Jan Sosiak has been a member of the Belleville Amnesty International group for the past 25 years. The group gathers once a month at the Belleville Public Library to write letters on behalf of prisoners of conscience. Photo by Stephanie Clue, QNet News
By Stephanie Clue [1]
BELLEVILLE – The power of words can save lives, according to Amnesty International [2].
The organization has run Write for Rights [3] for the past 12 years. The main goal of the event is to send letters that will convince world leaders to release people who have been imprisoned for speaking out against their government’s practices – called “prisoners of conscience” by Amnesty International. Participants also write letters to persuade officials to stop the use of torture and end other human-rights abuses in their countries.
The Belleville Amnesty branch [4] has been holding monthly “urgent action letter-writing events” at the Belleville Public Library and John M. Parrott Art Gallery [5] since the fall of 2012, according to the library’s website. Before the group started to meet at the library, the members would go to each other’s homes. Jan Sosiak, the secretary of the group, has been a member for the last 25 years, and says there are 22 others in Belleville.
“I really believe in Amnesty and what they do, and when I retired in 2004 I got connected right away with the Amnesty group here,” she said. “I think if there’s a way we can make a difference peacefully, that’s the way to go.”
Every month Amnesty International Canada chooses the human-rights cases it thinks are the most critical and sends them out to branches across the country. People like Sosiak receive them and bring the cases to their writing groups. Each month there is usually a theme to the cases; this month’s is stopping the use of torture.
They hold the event in the library, Sosiak said, in the hope of getting more people involved. The group sends out about 30 letters a month, and the recipients are always different. The members write to presidents or high-ranking officials of the countries where the prisoners of conscience are being held.
But the campaign isn’t just about letters to government leaders. People can also send emails and cards to the prisoners themselves, Sosiak said. And you don’t have to attend the group’s meetings; you can write from your own home.
Sosiak and the rest of the group sometimes receive updates from Amnesty about the people they’ve written on behalf of. Occasionally, members will receive a message back from a freed prisoner. Not all of the updates are positive, however. Sometimes a person’s sentence can be extended instead of reversed, said Sosiak.
Marianne Chapelle joined Amnesty International 30 years ago. Photo by Stephanie Clue, QNet News
Marianne Chapelle, another member of the Belleville group and an Amnesty International member for 30 years, said her hope is that the people they write to will have the power to stop human-rights abuses in their countries.
Chapelle has volunteered all over the world with different organizations. She’s been to Cuba, the Philippines twice, and to Bangladesh with Sleeping Children Around the World [6], a charity that delivers bed kits to children in need.
She is grateful to have had even a tiny part in something so big, she said.
“As a Canadian, I feel it’s my obligation almost to do what little I can. You know, I’m not young – but I can write letters,” she said.
She hopes to continue writing for a long time.
“As long as this arthritic hand will let me, I will write.”