Parkland’s Amnesty International Club, a group of students who focus on advocating for human rights worldwide, has recently taken on a project to help people who have been wrongly incarcerated all over the globe by writing letters to different nations leader’s with the intention of persuading them to drop all charges against those have been unjustly put in jail. At the club’s last meeting, members wrote over 50 letters collectively. In addition, last week they encouraged students during all lunches to partake in the opportunity to help those in need by writing letters during their lunch period.
Aadarshini Ramoju (11), the secretary of Parkland’s Amnesty International Club, claims that prioritizing this issue at Parkland is important because, “It teaches advocacy and informs people about issues worldwide as opposed to just in America. Amnesty pushes for change, progress, and freedom, which all schools should support.” In addition to educating students about problems they may not be exposed to on a day to day basis, the Write for Rights campaign aims to help students develop a different perspective on the world by broadening students’ horizons about events outside the US. Ramoju says, “For example, we have case studies for Vietnamese and Saudi Arabian people. We talk about growth and constantly strive for empowerment of the people rather than systems.”
Three people who the club has focused on writing letters for are Manahel al-Otaibi, a Saudi-Arabian women’s rights activist who has been sentenced to eleven years in jail for openly expressing women’s rights online and posting pictures of herself without wearing a traditional clothing, Leonard Peltier, a 78 year old Native American who has been incarcerated in the US for nearly half a century on two ill-supported charges of murder, and Nguyen Thuy Hanh, a human rights activist from Viet Nam imprisoned on charges of spreading information that “opposes” the Republic of Viet Nam.
Overall, the Amnesty International Club’s Write for Rights event gives PHS students a new and unique opportunity to get involved in prominent issues around the world and deepen their education on international issues.
