Letters for Amnesty

On this website, Dutch Amnesty letter writers share their experiences. Some of them wrote long ago, others are still active. They are both positive and negative about Amnesty’s shift from airmail to email, social media and SMS. What’s your opinion on this? Share it with us at Share your story.

Minke Stoer
Courtesy of private archive of Minke Stoer

Amnesty actions are now organized with the help of social media. This makes it much easier to take action in a fast way. – Minke, writing since the 1970s for Amnesty in Sint Nicolaasga and Leeuwarden, 2013

 
 
 
 
 

In the old days, we wrote letters in a group, which sometimes evoked discussions. This resulted in a sense of connectedness among the letter writers, for one goal. Now there is only a virtual connection. Do we still have the feeling of being members of one organization when we only take action from our own computers? One needs some fantasy for that. – Ellie, writing since the 1980s for Amnesty in Almere, 2013

Annemies Hendriks
Courtesy of private archive of Annemies Hendriks

Thanks to more technical possibilities, Amnesty International now has a more professional apparatus with effective actions. – Annemies, writing since the 1980s for Amnesty in Zaanstad, 2013

 
 
 
 
 

But I am not the type to grumble without doing anything useful. The actions presented by Amnesty, apparently are what I can do in this situation. – Ellie, writing since the 1980s for Amnesty in Almere, 2013

Mea van Tilburg
Courtesy of private archive of Mea van Tilburg

Since the advent of computers, letters have been replaced with emails and SMS for a large part. You can click on a button of send a text message with YES, and then you have ‘done your job’. I doubt the effectiveness of this.– Mea, writing since the 1970s for Amnesty  in Amstelveen, 2013

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