Amnesty International's Human Rights
Education Service Corps (HRESC) trains university students to
facilitate a 9 week human rights course in a DC public high school.
Facilitators will receive educational training and curriculum, attend
support meetings, and gain a unique teaching and volunteer experience.
Last
week, our facilitators taught about the Death Penalty. One student was
so enraged by the injustice of the death penalty that she exclaimed,
"This makes me so sick, the way they kill people makes me sick."
Another student was so moved by the Troy Davis case that she grabbed
extra petitions from her teacher so she could make her friends sign it at
lunch time. The teacher continues to print out more blank petitions for
his students.
Because
of HRESC, many of our students are engaging with human rights issues such as
poverty, genocide, violence against women, and the death penalty every week.
Our facilitators are exposing them to new ideas and helping the
students turn their frustrations into passion for human rights work.
Be a
part of educating students in DC about timely human rights issues. Make
a difference and sign up to teach human rights for Spring 2008 now.
For
more information or to apply to be a facilitator contact Janet Mui at MA2in...@aiusa.org or
(202) 544-0200 x299.
2008 Board Elections
Get Ready to Vote
To
be eligible to vote in the 2008 Board elections you must be an individual
member of Amnesty International USA and have paid your dues or received a
dues waiver between Jan. 1, 2007 and Jan. 31, 2008.
Petition Candidate Procedure for the 2008 Board Elections
If you would like to run for the Board but haven't been nominated you still
have a chance to run as a petition candidate. Petition candidates must
collect 100 signatures of current national dues paying AIUSA members
endorsing their candidacy (we recommend collecting 150 signatures to be
certain those who signed are current members), and submit a ballot statement.
All
original, signed petitions and the ballot statement must be received by Eva
Kadrey at AIUSA (5 Penn Plaza, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10001-4808) before 5 p.m. EST on Jan.
4, 2008. To request petition forms, you may contact a member of the Nominating
Committee or Eva Kadrey at e kad...@aiusa.org or 212-633-4287, fax:
212-627-1451. The petition form is also available online – http://www.amnestyusa.org/members/board/index.html .
Regional & National
Events
Close Guantanamo – Join us on January 11th!
January
11th 2008 marks the 6th anniversary of the first
detainee at Guantanamo.
Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court need to hear from the
American people that a sixth anniversary is unacceptable. 767 people
have been unjustly detained since the first transfer of detainees took place
in 2002.
We need you and your group members to attend a rally on the
National Mall to help us send a clear message to stop torture and close Guantanamo.
Event
details:
When:
11am on Friday, January 11th, 2008
Where:
National Mall, Washington, DC (Smithsonian Metro)
Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting (AGM) is in our region this
year!
This
year's theme is Ignite Hope, Advocate Change.
Every
year the AGM unites AIUSA members and staff with prominent human rights
activists and international guests to provide a forum to discuss AIUSA's
initiatives to prevent human rights violations around the world. This
year AIUSA will embark on a Congressional lobby day (Monday, April 28th).
To
celebrate early you can register at the Early Bird Rate (a $25 savings)!
For More information and to register for the AGM visit: www.amnestyusa.org/agm
Local Events
2008 DC State Meeting –
Saturday, February 9th
Your State Meeting is coming up!
Help
us to make the 2008 DC State Meeting the best yet! Please take a few
minutes to let us know what you hope to get out of this year's meeting, what
topics most interest you and your group members, and how we can best meet
your needs by filling out a QUICK survey at:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Kv10r5tUZPD_2fV1gGZ9FAGA_3d_3d
Save
Public Housing in New Orleans
Solidarity Rally at National HUD Office
Join
the Advancement Project, the Hip Hop Caucus, Empower DC, One DC, local
affordable housing organizations, and other community groups for a solidarity
rally to support efforts to save public housing in New Orleans from being
demolished and to stop the displacement of low and moderate-income residents
from both New Orleans and DC from a lack of affordable housing.
When: Thursday,
December 13th
Noon – 1 pm
Where: At the National HUD office:
451 7th Street SW (near D st)
2 blocks from the L'Enfant
Plaza Metro stop
Volunteer Opportunities
Mid Atlantic Regional
Planning Group (RPG) Seeks a New Member
The
Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Group seeks one (1) new member for a two-year
term beginning November 2007. The RPG is a volunteer body, which acts as
the voice of the membership and serves as an advisory board to the Regional
Office. The RPG charter provides most of the job description http://www.amnestyusa.org/events/mid-atlantic/marrpgcharter.pdf
. Our tradition in this region is
to seek RPG members who have few other AIUSA volunteer leadership
responsibilities, so RPG work can be their primary focus. Members need
to spend several weekends (Fall leadership meeting, one all-day RPG
organizing strategy meeting, the regional conference, your state leadership
meeting, and on monthly conference calls (usually one to one and half hours)
on RPG business. RPG members are also strongly encouraged to attend the
Annual General Meeting (March 2008). We are particularly looking for
youth/student activist from the States of West Virginia in order to maintain
geographical diversity of the group. Non-West Virginians AI
student/youth members are encouraged to apply! If you have any
questions, please email Kerry Kauffman (kerr...@hotmail.com ) or
Jonathan Cohen (jonatha...@hotmail.com) , the
current co-chairs. Please apply by including the following information:
Why
do you want to join the RPG and what qualities would you bring to the RPG
work?
What
is your AIUSA experience? What leadership roles have you held?
What
other responsibilities (AI and non-AI) will you have in next two years?
What gives you confidence that you will be able to meet your PG
responsibilities in addition to these responsibilities?
What
is the greatest challenge that faces AIUSA and/or the Mid-Atlantic Region?
How would you help solve/address it?
Please send all applications to
Folabi
Olagbaju
Amnesty
International USA-MidAtlantic Regional Office
600
Pennsylvania Avenue S.E. 5th Floor
Washington,
DC 20003
Phone
202.544.0200 x284
fola...@aiusa.org
