On 31 October, 2017, ISA’s Amnesty International Club engaged in their annual tradition of hosting an event called the Amnes-Tea, “ a campaign that is able to raise awareness about humanitarian issues across the whole world, making everyone an active member of society in order to create positive change”, according to Isabelle Buklarewicz, chair of the ISA’s Amnesty club. Students, teachers, and parents are encouraged to sign petitions to help those whose human rights have been violated, and free tea and cookies are given out as incentive. All it takes to help make a change is a signature, for as these signatures from all over the world pile up in a single office, governments are made aware of the fact that their actions are under international scrutiny and are pressured to take action to free those whose rights have been abused.

This year, the club collected signatures for two causes, one of which was the Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi, who was unfairly detained in June of 2012 who, according to Saudi Arabian forces, insulted the Islamic religion. He was then sentenced to 10 years in prison as well as 1000 lashes in January of 2015. 50 of these lashes were inflicted in a public square. It is the opinion of medical professionals that he will not survive the rest of the lashes. His case has been taken up by several organizations, including Amnesty International, who are fighting to have him freed. The second was the catastrophic issue of the ethnic cleansing that is currently happening in Myanmar. As of October 16, 537,000 Rohingya refugees have come to Bangladesh after escaping from the brutal environment of Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Those who have not fled their home suffer as the nation’s forces inhibit their access to aid provided by organizations. Commander in-Chief of the Myanmar army, Min Aung Hlaing has the ability to cease the violence that is happening in Myanmar. Gathering signatures will illustrate the scale of demand there is for the violence to stop.

Over 150 signatures were collected. Molly Christophers, a member of the club and a participant in the event says, “It was really great to see the ISA community come together to support this important cause.” The Amnesty International club has raised immense awareness about human rights within its community, and it hopes to further make a change that resonates on an even larger scale.

Article written by Neha Suneja

 

Global Village Day 2017 was again a great success setting a record with over 450 students representing the school’s 54 nationalities in the day’s events. An annual favourite, the event was a spectacular, colorful and vibrant display of dance, singing, traditional costumes and smiling faces celebrating the cultural and geographical diversity within the ISA community.

The morning was filled with various showcases  including traditional dance and musical performances, speeches by the Middle and Upper School Student Council and of course, the highly anticipated Parade of Nations.

For the afternoon, the Lower School once again transformed its classrooms into ‘villages’ representing a specific country with games, foods and learnings that exposed students to the range of culture represented within ISA.

Global Village Day is organized each year by representatives from the Lower and Upper School Student councils, with support from staff, faculty and parent volunteers.

“Having everyone here today excited not only about our own cultures, but also about the global community that we represent, is a great reminder that we are very fortunate to benefit from such a diverse pool of students, parents and faculty that can’t really be found anywhere else in the world,” said Upper School Student Council Vice President, Ryan Collins.

Recent Lower School assemblies have focussed on the PYP attitude of “appreciation”. Students enjoyed listening to Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” and learned how appreciative so many different groups of people are for the support in the recent World Water Day campaign.

The Lower School Student Council helped organise the campaign and counted all the coins donated through the small water bottles.  An amazing €4,222.60 was raised in just one week! We are so appreciative and we are sure that both East Africa Care and the communities that we help will be too!  Thank you to everyone who took part.

Thank you to every class who took part in the challenge.