Thanks to those who turned out yesterday, and again thanks to the kind folk of Wareham. Despite a cold wind and what seemed a quieter town, we still collected over £90.  Not a huge amount – with the cheapest overseas postage now starting at £1.35 – but with just 4 collectors in 2 hours, not bad. As reported before, returns from street collections in Bournemouth and Christchurch have been dire. As a group we don’t have as many income generating events, so every little helps.

Thanks to everyone who turned out for last nights quiz at the Brunswick Hotel, Charminster. Over 40 people battled it out and the winning team triumphed by just 1/2 a point!

Thanks to David Rogers for setting the questions, Lucy Freeman for running the raffle and Sally Hawksworth for being Master (or mistress?) of ceremonies on the night. Thanks again to the Brunswick for providing us with an excellent function room.

We raised £250. With overseas postage now starting at £1.25 this is a great boost to our funds. And much more fun than doing a street collection. If you missed out, below are five of the more challenging questions to have a go at. Answers in the next newsletter.

“The Silent Child” won an Oscar this year for best Short Film. It was written and directed by actors from which UK TV soap? 

Singer Aretha Franklin died in August. She only had one film role where she played a character called Mrs Murphy and wore pink fuzzy slippers. Name the film (or its sequel)?  

Born in Cardiff in 1948, singer Michael Barratt, the UKs biggest selling singles artist of the 1980’s, is better known as who? He’s appearing at Bournemouth Pavilion next March.  

Which is the only country in the world where cars drive on the right, but virtually every vehicle has right hand steering?

The film “the Lost World” (adapted from a Arthur Conan Doyle novel of the same name), was released in 1925 and got its place in history for what? Was it? (1) First X rated film (2) First colour film on public release (3) First film used as in flight entertainment on a plane?      

All the quiz questions are here

questions with answers are here

Welcome to the latest newsletter. We don’t meet in August, our next meeting  is on Thursday 13th September 2018, 7.30pm  at Moordown Community Centre. This is to update you on a few things that have happened – or about to happen….

Photo Exhibition Revisited It seems ages ago (it was April)  but our Photographic Exhibition is a distant memory. Sadly, whilst not hitting the front pages, the plight of refugees continues. Throughout the exhibition we had a video loop, compiled by Tom Wilson. This had several short videos highlighting some of the issues and reasons Amnesty International exists. We’ve put two of the most powerful, by Save the Children, on our blog. Do watch them and share – at 90 seconds and 2 minutes they won’t take long, but you won’t forget what it must be like for a refugee child… https://amnestyat50.co.uk/refugee-week-and-photographic-exhibition

New Forest Amnesty International Group Saturday 1st September The Lymington Centre (Robert Hole Room), New St, Lymington, SO41 9BQ ~ FILM at 2pm – Excerpts from AI WEI WEI’s HUMAN FLOW – a documentary on the worldwide refugee crisis ~~~ Short AGM at 3pm ~~~ LIGHT LUNCH FROM 1PM ALL WELCOME ~ FREE ENTRY

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We had a another hugely successful return to Bournemouth’s LGBTI Pride event, BourneFree.  As in previous years we were in the Gardens with our stall from about 8.00am until 5.00pm.  We also took part in the parade. We had about 150 cards signed – 2/3 of which concerned Sakris Kupila. Sakris is facing discrimination in Finland because he is transgender.  He discovered he needed to be diagnosed with a “mental disorder” in order to change his name to one that he feels better matched his identity. Then he learned that in order to have his gender legally recognized, he would also need to be sterilized.

Last year we took many photographs of willing participants holding our infamous selfie frame (we noticed several stalls copying our idea). This year we focussed on getting people to be photographed on their own cameras (invariably phones). This worked very well – although we have no idea how many we took! As an event to engage with the passing public, BourneFree is fantastic. It was a long tiring day, but we all enjoyed being there and feel many have learnt a bit more about Amnesty International’s work.

Refugee week is 18 – 14 June. We had originally hoped our photographic exhibition at Bournemouth Library would coincide, but we had to make do with the whole of April instead. The Mayor, Councillor Lawrence Williams, and Mayoress of Bournemouth opened our the exhibition – they are pictured, below, next to the Tapestry created by Amnesty groups in the South.

The main focus of the exhibition was the historic plight of refugees and features 30 photographs taken by photographers from the Magnum agency over the past 70 years. The photographs document some of the issues surrounding refugees from the mass upheaval and displacement of the post-war years to the present-day crisis in Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan. It also ties in with AIUK’s current “Refugees Welcome” campaign.

The Tapestry depicts the 30 articles of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR). This was originally created to mark the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta in 1215 and to highlight the continuing importance of the protections afforded by the UNDHR. The Tapestry spent 6 months adjacent to the Magna Carta at Salisbury cathedral. Since then it has travelled to other venues around the south.

As this year also marks the 70th anniversary of the signing of UNDHR, we think this is a great opportunity to display the Tapestry and bring attention to the 30 articles.

Throughout the exhibition we had a video loop, compiled by Tom Wilson. This had several short videos highlighting some of the issues and reasons Amnesty International exists. Two of the most powerful, by Save the Children, are below. As refugee week approaches, do watch them and share – at 90 seconds and 2 minutes they won’t take long, but you won’t forget what it must be like for a refugee child…