Be a lifeline‏ ~ CookingFood.Org

Be a lifeline

Dear friends,

I speak English, Arabic, French, Spanish, Hebrew and Italian—all of which come in handy when I'm in the field for Amnesty International.

My name is Donatella Rovera and I'm a human rights crisis investigator.

At a moment's notice, I go into dangerous conflict situations like those in Syria and Iraq where sometimes even journalists can't go. I find out what's really happening and help Amnesty demand protection and aid for civilians at risk.

When you donate to Amnesty, you are helping to send me to crisis zones quickly and well equipped. Your donation helps me spring into action.

When I'm in the field, I take videos and photos, and write stories about the people I meet, the weapons I see and the war crimes I'm documenting. I uncover human rights abuses that many powerful people would like to sweep under the rug. And I help Amnesty turn the world's attention to the plight of people trapped by armed conflict and oppression.

All gifts make a difference.

$30 can help hire a local driver and pay for gas to take investigators to witnesses and crisis locations.

$75 can help offset the purchase of cameras, recorders and other equipment needed to collect evidence in the field.

$100 can help us develop a media blitz campaign to promote the research we find via press conferences, video releases and social media pushes.

$250 can offset the cost of hostile environment training each crisis investigator receives.

I keep doing this work, despite the physical and mental stress, because of the people we help.

I will always remember an 11-year-old Muslim girl I met in the Central African Republic. In order to protect her safety I can't tell you her name, but we found her in a village where the bodies of people who had been massacred four days earlier were still in the streets.

She was crouching in a corner of an abandoned, ransacked house—terrified and hardly able to speak. She was the only Muslim survivor in the village, traumatized and alone. Her parents and siblings had been killed or had fled. We took her to safety.

After a massacre like this, it's my job to collect as much evidence as possible—to try to get justice for the victims and their families, and to protect people from yet more violence.

I will never stop demanding that the international community takes action so that no other child experiences such horror.

The task is challenging. But your support makes it possible.

Thank you for standing by our side. Please continue to be a lifeline by making a contribution to Amnesty International today.

Sincerely,

Donatella Rovera
Crisis Response
Amnesty International