Activist training to rally campus

The UNM branch of Amnesty International is a student organization trying to balance changing the world with bolstering group membership.

The UNM chapter, according to founder and co-president Jon Dunn, is part of a global effort to mobilize citizens to pressure government officials to stop human rights abuses.

Adrian Groenendyk, publicity coordinator, said the group’s first major event of the year is Saturday, and those interested must register by noon today.

“We’re hosting Student Activist Training,” Groenendyk said. “We’re using it as a way to recruit new members for our group and to make current members more effective, but it’s basically to help anybody. It will give anyone who wants to be an activist the training they need to be more efficient and productive.”

During the all-day training event, activists from across the state will be trained by staff members from Amnesty International’s western region. Activists will learn how to build advocacy groups, plan events and lobby for different human rights issues.

Despite a need for greater membership, though, co-president Adrian Carver said the organization is off to a productive start.

“We’ve gotten a lot of interest from undergraduates, graduates, faculty — people who want to be involved who know what Amnesty International is and who are passionate about the things we’re talking about,” Carver said.
Since its beginning in January, the group has participated in several activist efforts including the “Counter Terror with Justice Campaign” last semester.

Dunn said the event focused on ending torture, closing Guantanamo Bay and holding torture practitioners accountable.
“Amnesty International was trying to get each of its group organizations to send 244 postcards to the White House representing the 244 detainees who are still held in Guantanamo, and our UNM branch ended up sending the 244 cards,” Dunn said.

As a way to harken back to its roots, Carver said members take time to send handwritten letters to politicians encouraging them to put an end to various injustices. He said Amnesty International got its start writing letters in 1961.

“We just did a letter writing for people getting evicted from their homes in Zimbabwe, something that’s been ongoing for several years now,” Dunn said. “A few of our members wrote letters to government officials over there asking them to immediately halt the evictions or to work with these families to make sure they have a home that’s supportable.”
Carver said there’s power in numbers when righting the wrongs of the world.

“Individually petitioning our government officials through letter writing and phone calls is not the only thing that’s going to make a change,” Carver said. “We’re part of a more global, more comprehensive effort to make these changes, and that’s how I justify what I do. I’m part of a comprehensive group of advocates that’s working together to end injustices.”