Amnesty held Write for Rights after a two year hiatus, Julie Hoang, senior and club treasurer said. This year Amnesty International USA aims to gather 350,000 letters to continue this success.
Write for Rights returned to Amnesty club from Dec. 6 to Dec. 11 and surpassed the expectations of Amnesty clubs members. On Dec. 9, senior Shannon Minor said they collected 377 letters as of Friday surpassing their goal of 250 letters for the week. ?[Amnesty club] had so many responses from everyone,? senior Ratnameghana Munnaluri said.
?I think it is good that we have advocates for human rights,? junior Jonathan Gracia said. ?It is an effective way to promote human rights.?
Hoang proposed the event and in conjunction with Minor, one of the club?s copresidents, they organized the event, senior Caitlin Greene said. ?We wanted to bring more awareness to the fact our organization actually exists,? she said in regards to Amnesty club?s goals. After its two-year absence, Minor said, ?[Amnesty club] wanted the whole school involved.?
The event itself was a protest against the various Human Rights abuses around the world. The Amnesty club focused on the human rights abuses of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Guatemala, China and the United States with issues ranging from protesting against the unjust incarceration of activists to extreme cases, such as the systematic rape conducted by foreign militaries.
?It probably made a lot more people in the school realize issues outside of our high school world,? said sophomore Jessica Frye, who hopes to become a member of Amnesty club next year.
The event reached major success in 2009 when Iranian authorities released Hana Abdi, a woman?s rights activist from prison.