Amnesty International Greetings Card Campaign (A)

Member Name: frangliz

Product:	A
Date:	25/11/08 (240 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Send hope to those in danger or unjustly imprisoned.

Disadvantages: Postage could be expensive.

The tradition of sending greetings cards for Christmas and the New Year started back in 1840, and for me the best thing about it is sending cards to people I see very seldom during year, and receiving a card and some news from them. I usually try to buy charity Christmas cards in the hope that a few pennies will go to third-world countries or other deserving causes, although we are told that the percentage that is given is very small.

A couple of years ago I found out about Amnesty International's greetings card campaign, which seemed a way of doing something more constructive than simply buying charity cards. Amnesty provides details of people all over the world who are at risk, for example prisoners of conscience, people under sentence of death, and human rights defenders under threat. We can offer hope and encouragement to these people by sending them greetings cards. Sometimes police, prison staff or political authorities notice the sheer amount of international mail that these people are receiving, and it can therefore increase their safety.

Amnesty publishes a brochure that gives details of 26 individuals and groups to whom cards can be sent; the information is also available on their website. Each person or group's circumstances are explained, and their name and contact address is given. Amnesty advises that in most cases non-religious cards should be sent, but they do indicate where religious cards are acceptable. They advise writing a message in your own first language, whilst at the same time giving messages in the individual's native language for you to copy if you wish. Mention of Amnesty in the card and political messages are to be avoided at all costs, as they can result in further problems for the recipient.

Amnesty asks senders to put their own name and address on the card to show that they come from real people, but you can just put your initials and your city and country if you prefer.

Lightweight cards would make the most sense, as postage costs can then be kept to a minimum. Most of the people live in postage Zone 1, although there are a few in Europe; postage is likely to range from 44p to 72p. Of course no-one is obliged to send cards to all these individuals or groups - you can choose how many or how few you wish to send. The campaign runs until 31st January, so there is no rush to send cards while you are preparing for Christmas: you could write them while you are digesting your Christmas dinner, or if you have some free time in the New Year. Amnesty gives suggestions for involving larger numbers of people in sending cards by organising a stall or a card-writing session at school or at work.

Most of the addresses are quite long and contain many foreign words, but to make things easier you can dowload and print address labels for all the cases from the website link given below.

If you have some cards left over this Christmas, or if you can buy a box of lightweight cards, this seems to be a very good use for them.

UPDATE, 25th November 2008
This season, the Amnesty Greetings Card Campaign began on 1st November 2008 and will run until 31st January 2009. Amnesty International has made some improvements to the materials they have produced to assist people in participating and involving others.

The usual A5 leaflet is available and gives details of all the individual cases as well as advice on what to write inside the cards. There is also an A5 photocopiable sheet giving details of four of the cases; this is aimed at those working with young people aged 8-14 who could be encouraged to take part in the campaign.

For those wishing to take further action (beyond sending a card) and to continue taking action after the campaign ends, there is a pack of thirty case-sheets and guidance sheets focusing on some of the individuals featured in the greetings card campaign. Further details are given on the reverse of the sheets, along with suggestions of action that can be taken. The sheets can be photocopied and are suitable for display; a folder to keep them in can be ordered separately.

An A3 size poster is available and has a blank space for you to fill in the details of an event you are organising in relation to the campaign, such as a card-writing session. A bilingual Welsh/English poster is also available. Like last year, you can order an A2 world map showing photographs of the various countries where the individual cases are situated.

All of these resources are free of charge and can be ordered online. Details are available on the website at http://amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10673 .

Please take part in any way you can, and thank you for reading.

Originally published on Ciao under my username denella.

Summary: Send greetings cards to political prisoners and others in danger.