Every year write for rights gets bigger and better, and in 2016, Amnesty activists across the globe collected an astounding 3.4 million actions (and counting). Here in Australia, we gathered a phenomenal 125,000 actions! A massive thank you to all of you who helped us reach this staggering figure.
We’d like to give a big shout out to everyone who held events, wrote letters, took action online and participated in the global day of action on instagram and twitter. Your participation makes a real difference in the lives of the people we write for.
We smashed targets
Setting and reaching for targets can be difficult but when it comes to campaigns like write for rights we need to collect large volumes, we need to aim high! Reaching the exact target is not what is important, striving for it is and we did that in spades.
In 2016 all of the action centres across the country set targets of how many actions they could collect as well as choosing to pick one of the 9 cases to prioritise. What results we saw! All across the country action centres broke through their goals. NSW raised the bar by absolutely smashing their target of 3000 actions to collect a staggering 4535. This was all made possible because of the hard work of action groups setting both group and personal targets. Dorothy Bennett long term activist and volunteer in the ACT collected an astounding 543 actions. Thanks Dorothy and all the activists like you across the country your hard work and commitment saves lives.
Event highlights
Over 50 events were held across the country for write for rights in 2016. Action groups got really creative hosting literary evenings, letter writing marathons, making quilts and partnering with key organisations and speakers. Actions groups also successfully engaged with local media this year including the Alice Springs group who got an excellent write up of their event in the Centralian Advocate. Here is just a snapshot of some of the amazing work from across the country.
WA
The Mount Lawley group with support from Melville group and Women’s group members held 4 stalls at the Inglewood Night Markets over the write for rights period collecting a fantastic 528 actions.
Sophie Hartley Community organising assistant put on a fantastic end of year event focused on WA’s priority case of Maxima Acuna. with amazing speakers poet and author John Kinsella, Uranium free WA campaigner for the conservation council Mia pepper and director of UWA publishing Terri-ann White; many who attended this event wrote personal handwritten letters.
ACT
Braidwood action group in partnership with the local Country Women’s Association volunteers participated in the local quilt festival and made an amazing quilt for Annie in Malawi. The quilt was displayed at the market in festival week, and will be sent to Annie.
QLD and TAS
Both the QLD and TAS action centres took the opportunity to use their end of year celebration on Human RIghts day to take action for Write for Rights.
NSW
The Parramatta action group held a fantastic event focused around NSW priority case Eren Keskin. Over 200 people attended their event including a large representation from the Turkish disapora. A friend of Eren Keskin spoke.
Manly action group exceeded their target of 180 actions collecting a whopping 667 actions. Using their 30th anniversary as a way to launch the campaign, the group held a fantastic event at the local library which attracted new faces. The group also managed to get a story in the local paper.
NT
The Alice Springs group held a very successful W4R’s marathon at the Watertank cafe in Alice. The group collected a fantastic 80 actions including a handwritten letter from famous actor Sam Neil.
