Ealing Amnesty International Group

The group is fortunate to have Benny Wenda coming to speak to the group about the human rights situation in West Papua.

Amnesty have published this digest about the dreadful Human Rights situation in West Papua.

When : Tuesday March 1st 7pm

Where: St John’s Church, Mattock Lane, W13 9LA

The Vine room – the entrance is in Broomfield Place, take the stairs or ramp from the street directly into the room. Full disabled access

Lead by a trainer from Amnesty HQ this workshop will help the group to understand the ways in which we can take action on behalf of individuals.

It will help us to take a fresh look at our casework so we can involve more people and think more creatively for individuals at risk.

Our group had a stall on the 31st of July – 1st of August at the Jazz Festival in Walpole Park.

There were human rights petitions, food and children activities.

Last 27th of June, our group took the streets in Ealing in commemoration of the Tiananmen massacre, happened 20 years ago in China.

Here a couple of photograps and the report from a member:

“We did the China campaign action on Saturday. Attached are a couple of photos.
It felt like it was worth doing and it probably did raise awareness to some extent but the public did appear to me to be a bit wary and reluctant to engage with us – Catherine”

As part of Refuge week Ealing group members participated on 20th of June in the march calling for an end to the destitution of refused asylum seekers.

Here is a report from one of the group members:

“The march was good – I was very pleased with the turnout from our group, as about 5/6 people showed up. We also managed to get our photograph taken with our new banner and Kate Allen ( Director of AI UK). We marched along from Embankment to Trafalgar Square where there were a few speeches and talks. I think it was fantastic that we had a presence there as it was quite a small amount of people overall – Kirstin “

On saturday 27th September 4 ladies dressed in Guantanamo Bay suits and masks were marched through Ealing centre by Nicoletta and I. Heres how it went:

We began by stopping outside Whsmith and old and young were brought to a standstill. Many people took information and asked questions. Lots of people had heard of GB and of Amnesty and were interested. Nicoletta did a sturdy job answering questions. Photos were taken and people gaped. It was brilliant!

I barked orders at the 4 and shouted about the campaigns goals and the misconceptions from the media. People listened!

Children took stickers, young people took leaflets promising to check it out online. Older people wished us luck and blessed us for doing something about it – they too took information.

Of course we met with some opposition. A couple of people out of the whole busy centre is not much. They shouted at us or tutted but their banter made the action even more successful to get people riled up and to become informed about it was part of the goal.

On the whole the action was a success and we are eager to do it next month. I hope you can join us. I wonder how many people would stop if they saw 20 prisoners in their town centre?

Thanks

Amanda

Pub Quiz in the North Star on Monday 19th May 2008 at 8pm.

This was a great success! we had over 60 people taking part and the vibe was buzzing. Michael, our compere was tops and a good time was had by all.

Thanks to the North Star and we are definitely going to do the quiz again!

The group went on the road with a stall for the campaign: Stop violence against women

Table 1: Amnesty catalogues, game activity: give your hand to the campaign, write a wish.

Table 2: Fund raising with hand made jewellery, biscuits, guess games

Where: in front of Iceland, Ealing Broadway

When: on the 8th March, from 10am until 4pm

Contact: Amanda mandcalver@yahoo.co.uk