The highlight of our November meeting was a talk by Federica Smith on the organisation she founded 18 months ago: RAFT – Refugee Aid From Taunton. By ingenuity, persistence and learning as they go, RAFT has sent aid to, among other needy places, Syria, Uganda (for Sudanese refugees), and the Ukraine. Their next shipment is to Lebanon.
So far they have dispatched 116 vanloads. Nothing they are given is wasted: if it’s unsuitable it will be sold and the money donated. Unusable clothes are sold for rags, some are swapped. They help the homeless in Taunton too, and local refugees. It is an admirable story. They’re based in the old Market House at Firepool (pictured). Find them on Facebook or visit their website at: www.refugeeaidfromtaunton.org.uk
Our Monthly Action was to write to Theresa May pleading for her to intervene for the children of Aleppo: ‘If you tolerate this, our children could be next. Every war crime we allow to go unpunished – by any party to this brutal conflict – makes the world more dangerous.’
Our Write for Rights Action this year will coincide with the Saturday Coffee Morning run at St Mary’s Church, Hammet Street, Taunton. We will be there on Saturday 10th December, Human Rights Day, from 10am until 2pm. We send cards, and letters, to those suffering human rights abuses around the world, and ask you to come and get involved: by sending a card or writing a letter, you can change a life.
On the same day we are donating a collection of books on human rights and related topics to Taunton Library in Paul Street.
Please note: there will be no monthly meeting in December, but our first meeting in 2017 will be on 10th January at 7.30 in the Quaker Meeting House, Bath Place. We’ll be delighted to welcome you there.
Amnesty’s new global campaign ‘I Welcome Refugees’ has been launched. Susan Mew of the Minehead Group presented an introduction to its aims, and to the complexities of understanding the issues involved.
Our next monthly meeting is on 
Matsumoto Kenji of Japan has been on death row since 1993 – twenty three years. Appeals on his behalf have been turned down; he could be executed at any time.
Taunton Amnesty Group member Michael Benison representing us at the Refugees Welcome march in London on Saturday, with a petition signed by us and other residents of Taunton.
Brazilian Jorge Lazaro has seen two of his children, Ricardo and Enio, murdered in the last 5 years and has been fighting for justice ever since. Ricardo and Enio were young black men. Every year thousands of young black men are murdered throughout Brazil – killed by military police, by death squads and militias with links to the police.
Amnesty International Taunton Local Group 