Write for Rights Community Event

People wonder in our society if one person can truly make a difference. Give yourself and others, a gift of hope this year and celebrate International Human Rights Day in Downers Grove. On Sunday, December 11 from 11:00 a.m. -2:00 p.m., Downers Grove First United Methodist Church (DGFUMC) will host an Amnesty International Write for Rights event for the community to come together and call on governments worldwide to protect and release victims of human rights abuses. This Interfaith event is just one of thousands that will be carried out throughout the United States and more than 50 countries worldwide.

Write for Rights is the world’s largest letter writing event. Every year around International Human Rights Day on December 10th, hundreds of thousands of people worldwide write letters on behalf of prisoners of conscience, human rights defenders and others at risk of human rights violations. Our messages help convince government officials to release people imprisoned for expressing their opinion, support human rights defenders, stop torture, commute death sentences and end other human rights abuses.

This year’s cases include prisoner of conscience and human rights defender Ilham Tohti in China, a professor serving life in jail for fighting discrimination; prisoner of conscience Shawkan in Egypt, a photojournalist jailed for doing his job; and Annie Alfred, a child with albinism hunted for her body parts, and other people with albinism in Malawi.

Hannah Hyzy, a senior in the DGFUMC youth program, began writing several years ago. This year she is organizing the event. “I am organizing Write for Rights in my community with the help of my church as part of an Interfaith effort, because I cannot stand by while justice is ignored or skewed for the people in these cases. People are jailed, tortured and even killed because of who they are and what they believe,” said Hyzy. “One person can make a difference. I know sending my letters shines a light on human rights abuses, I have seen their results, and received a letter back from one of the cases last year. We, us, working together, have the power to help people like ten year old Annie Alfred. How can we not?”

Letters have the power to change lives, and throughout Amnesty International’s 55 years of human rights activism, many people have been freed because of the action taken by activists who participate in Write for Rights. Several people from last year’s Write for Rights campaign have already been freed, including Congolese pro-democracy activists Fred Bauma and Yves Makwambala, human rights activists once facing the death penalty; Albert Woodfox, subjected to over four decades of solitary confinement in Louisiana; and Phyoe Phyoe Aung, a prisoner of conscience and student leader in Myanmar.

This is a free event and all in the community are invited to come hear about the interesting cases, chat with others, or contemplate these cases over a warm drink, and write one or more letters for those who are in need of justice and compassion. You can learn about the cases and sign-up online at write.amnestyusa.org.

Sunday, December 11, 2016 - 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Downers Grove First United Methodist Church

1032 Maple Ave

Downers Grove, IL 60516

630.968.7120 - dgfumc.org