Here’s a report on our two week Flood the Jail with Mail campaign for Kareem, the imprisoned Egyptian blogger. The report is via mail from Esra’a, from FreeKareem.
I think even if we had 1 letter, it would be a success for us. We had around 60 confirmed letters from around the world, and we spoke with a few campuses in the USA and they are getting ready to hold small events where they collect letters for Kareem, so they can send them all together in a big envelope. We aim to collect at least 30 letters per event. We did the same thing at my college here and we managed to collect around 20 – postcards, letters, pictures. I think Kareem would like it to see things personalized. We are hoping that he will write back confirming to us that he received all these letters.
Ideally people would be sending letters throughout the year, so no amount of days is ever enough. We just specified a date because Curt rightly noted that people would just be saying things like “oh, I’d just send it next month, or the month after that,” and eventually forget. But if they think they have to send it within a specific date, then they will do it much quicker. We hope to be doing this a few times a year to make sure Kareem is being remembered and that people continue making an effort to communicate with him.
And here’s FreeKareem’s update post.
On Monday, April 21, was the official deadline for our letter campaign ‚ÄúFlood the Jail with Mail‚Äú. So far, we had about 60 confirmed letters from around the world, but we are assured that it‚Äôs not over – some people are getting ready to hold small events where they collect letters for Kareem, so they can send them all together in a big envelope. Our aim is to collect at least 30 letters per event.
People have sent Kareem letters, postcards, pictures, books, etc. We are hoping that he will write back confirming to us that he received all these letters, or at least most of them. But even if the campaign is over now you can continue writing to Kareem. He is always happy to receive letters from his friends and supporters.
We also have in mind to create another campaign of this sort during the end of the summer in August, and in between, we’d have other kinds of campaigns to keep people aware of Kareem. If anyone wants to help out, they should contact editor@freekareem.org and we’d be happy to accept any suggestions or help.
I’d like to sincerely thank all the CPB members who wrote Kareem. I’d also like to second Esra’a's encouragement to go ahead and write, or write again, whether the campaign is at an end or not.
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