kabarsula The letters that gave five human rights activists hope bandar SLOT INDONESIA
For the past 25 years, Amnesty International’s Write for Rights campaign has been bringing people together to fight for justice and dignity. Millions of people have changed the lives of those whose human rights had been stripped from them, giving them hope in times of darkness.
Amnesty’s brilliant supporters have written letters both to those whose rights are being violated, and the people in authority who can make change happen.
For many, a simple letter made so much difference, letting them know that there were people out there rooting for them.
Here, five people who were part of Amnesty’s Write for Rights campaign share a letter that meant the most to them…
Wendy Galarza
Wendy Galarza was shot after attending a protest in Cancún, Mexico. She almost lost her life speaking out for women’s rights in her country. She lodged a complaint against the police, though it took months for the State Prosecutor to accept her additional evidence, which included clothing showing bullet holes from the day of the protest. While the case continues, Wendy has set up a collective with other persons who were assaulted that day.
People across the world came together to demand justice and support Wendy in Write for Rights 2021.
“These letters are among my favourites, though it was difficult to choose them from the vast number I received.
“One key reason is the hope I felt knowing my case had reached as far as Taiwan – a place that sent some of the most creative letters, most of which were written by teenagers.
“This particular letter inspired me with its clear message reminding us that ‘no one should face gender-based violence.’ It led me to reflect on the main reason I attended the march on 9 November 2020: to raise my voice and demand justice for the femicide of Bianca Alejandrina Lorenzana Alvarado in Cancún in the State of Quintana Roo.
“I would also like to thank everyone who wrote a letter to show their support; though it may sound like a cliché, those words provided me with emotional strength and became a beacon of hope on a dark path toward justice.”
Germain Rukuki
On 30 June 2021, Burundian human rights defender Germain Rukuki was released from prison four years into a 32-year sentence. He had been found guilty on a number of sham charges relating to his human rights work. He was jailed before getting a chance to hold his youngest child, born just weeks after he was arrested in July 2017.
Through Write for Rights 2020, hundreds of thousands of people around the world demanded Germain’s release.
“I chose this pink letter with the drawing of an elephant, balloons and a little purple heart. But more than the drawings, it was the words that touched me and spoke to me. The phrase ‘you are strong’ immediately takes me back to the moment I was arrested. It was a very difficult moment. I was trying to hold myself together. To leave the house without alarming my family and those around me. Deep down, it felt like a farewell, like I would never see them again. But I did not want to show that, and I did not.
“In that moment, I felt truly strong and perhaps a bit extraordinary. What stays with me are the words ‘strong and extraordinary’, which take me back to everything I went through that day and during my detention.
“It wasn’t easy to choose one letter. Each letter is important to me. I received them after my release. In prison, we were not allowed to receive letters or cards, but I was well aware of Amnesty International’s Write for Rights campaign, and the authorities saw the wave of international solidarity.
“One day, I would like to create a work of art from all these letters, cards and messages. Each letter has a place in my heart.”
Magai Matiop Ngong
Magai Matiop Ngong was a 15-year-old schoolboy in South Sudan when he was sentenced to death in 2017 for murder. Magai told the judge the death was an accident and that he was only a child; despite this, Magai faced trial for capital murder without any access to a lawyer. More than 700,000 actions were taken for Magai during Write for Rights 2019, and in March 2022 the High Court agreed that given his age at the time of the conviction, he should be released.
“Out of all the letters I received during the Write for Rights campaign, this one stayed with me the most. Joy was only 19, yet she chose to believe in my future when I was struggling to believe in it myself. She didn’t pretend to understand everything I had been through; she simply reminded me that I was not alone.
“She was a stranger who knew nothing about the person I would become, yet she believed in my future when my own future felt uncertain. Today, her words remind me that sometimes a little hope from one person can keep another person alive inside.
“Today, having survived that chapter of my life and being able to live the future she believed in, her words feel even more powerful. She believed in a future she could not see. I am living that future today.”
Bernardo Caal Xol
Bernardo Caal Xol, a Guatemalan teacher and environmental activist, worked tirelessly to defend communities affected by hydroelectric projects on the Cahabón river, in northern Guatemala. In November 2018, he was sentenced to more than seven years in prison on bogus charges aimed at preventing his human rights work. During Write for Rights 2021 more than half a million actions were taken for Bernardo and in March 2022 he was released.
“The student tells me that in Canada, they have many rivers and lakes. I love knowing that they take care of and protect them there. Being in prison is painful; it’s torture. But the student tells me that I’m a strong and intelligent man and that I deserve all the rivers in the world. I no longer feel the pain of prison because she tells me I’m strong and gives me an award: ‘I deserve the rivers of the world.’
“She inspires me – she wants to be a lawyer in the future ‘because she feels the injustices after learning about my case.’ She is outraged by the Guatemalan government’s criminalization of me; she writes a very profound letter.”
Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul
Rung – which means “rainbow” in Thai – became politically active while studying sociology and anthropology at university in the capital, Bangkok. She bravely took part in protests for social and political change throughout 2020. By August, she had become a protest leader. Accused of provoking unrest, she was arrested in March 2021 and imprisoned for 60 days. The authorities denied her bail six times. In defiance, she went on a 38-day hunger strike and was released on 30 April 2021. Rung faces dozens of charges and, if found guilty, life imprisonment. She now lives in exile, outside of Thailand.
Rung featured in Write for Rights 2021, with people around the world calling for her freedom and sending her cards and letters of solidarity.
“Every letter that was written and sent to me while I was imprisoned meant so much to me. Every handwritten message, every drawing, every colour painted across those poster-sized sheets of paper gave me a sense of hope. They reminded me that I was not alone in the movement I was part of.
“When you are in prison, it is incredibly difficult to imagine hope. Everywhere I looked, there was only gray, white, and a sense of bleakness, inside a small, square cell crowded with strangers. Your letters brought some colour from the outside world into my life and brought a little brightness back into my heart. They reminded me that beyond those prison walls, there were still people who saw me, people who knew what I was going through, and people who stood with me.
“With so many letters arriving, they did more than simply give me strength. They also sent a powerful message to those in power that people around the world were watching what was happening in Thailand. “They were watching what was being done to me and to the students who had taken to the streets to demand change. I believe that this international attention and pressure was one of the factors that eventually led to me being granted bail, a right we should have had from the beginning.
“Today, even though I had to leave Thailand and live in exile, I still think about and feel deeply grateful to everyone who helped me, to everyone who wrote a letter, drew a picture, added colour to a page, and sent those pieces of hope across the prison walls to reach me.
“Perhaps to the person who wrote it, it was just one letter. But to me, receiving it on a day when hope was almost impossible to see, that letter meant more than you could ever imagine. I also just found out that, even today, people are still sending letters to me at Amnesty International Thailand’s office. I honestly cannot put into words how that makes me feel.”
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