Habs pupils Jonathan Gibson, Ozair Surti, Param Thakar, Oli Davies, Kazim Yurtseven, Lucas Valladeras, Felix Zombory-Moldovan and Krish Gadhia have been involved with Burst the Bubble UK – a youth-run organisation focused on raising awareness, encouraging dialogue and promoting the involvement of young people in some of the most crucial issues facing the world today.

Composed of a plethora of diverse backgrounds, religions and cultures, Burst the Bubble UK aims to consider every perspective regarding modern issues and raise awareness through every means at their disposal. Considering the prevalence of social media among modern young people, Burst the Bubble spread their messages on a variety of online platforms, from YouTube to Instagram, and beyond, in order to fully concentrate on bringing awareness to teenagers and young adults. 

Primarily, Burst the Bubble have focused on topics of freedom of religion, freedom of expression and fundamental human rights. They have created resources regarding instances where these freedoms are restricted such as with Uighur persecution. Since the initial launch in August 2019, they have organised events, recorded podcasts, created infographics and given speeches across a multitude of schools, academic forums and events. Through both ensuring resources are high quality, and working hard to produce them in quantity, the Burst the Bubble team will continue to do so in order to make a real impact.

Many students want to make a genuine difference, and thus Burst the Bubble have integrated youth from 12 different schools, including both Habs Boys and Habs Girls, into their ambassadorship scheme, with hopes to further expand membership in the future. By involving youth from a wide spectrum of backgrounds, the group simultaneously hopes to promote interfaith dialogue and discussion, but also to help set a high standard for how this form of dialogue can successfully occur. 

Within Habs Boys alone, there are a great number of student ambassadors working in roles from media to editing to management, and the team has been working hard to help Burst The Bubble in its capacity. From taking part in the Free Ekpar campaign to helping podcast production, the Habs team have endeavoured to help raise publicity and attention for the organisation’s goals.

The campaign, Free Ekpar, has been seen millions of times across the world. It featured on Japanese television and was shared by New York Times journalists. People from across 16 different countries took part in the campaign, from Ethiopia, Syria, Turkey, Mexico, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain, Hungary, US, Taiwan, Hong Kong and many more.

Burst the Bubble are a passionate group determined to utilise their skills to help raise awareness and lobby for change for issues in which groups are being persecuted on the grounds of religion, race or culture. They wish to increase the impact of youth on politics and law by spreading awareness and providing information. Burst the Bubble hope to facilitate a greater youth voice and contribute to greater public pushes in protecting the human rights of innocent people across the world. 

 

Pupils roles:

Project Director from Habs Boys: Jonathan Gibson

Ambassadors from Habs Boys: Ozair Surti, Param Thakar, Oli Davies, Kazim Yurtseven, Lucas Valladeras, Felix Zombory-Moldovan, Krish Gadhia