Highlights of 2012

2012 has been a busy year for Beeston Amnesty. Here are some of the highlights:

• We have taken a stall to several events in 2012, which is useful for both fundraising and for increasing awareness of Amnesty and human rights work, including the Green Festival at the Arboretum on 10th June, Beeston Carnival on 14th July, Nottinghamshire Pride 28th and 29th July, and the Write for Rights greetings card campaign stall by the Ten Bell in Beeston on 8 December. After a quiet start the stall was very successful: 96 cards were written and £77 raised in donations, which covered the postage costs.

• Our pub quiz at the Commercial Inn was a successful and well-attended event; the venue was good and the staff helpful. We raised just over £200, and many people told us how much they enjoyed it!

• We have been updating our webpage more frequently, and now also have a Facebook group and Twitter account.

• In May we had a useful and interesting training session on campaigning against the arms trade. The scheduled trainer was unable to be there for health reasons, and Alison Rowe kindly stepped in to run the session.

• Letter-writing has continued throughout the year, and the 2012 total was 398 letters sent to 46 countries.

• Unfortunately our scheduled meeting with Anna Soubry (MP for Broxtowe) in October 2012 had to be cancelled at the last minute, because of a double-booking at Parliament. We are in process of rearranging the meeting for Spring 2013.

• The Nottingham group is still going strong, and joined us at the Green Festival and Pride.

• Some of us did our Christmas shopping from the Amnesty catalogue - we sent three big orders this year, totalling £488.98 with group discount.

Thanks to the many people who have participated in events and supported us during 2012; we hope to help make 2013 a good year for human rights.