One World Week at College
Posted on Friday 14 March 2008
College students consider their responsibilities and responses to other countries, cultures and reli
Students Explore One World
Students at Farnborough Sixth Form College spent last week exploring multicultural and world issues by inviting guests to visit the College and share their thoughts, beliefs and experiences. The initiative was the brainchild of 18 year old Student President, Muhammad Saqib of Cove, who was inspired to organise the week-long event after attending the Hampshire Multicultural lecture given in Winchester last year by television reporter, Rageh Omaar.
Muhammad said, “We live in a diverse world where many of the conflicts arise from misunderstandings and fear between people of different religions and cultures and I wanted the student body in my presidential year to be more informed as we all move on to university and employment”.
One of the early guest speakers in the week was the photo-journalist Sue Cunningham who has spent months living and working with indigenous populations in the Amazon rain forest. She shared her personal journey of discovery of the values and life of the tribesmen and women, and the culture of love and support within their extended family groups.
The most moving session of the week was Holocaust survivor Harry Bibring’s vivid account of the dramatic and devastating changes in his young life when Nazi Germany annexed Austria. Harry was one of the children who survived the holocaust by coming to England with the Kindertransport in 1939, leaving behind his distraught parents whom he was never to see again. Harry told the students, “Suddenly, the other boys in my class, my friends, would no longer talk to me because my family was Jewish - and then the authorities announced that my grammar school was closed to Jews and I had to leave”.
“In the space of a week, my world was turned upside down because of my religion and I was earmarked for extermination”, he said.
18 year old Jo Woodage, of Camberley, had visited Aushwitz last year with the Holocaust Educational Trust. She said, “Even though I saw the gas chambers and horrible conditions with my own eyes, it was not until I heard Mr Bibring’s account of how it felt to be a young Jewish person under the Nazi regime that the full reality of the crimes hit home – I will never forget his story”.
The week ended with a Question Time session in the College’s Prospect Theatre with Aldershot MP Gerald Howarth, Bishop Ian Brackley of Dorking, Robert Elliott, secretary of the Hampshire Buddhist Society, and Luth Karim, Chairman of Trustees of the Camberley Mosque. The panel was chaired by Simon Reigh, Director of Faculty at the College, and faced searching questions from students on multiculturalism, religious fundamentalism, and the composition of the House of Lords. Mr Howarth said, “It is always stimulating to engage in real debate with young people on issues which impact upon the stability of our country and our Christian heritage”.
Student President Mo Saqib said, “The week wasn’t all intellectual and we had events like sumo-wrestling, American Football, and salsa dancing, and different food from around the world served in the college refectories each day, but I really do believe that it has caused people to stop and think about our personal responsibilities in political decisions affecting other people’s lives”.
College Principal Dr John Guy said, “Mo Saqib was inspired to organise the week by Rageh Omaar’s lecture in Winchester; in response, Mo himself has inspired the whole College and I salute his vision, determination and commitment”.
