Afghanistan - White Band Day 09/13/2005
Children from across Kabul flew 'Kites against Poverty'

Small Changes
by
Brittany Goss

I came across a quote from Anne Frank a couple days ago where she wrote “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” When I read it I felt a surge of appreciation for Anne and her enthusiasm. She had incredible optimism in a time of despair. We all need this sort of encouragement once in a while to assure us that we are indeed improving the world in the face of suffering.

I sometimes feel, as I think we all do, that the things I do to make the world better are so small. I sit at petition tables in the student center to represent Amnesty International and explain to people why they must help us stop the drafting of child soldiers on the Ivory Coast and urge the government of Niger to aid its people against the famine. Sometimes I can’t blame the students who walk by without stopping, heads down, eyes averted. After all, I think, how much good will this do? If we have over a hundred signatures to send to the president of Niger, will that really change anything?

As unlikely as it seems, the answer is yes. We can only perform small acts, but our tiniest good deeds become powerful when we join forces and combine our efforts. Although writing letters and signing petitions for human rights through Amnesty International may seem futile, each act has profound results. We tend to forget that the change in even one person’s life is a victory for us all. This September Amnesty celebrated the freedom of Brother Nguyen Thien Phung, a prisoner of conscience in Vietnam. Phung is a Roman Catholic monk, one of twenty-three in his religious faith who were arrested and sentenced for holding training courses and distributing religious books without government permission. Phung was sentenced to twenty years in a prison camp for “conducting propaganda to oppose the socialist regime and undermining the policy of solidarity”. The Vietnamese constitution states that citizens have the freedom to believe or not to believe in a religious faith, but that “No one may violate the freedom of faith or exploit it in a way that is at variance with the law and state policies.” This article of the constitution allows the government to control religious activity, effectively limiting Vietnamese citizens’ freedom of religion as it is defined by international standards of human rights. All religious groups must be sanctioned by the government. Phung’s congregation was not. Brother Phung, the last of the twenty-three Catholics to be released, was a prisoner of conscience. Members of Amnesty International and other human rights groups peacefully put pressure on the government of Viet Nam, urging authorities to give Phung adequate food and medical care and insisting on the release of all prisoners detained for their religious beliefs. Letter campaigns played a large part in Brother Phung’s ultimate freedom.

Every signature on an Amnesty letter goes toward a cause like this one and makes a little bit of difference. Every envelope full of letters pressuring authorities to abide by international codes of human rights pushes toward a change. The petitions we sign here do help those in need, because activists around the world are signing the same petitions. These acts don’t only make a difference for prisoners of conscience and victims of famine or war. They change our lives as well. Every letter campaign and petition educates one more person about human rights. Every public video we show about the representation of famine in the media or environmental disaster in Bhopal opens somebody’s mind. Every celebration for peace, like the one we are having here tonight, reminds us of the possibility of a better future. So when you leave tonight, leave with the conviction that your smallest actions will make a difference in the world. You needn’t wait a single moment.

1. “ Socialist Republic of Viet Nam Appeal for: Brother Nguyen Thien Phung (Huan)”. Amnesty International. 5/11/05. www.amnesty.org. 11/1/05.