Changing the World One Letter at a Time

By Vickie Shneiders

At the beginning of the year 1990, I joined Amnesty International in Trois-Rivières. Just in case you haven’t heard of it, Amnesty International is a human rights organization of more than 10 million people, in over 170 countries and territories, who defend and promote human rights. Although the activities used by Amnesty have broadened in scope, the original premise was letter writing. The members would receive information about a person who was in prison, for simply excercising their freedom of speech. Those members would write letters over months, years and sometimes, decades, to prime ministers, ministers of justice, kings, or ambassadors, calling for the liberation of this person. It was simple and it worked.

This true story is an example of the efficiency of Amnesty International and one of the most extraordinary events of my life.

After joining the group, it wasn’t long before I accepted the case of 2 political prisonners, Indonesian students, Bambang Subono and Bambang Nughroho. Our group had been writing letters in their favor for quite a while before I took over the case. The group had even succeeded in contacting the two young men. A French Canadian Jesuit priest visited the prison regularly and private letters were exchanged which is very rare. We even sent him books in French. One of our members, the late Julian Gruda, was the instigator and correspondant.

Imagine my surprise, when several months later, we received a phone call from the International Office in London informing us that the two Bambangs were free!! I had goose bumps, I was tingly all over, and for weeks I was on Cloud 9.

Volunteering is something I have done for a long time but that was the first time there was concrete evidence that it worked!! And how!!! An action by me and my group, in the small city of Trois-Rivières, changed the lives of two people on the other side of the planet. It’s extraordinary.

But that’s not the end of the story.

After a few years, I left the group to volunteer for Unicef. One evening, about three or four years later, I received a phone call from the former president of the group inviting me to a reunion dinner of present and former group members. A very special dinner, a historic dinner, a dinner with Bambang Subono, our former political prisonner who was freed in 1994! I couldn’t believe my ears! Bambang was in Montreal attending a convention on human rights. Amnesty had an information booth in the hall manned by Jacques Poulin, a militant for Amnesty who also worked in the section office. Bambang approached Jacques and explained to him that he had been freed thanks to a group in Trois-Rivières; Jacques recognized his name; he called the former president of our group who in turn contacted Bambang who accepted an invitation to dinner in T-R!!! Unbelievable!

On July 2nd, present and former members of the Amnesty International group in T-R gathered in a local restaurant and waited for Bambang to arrive. Excitement was in the air! We were all happy to see each other again and catch up on personal and group news. We were also a bit intimidated. I should say “I” was a little intimidated, I’m not sure about the others. I was a bit intimidated to meet this man who had spent nearly seven years of his life in prison for having simply shared a book banned by his government, who, in spite of this traumatic experience, continues to work for human rights in his country. Courage incarnate!

Finally, he arrived! This man whose life we helped change with our pens, our paper and our stamps. For a few moments, he just stood in the doorway — tall, calm and a bit uncertain. I can still visualize him in my mind. There he was in flesh and blood, wearing a traditional Indonesian hat and shirt, in a St. Hubert, Trois-Rivières. Impossible but true! You can’t imagine how I felt seeing him there. I was so proud of Amnesty International (side note: I rejoined the group and am still an active member) I was shy, joyful, nervous, curious but mostly happy!!! We talked, had beer, (Bambang drank apple juice), ordered our food and talked, talked, and talked some more. I don’t even remember what I ate that night (well obviously chicken but I digress and you really don’t care anyway). Of course we didn’t always understand each other, even with a translator.

Bambang told us that he had only found out that he was leaving prison the night before. During his last meeting with prison authorities they showed him a bag full of thousands of letters that had been written on his behalf.

There was more news, some good, some bad. Bambang is now a professor of human rights in a secondary school. Sadly the priest who had been our contact, bringing letters and books to the prisoners, was hit by a car and killed while he was riding his bicycle.

During the evening there was an unusual confession, funny and sad at the same time. When Bambang met Julian Gruda, he realized that the woman who had been sending him letters through the Jesuit priest, was a MAN! Juliette was Julian. Poor Bambang, his fantasy of the beautiful woman writing to him in prison evaporated. As if it wasn’t disappointing enough, Julian took off his Amnesty international t-shirt to give Bambang as a gift. Julian, a 75 year old man, was shirtless in the middle of St. Hubert. Bambang in turn, gave Julian his hat. It was truly a celebration! This experience moved me so much that for the last 30 years I have been a militant for Amnesty International.

Volunteering for any type of organisation can have repercussions beyond expectations. My evening of July 2nd, 1999 proves it.