Nowsha Farha is a first year BSc Social Sciences with Quantitative Methods student, and also the Project Leader for UCL Amnesty International Outreach. Having only joined this year, Nowsha had to take over the Project from the previous Leader. Restarting a Project from scratch in your first year must be challenging, but it’s something Nowsha has relished.
Nowsha says the aim of the Project is to “teach social activism to young minds”, and to make young people aware of human rights issues and abuses that are going on in the wider world, and also teaching them how to take a stand, and campaign for what they believe. This year, they have decided to bring their work to a new audience of Year 1 (5-6 year old) pupils. She was initially sceptical about her ability to give such a young audience an effective education in such matters, but was convinced when she went along and was surprised to find out the children already knew who Amnesty International were!
Nowsha says that since a very young age, she has felt that leadership has been one of her “innate traits”; the first time she embraced any kind of leadership role was when she was 6 years old as a class prefect! She wanted to volunteer with the Outreach project as she feels that she wants to spread her knowledge and activism skills to groups of young people who may have less access to that information.
She’s absolutely loved being project leader for Amnesty International Outreach, as she’s always wanted to become a social activist, and this has been a manifestation of her work that has enabled her to pass on her knowledge to a new generation. She says it’s also helped her improve herself and become a more informed citizen about issues happening in the world, and she feels she has a social and moral obligation to help others through her work.
If Nowsha’s story has got you feeling inspired, you can check out Amnesty International Outreach's page on our Directory, or check out any of our other Student-Led Projects! Passionate about campaigning? Check out how you can campaign with local charities.