Breakthrough is a unique global human rights organization and a recognized pioneer of innovative social change. Working out of centers in the U.S. and India, we create game-changing pop culture and multimedia campaigns – including video games and music videos — that bring human rights issues and values into the mainstream, making them real and relevant to individuals and communities worldwide.
In December 2010, Breakthrough put out a call for fun, inspiring videos about diversity for our first annual I AM THIS LAND contest. Of all the amazing videos we received, the winner was Role Call, a creative response to an unusual on-campus incident of race-based bullying. Created by media arts students at Flushing International High School in New York City, ”Role Call” went on to spark and invigorate conversations about race and rights, stereotypes and identity, at schools across the country.
A few months later, we partnered with students from Flushing International High School, mostly new immigrants representing 40 countries and speaking a total of 20 languages, to write and animate videos that told — with bracing honesty and quirky humor — their own immigration stories. Check out their amazing stories HERE!
We’ve been so inspired by the candor and creativity of these young students. They remind us all that when young people are offered inspiring, imaginative tools for transformation, they build new bridges and powerful platforms for their own voices, speaking human rights into reality all around them.
