Hello Everyone! 

I hope everyone is doing well!

I was quite busy last few weeks and I am trying to form an official Animal Right Society at University of Surrey at the moment and today I would like to write about the whole process of creating the society and keep you updated about the results in the following weeks too! During our first semester, as vegan students, we have been promoting veganism with the Surge Campus Rep Programme in front of simply fresh once every 2 weeks where we gave other students leaflets and engaged in discussions surrounding the topic. We had plans for making these official under a society in the second semester. First of all, I emailed activity zone leader at Students Union and he directed me to a website to fill the official forms. One of the actions I had to take to form the society was to present a petition to the Union which consisted of gathering signatures of at least 20 students, which was quite fun to gather as I got the chance to talk to people about our goals and what we will be representing and the other action was about the plans we have as a society, our aims, why we think this society is necessary for the university. The aim of animal rights society is provide our members with an open-minded space to engage in non-judgemental discussions and increase their knowledge of topics such as plant-based food, sustainability, and animal ethics (to name just a few!). Tolerance and compassion will run deep within our society, and manifest in everything that we do. So if you are interested to learn about our ethics, take part in this society when it gets approved please do not hesitate to contact me! The events we have in mind is to organise  socials, visits to vegan friends restaurants in town, group discussions, documentary sessions, workshop on nutrition and dietetics which will be hosted by our fellow vegan nutrition and dietetics students. Becoming involved in issues surrounding veganism and vegetarianism can be tough; not only is exploring the truth behind the animal agriculture industry extremely distressing, but it is also not uncommon that going against the grain of society can result in some backlash, sometimes even from our closest family and friends. Not only will Animal Right Society provide a source of engaging education and involvement in the plant-based community, but it will also offer a form of mentorship and support since many of us have faced similar challenges. 

Till next time,

Cemsu xxx