AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

  Bromley & Orpington Group

April 2012 NEWSLETTER

 This Month's draft letter

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We were delighted to welcome Amanda Weisbaum, Programme Director of War Child to the meeting. What becomes of the children of conflict after the war has finished? War Child, founded in the UK in 1993 was set up to offer protection and psycho-social support in some of the world’s war torn countries, such as Bosnia where it began its life. The agency now runs projects in five countries – Afghanistan, Iraq, Uganda, DRC and the Central African Republic (‘the largest country you’ve never heard of’ as Amanda called it). 19 staff and 129 workers in the field provided support to 28,016 children and their communities in 2010 through a ‘rights’ based approach to delivering support, rather than a ‘needs’ based one. In the capital of DRC, Kinshasa, War Child runs a ‘night bus’ to support street girls, offering counselling, health advice and a listening ear – during the day the agency offers support via a drop in centre, reaching girls that were previously ‘unreachable’ with great success. In Iraq, war Child is refurbishing schools and getting kids back into education. They are also leading the charge for children’s rights in what remains a very dangerous country. War Child is now looking to expand into its sixth country, as its work of support, protection and rehabilitation is achieving great results. CAR is surrounded by war torn states, and has been affected by the migration of Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) fighters – in the capital Bangui, War Child supports street kids and in the south, vulnerable kids caught up in LRA fighting. Listening to Amanda was inspirational. More details about supporting War Child can be found at www.warchild.org.uk

Monthly Letter; Student Poet at Risk

 Our monthly letter concerns a 20 year old Bahraini student poet, Aayat Al-Qormozi who was arrested and tortured for reciting poetry during the pro-reform rallies in February 2011. She was sentenced by a military court but this was later stopped ‘pending further notice’. Aayat is now in a legal limbo, unable to return to her studies. Over 1,000 people have been arrested for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression in Bahrain, and five are known to have died. Please sign, address and post the enclosed letter. This will cost 76p to post.  

Dignity and Human Rights

Rene gave a Dignity campaign update. Amnesty are focusing on corporate accountability in the run up to the Shell AGM in May, calling on the company to initiate a ‘clean up’ in the Niger Delta. The Delta is one of the world’s most important natural wetlands and home to 31m people, but it is also highly polluted from decades of oil spills. We signed a petition to the Chief Executive, part of a global Amnesty campaign to be presented to the company. You can get involved at www.amnesty.org.uk. We also signed a letter to the Saudi Ambassador calling on the authorities to relax their draconian policies that prevent women from taking part in normal society. The focus has been a campaign led by Saudi women to allow them to drive; at present Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world to ban women from driving and they can be imprisoned for taking to the wheel; one woman was sentenced to ten lashes. There is an online action on the Amnesty website if you would like to support the brave women of Saudi Arabia.  

Present on 13^th March: Neville White, David Howkins, Shirley Henderson, Patrick Nield, Pat Easthaugh, Wendy Simmonds, Joan Williams, Vivien Glanz, Eleanor Ivens, Ted Burke, Rene Eastwood, Gladys Edmonds, Waltraut Gilchrist, Patrick McDonnell, Claire Ellis, Patsy Paine, Margaret Coppard, Simon Nash, Eve Fisher, Chris Purnell.  Kirsty and Tara Healey were welcomed to the meeting. Apologies: Mark Gill and Pamela Smith.

Meetings are held in the Wesley Room, Orpington Methodist Church, Sevenoaks Road, Orpington commencing at 7.30pm. E-mail aibromley@btinternet.com  website: www.aibromley.freeuk.com/