Sutton Amnesty at the Carshalton EcoFair - 28 August 2023

The Carshalton EcoFair 2023 took place on Bank Holiday Monday, 28 August 2023, and was both very successful and enjoyable. Thank you to AnnaRita, Ayako, Bev, Clive, Marcela, Richard, Sima and Wayne for their enormous contribution and enthusiasm.  A special mention for our Chair for his 'NASA levels' of planning, preparation and implementation which made the day run so smoothly.

In aggregate visitors to the stall signed 200 letters distributed evenly between four of our campaigns: the Group's two Prisoners of Conscience, Alaa Abdel Fattah (Egypt) and Dr Mohamed al-Roken (UAE), as well as Sacha Skochilenko (Russia) and the apparent poisoning of Iranian schoolgirls.  In addition many signatories added their weight to the appeal for Mohamed al-Roken to be released prior to COP28. All our volunteers grew in confidence as the day went on, explaining what the letters were for and what we were asking people to do with them.

Letter-writing stalls are a great way to demonstrate what Amnesty does best, applying pressure on governments committing human rights violations by getting the public to write letters or sign petitions. They are also a great opportunity for us to explain one-on-one what Amnesty does, to generate publicity, fundraise and importantly, recruit new members.

Twelve potential new members signed up with us - all are very welcome!

Our group also made contact with the Sri Lankan community in Sutton through Naomi Aruliah, Chair of the charity Child Aid Lanka.