The East Devon Amnesty International group are inviting Sidmouth residents to join them on Thursday, December 2 to write letters of hope and solidarity to political prisoners across the world.
They are holding a letter-writing session at Twyford House in Coburg Road from 2.30pm till 4.30pm. Cards, information and seasonal refreshments will be provided in a Covid-safe space.
The group is highlighting two cases this year. Indigenous leader and teacher Bernardo Caal Xol in Guatemala was jailed without trial for leading the Maya Q’eqchi community in a fight to protect their sacred river from destruction by hydroelectric dams.
Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan is on hunger strike in jail after she was sentenced to four years for reporting how brutally Chinese authorities were treating families of victims of the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan in 2020.
Campaign organiser Maureen Hackett said: “It’s a chance for everyone as Christmas approaches to show people who are fighting to protect freedom and the environment that they are not forgotten.”
This is the 20th year of Amnesty International’s Write For Rights campaign. Each year the charity focuses on up to a dozen individual cases, and each year sees people released and others given heart by the support shown in letters from all over the world.
More details on the East Devon Amnesty Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/601880843528421
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