper level interacting through dance and music.”

“Our community as a whole, has taken a huge step in their methods of advocating change and have incorporated a creative and passionate mindset to tackling social injustice.”