Write for Rights
Dear Editor,
It’s such a simple thing to send Season’s Greetings it takes just a few minutes. Yet it can mean all the difference to a prisoner of conscience in a lonely cell, or to family members hoping for the return home of a relative who has disappeared.
People like Dr Tun Aung in Burma, a community leader who tried to quell violence, suffers ill health and is refused medical care. Dr Tun Aung was sentenced last year to 17 years imprisonment after an unfair trial. Or like Miriam López who was attacked by soldiers in Mexico, raped, tortured and imprisoned for seven months without trial and released.
Each year, Amnesty International, Mid-Down Group, meets together to send Christmas cards to such people around the world. Sending a card with a simple, personal greeting is a powerful way to show support for someone facing human rights abuse. Every card matters.
The cards bring comfort and hope; they offer encouragement, support and raise spirits. Above all, they are a sign showing that people care and that the individual is not forgotten.
The cards can also make an impression on police officers, prison staff and political authorities and that can help to improve the way in which they treat individuals at risk.
We will be at Daisies Saturday, 30 November, in the St. Patrick Centre between 2-3.30 pm with cards, envelopes and pens signing 150 cards and will arrange to send them. We invite all who would like to change their kind thoughts into action and send a card to come along and join us.
Downpatrick’s own folk choir, Voices of Lecale, will be there singing Christmas Carols and raising funds for the charity PIPS, a charity for suicide prevention and support of bereaved family following a suicide.
Yours,
Philip Nye Chairman Mid-Down Group]]>
