Engaged with issues of global importance: Service with lots
of Creativity
October 2012
I have been actively participating in the Zurich Amnesty
International English issues group we meet once or twice a month in Zurich on a
Tuesday evening to discuss recent Human Rights violations, plan events and
write, sign and send off letters. This takes place in the Zurich regional
Amnesty headquarters. It’s a very interesting group and I am very glad to be
involved in it after running ICS’s Human Rights Club last year.
The other members are professional men and women
who all live in Zürich with a range of jobs including biologists and IT
specialists. At first I was worried about participating in discussions because
I didn't want to say the wrong thing. I also felt rather out of place as all
the participants were significantly older than me. Because the meetings take
place in the heart of Zurich often quite late in the evening it has been
challenging to fit it in with homework and other commitments but so far I have
managed to attend every meeting.
Recently as part of the issues group I helped plan an
event for Amnesty International in Zurich to mark the International Day Against
the Death Penalty. This event took us quite a few weeks to plan, as we were to
coordinate the event with other Amnesty groups in Zurich. It was also important
to consider the ethical implications of each element of the day, at first we
found it difficult to find a unique selling point of the event without making
it comical. Originally we wanted to put on some kind of guessing game involving
current death row convicts but we felt it was insensitive to make a game out of
the difficult and taboo subject of capital punishment.
Eventually we decided on a game we felt confident was
not insensitive but instead provocative and eye opening. I volunteered along
with my friend Melanie to bake 100 cupcakes to draw in punters and provide advertising
for the event, because nothing is more appealing than free cupcakes. However
the week before the event was jam-packed with assessments and tests. So it took
a mammoth baking session spanning 5 hours of the Friday night before the event
to bake the 100 cupcakes let them cool and ice them. It was quite a feat. The
next morning we had the even trickier task of transporting the cupcakes. Luckily
with help from our parents we managed to get all the cupcakes down to the Neiderdorf
in one piece.
I am pleased to say the event was a huge success,
everyone who came to the stand had many questions and I dare say each person
learn't something new that day. Lots of people signed up to donate to the
Amnesty International and some even expressed interest in joining the local
issues group. It was challenging not only to answer questions about the death
penalty and its ethical complications but also to fulfill the promise of baking
100 cupcakes. I felt very proud of both Melanie and myself for what we
accomplished that day.
Below are some photos of the baking processes and the
event. Baking photos are my own however event photos have been taken from the
amnesty local group website.
Ingredients for our Bake-a-thon
Pictures from the Death Penalty Event
Saturday, October 13th 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment