Being an intern at Amnesty’s Education Team

It was only three weeks ago that I first set foot inside of Amnesty’s office. I would walk by this beautiful building on the Keizersgracht regularly, since I live and study in Amsterdam. Though I had never been inside, I knew what kind of (amazing) work Amnesty does but I never got really involved… until I found this internship online! It felt as if everything fell in place. That’s not me being dramatical, it’s more practical; I study law and communication sciences at the same time. So being a communication intern at the biggest human rights organization is probably as fitting as it gets.

Since communication is a broad term, let me specify what my job will be this period. From September until January I will help with nearly everything we are communicating out of the education team. Think about press messages, writing articles and being responsible for the LinkedIn page and Instagram (@amnestyopschool). To get even more specific, I will be helping with the Write for Rights: the biggest human rights event. Anybody around the world can join in writing letters for human activists, unfairly treated persons, people who were unlawfully imprisoned, etc. This event takes place, internationally, around 10 December: International Human Rights Day. For the education department and the schools, it will get busy from 20 November onwards: Universal Children’s Day. It will be my task to get as much pupils and young students as possible to write on elementary and middle schools.

There will be a Kick-Off on the 20th of November and Amnesty will provide guest lectures about the Write for Rights. During the weekend of 20-22 September, Checkpoint Changemakers took place. This weekend was all about getting active; 50 youngsters checked in with their interest in human rights and checked out as an activist. On Sunday the 22nd, they took action for Nasu. Nasu Abdulaziz (25) is one of the people we are writing for during the Write for Rights. Two years ago he lost his house in Lagos, Nigeria. Bulldozers demolished all the houses in the waterfront community of Nasu, just to make place for new constructions. Nine people died and fifteen others are nowhere to be found, 30 thousand people became homeless. Thanks to the workshops about lobbying, social media and campaigning the young activists knew exactly what to do about this. From 13:00-14:30 they sat on Domplein, Utrecht, with demolished doors representing the situation of Nasu. The action was very effective: the youngsters collected 657 signatures for Nasu’s petition.

In conclusion, I am really happy with this internship and I am looking forward to the next few months!