From 5 pm on the 7 December till 5 pm on 8 December, in recognition of International Human rights Day, I participated in the Write for Rights campaign. This campaign is operated by Amnesty International which is a London-based non-governmental organization (NGO) extremely focused on human rights issues. This organization claims to have over 7 million members and supporters around the world. The Write for Rights campaign is where, for example, myself, can come and write letters that appeal and advocate for specific human rights violation cases, urging governments to recognize their role and responsibility in the situation and encouraging them to take effective action. Some could even stay overnight to finish their letters. UWCSEA urged us to become the voice for these people through this “writeathon”. Last year the UWCSEA community wrote over 2000 letters and they want to beat this record this year.
Although I wish I had time to write letters to all the issues that we could write about, I prioritized myself to write a letter to the government of Myanmar and Madagascar. My first letter was directed to Madagascar to help Clovis Razafimalala who is an environmental activist in Madagascar. Madagascar is a burst of life and extraordinary beauty as 75% of its animals are in fact found nowhere else in the world. Rare plants that include over a thousand types of orchids and the amazing rosewood forests where Clovis, his wife and two young daughters live. However, the black market is using this forest to make luxury products for the rich which is a billion dollar industry, therefore, causing a lot of power. In addition to that, Clovis has unfortunately faced harassment, attacks and criminal charges and was recently charged for allegedly encouraging protesters to loot an administrative building despite not attending the protest and is now at risk. The traffickers desperately want to silence him and are only in person fighting against powerful and influential forces. As you can see, I am very determined to help this cause as I am a strong activist for the environment.
As I mentioned before in an earlier post, I attended the conference about the Rohingya crisis so decided to write about this. In addition to this, I would also like to talk about Sun-Dac which is a daycare in Singapore for the mentally ill. My mentor class has contributed to the Reverse Calendar Donations that will help the centre get spiced up.
Courtesy of the images and information and Quick Reference:
Amnesty International
Louisa Radford for the image on the OLP.
