Sutton Amnesty’s letter-writing stall at the Manor Park Fete turned out to be yet another success story. Despite a short interruption for rain, the public signed a total of 122 letters as follows: 33 letters on the case of journalist Maria Ponomarenko in Russia, 31 letters for rapper Toomaj Salehi in Iran, 30 letters for blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah in Egypt and 28 letters for human rights lawyer Dr Mohammed al-Roken in the UAE.

The event is a great way to demonstrate what Amnesty does best, applying pressure on governments committing human rights violations by asking the public to write letters or sign petitions. It is also a great opportunity for us to explain one-on-one what Amnesty does. As a result, eight people signed up to receive further information from the group. Thanks to group member Clive, a useful link was made with Jeff Richards, the Town Crier, Fete organiser and lay-minister at the St Nicholas Church in Sutton, who suggested exploring a possible collaboration with his church.

Another important aspect is that the event provided opportunities for photographs, which are useful for publicity and social media work. Thanks to Auriel, our “in-house” photographer and acting press officer, the Sutton Amnesty group achieved excellent coverage in this week’s South London Press, with the headline “Sutton Amnesty call for prisoners release at village fete”, together with a picture of several group members and the Town Crier. The link can be found here: https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/news/sutton-amnesty-call-for-prisoners-release-at-village-fete/