The
Skyline View The Voice of Skyline College, San Bruno, California
www.theskylineview.com
March 16, 2017
Volume XLI - Issue 4
Skyline siblings spoke at United Nation conference for a cause By Laurel B. Lujan
trafficking at its source?’ so just empathizing with the fact that people don’t know these kind of things and it’s such a huge problem in our world.”
TSV News Editor
Two students from Skyline College were invited to the United Nations (U.N.) conference to present their projects in order to gain awareness for their causes. Judah and Nena Darwin were invited by Manav Subdodh, founder of “A Million for A Billion” (1M1B) to be a part of his organization which led them to go to the United Nations Conference. Subdodh’s organization 1M1B, stands for creating jobs and enterprises in order to help indigenous and under served communities as the official website states: “Activate 1 million young leaders and entrepreneurs who will drive 1 billion people out of poverty.” Even though the projects are different, they are interconnected in helping people from other countries to make a difference. Project Release Nena Darwin’s project is called “Project Release,” which is a scholarship fund for at risk children and victims of human trafficking. “By at risk, I mean children who are impoverished or don’t really have any other access to education otherwise without our scholarship,” Nena Darwin said. Nena Darwin elaborated
Courtesy of Nena and Judah Darwin
Judah and Nena Darwin are with their group after participating in a panel on March 10.
that “Project Release” is meant to aide those who seek to have an opportunity to educate themselves and want to have a fresh start. She is in partnership with her friends who helped with the project which began in December 2013. Her partners help with the establishment of the funding for the scholarship by making bracelets and scarves which were sold to friends and family. Then it evolved into a bigger aspect
of working with local villages in India where the siblings bought their raw materials to sustain the community economically, specific to their trade in an effort to not outsource them. The raw materials are used to make final products to sell in order to fund the scholarship and sustain the villages. She also elaborated that this is in effort to decrease the risk of
human trafficking by providing the local area with financial resources. For “Project Release,” the inspiration came from the lack of awareness of human trafficking and slavery, which is still prevalent in India today. “Initially I wanted to educate people about that,” she said. “It kind of spurred into, ‘how can I really stop or prevent human
Smart Village Project Judah Darwin, is a part of the Communications Team of Smart Villages where he explained that the project has taken off in December 2016 beginning with their father’s village, Mori in Andhra Pradesh, where their father grew up before leaving for the United States. “It’s about empowering people in villages by giving them tools from Silicon Valley companies,” Judah Darwin said. “Essentially we’re uplifting them and helping them help themselves without changing their culture and their traditions.” Judah who’s working with Subdodh is a spokesman for Berkeley Fellow and gives guest lectures at various universities and events which led to meeting Nena and Judah Darwin’s father who helped start the project with Subdodh. The funding for the project comes from the village’s state government who was already interested in it from the beginning. So far, there has been a collaboration between the United States and the Central Indian government to create more smart cities.
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Skyline College panel fights ignorance about Islam in events with Muslim Ban By Laurel B. Lujan TSV News Editor
On March 13, guest speakers spoke at a panel about issues concerning the Muslim community, how they are affected and how fear has shaped the media and understanding of Islam. The panelists -included Skyline professor Mohammed Mustafa Popal and Kalimah Salahuddin, a Board of Trustees member of Jefferson Union High School District. The panel began with questions asking the speakers about their opinions on the new policies President Donald Trump has signed regarding the Muslim community. Sameena Usman, Government Relations Coordinator for the Council on American Islamic Relations said Trump’s travel policies are “demonizing those who are [of] Muslim majority.” “We can’t pretend this is about terrorism,” Usman said. “It’s
definitely about focusing on Muslim countries and demonizing those who are there who are really struggling to try to escape persecution and try to make a better life for themselves and they have been vetted.” When an immigrant is vetted, Usman explained it can be a difficult process where people can spend years getting their visas and then be told they cannot come to the United States. Usman’s organization provides free legal services to people who are experiencing hate crime, school bullying and harassment. Since the first ban was in place, Usman told the audience that there has been a higher level of calls pertaining to questions about the ban and reports of families being torn apart. Salahuddin contributed to the panel as a Muslim politician on the Jefferson Union High School District taking a personal note on how 9/11, President Trump and students in her district have affected her. She began on how the harassment
Rock the School Bells 10th Anniversary Pg. 5
of being Muslim has escalated over the years, especially after 9/11 when her mother was physically attacked. But when President Trump was elected, she has seen incidents where Muslim students have been harassed after the election. “When a country tried to control someone they use fear,” Salahuddin said. “It’s really easy to isolate a group of people, especially if Americans don’t know a lot about that group.” The fear is in relation to the students she works with and how their parents constantly travel while worrying that they might not be let back into the U.S. Salahuddin mentioned that the media plays a huge part in the fear as well. “There’s a constant barrage on the news, social media, it’s extremely negative on top of the negative things that are already on movies,” Salahuddin said. “Every time and every action for
Mark Magat/The Skyline View
Mohammed Mustafa Popal, Kalimah Salahuddin and Sameena Usman discuss the impact of the Travel Ban on the U.S., especially Muslim immigrants.
a while, there was a Muslim terrorist doing something so you get all this negative messaging and then now it’s been jacked up even more.” The panel’s goal was to inform the Skyline community of the dangers of being silent and trusting information that’s presented without fact checking.
“If we look at American history in general,” Popal said. “There are moments of economic insecurity when there’s fundamentally [an] environment which the social economic [and] critical structures rest on transforming produces a level of anxiety and fear while people are trying to grasp and understand what’s happening.”