My name is Batool Saad, and I am the founder and president of the HFCC Amnesty International Club, also known as AI-HFCC.

After finishing high school, I looked forward to finally doing exactly what I wanted to do, and while speaking with Dr. Nabeel Abraham and learning that HFCC lacked an Amnesty International Club, I decided to make one. Amnesty International is an global organization based on promoting human rights, and aims to help the people of the world.

With the help of Geraldine Grunow, a professor in the English department, AI-HFCC became possible. We began the paperwork for the school, and signed up online with the Amnesty International Organization. Then the hard part came: enlisting members. Although, I did have a few friends that immediately took a step forward and chose to join, we still needed more members to become an official club.

During the HFCC Welcome Back Days, I realized something: the students at HFCC consist of the wise and the passionate, the bold and the different. Person after person walked up to our table and asked, “What is Amnesty International?” and “How can I help?” In the end we had a good amount of interested people, and my worries were washed away.

Our recent event was “Banned Writers Week,” which was based on writers around the world who have been imprisoned, or mysteriously disappeared, because they wrote something that their governments did not approve of. The idea was to show people that a person should not be imprisoned for something that they believe and write about.

The event took place on Wednesday, September 29, outside the Forfa Auditorium during Khaled Mattawa’s poetry reading, and on Thursday, September 30, in the Student Center. We were able to secure many names, and even more students were curious about the organization.

Thank you, HFCC, for your curiosity.

As of now, our meetings are held every Tuesday from 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. in the Student Activities Building, room 113. Our board consists of: Sammy Hajalie (Vice President), Celeste Stone (Secretary), Mohamad Zalghout (Treasurer), and Meryem Wazni (Special Campaign Coordinator).

Each of these individuals has taken upon themselves the leadership opportunity of guiding and popularizing AI-HFCC. Without their help this club would not be as remarkable and organized as it is now. If you would like to make a difference in your community, then come join the Amnesty International Student Group at HFCC and become a life saver in your own neighborhood.