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Muslim action against Poverty

How To ...Organise a Letter Writing Event

The Idea
To hold an event in your area focused on getting people to write letters regarding various global poverty issues such as trade justice, debt cancellation, etc.

There are different ways you could hold the event – for instance as a talk / film followed by an ‘action session’ when people write letters, or as a drop-in event.

What You Will Need

• A venue for your event - try a community centre, school, college, religious place of worship or university building. Somewhere with plenty of desks and tables.
• The list of TFI Campaign demands, and addresses for letters (e.g.. the Prime Minister).
• Lots of pens and paper.
• You could bring stamps and envelopes, and send the letters individually. Alternatively you could make a cardboard ‘postbox’ where people can post the letters. You can then send them all on together with a photograph of your event.
• Plenty of background information, such as TFI Campaign leaflets, reports and briefings, to help people write their letters.
• TFI Campaign action postcards, to be signed by those who feel hesitant about writing their own letter.

Option 1: Talk / Film First

• Begin with a session to get the relevant information across and get everyone interested.
• You can invite a speaker to come along, get someone from your group to give a talk, or show a film.
• After the talk or film, people can ask questions or discuss it.
• Then explain to the audience that they can do something about it now by writing a letter, and invite them to do so on the spot.

Option 2: ‘Drop-in’ Event

• You can hold an ongoing letter-writing session for anything from an hour to a day in a venue such as a mosque or school, or even in a café. This may work particularly well in a university cafeteria or common room in a hall of residence.
• People can come in and out as they please, so need only stay ten minutes or as long as it takes them to write a letter.
• Make sure you have plenty of fact sheets, statistics and model letters to hand, as well as a couple of people to answer questions.
• If it is a venue with a tv and video, you could have a film running on a constant loop for those who are interested.

Publicising The Event

• Contact lists: try to think of as many different groups as possible through which you can publicise the event, for instance:-
• The venue may have a contact list you can use
• Other TFI Campaign groups or contacts nearby
• Other charities may be willing to publicise the event to their supporters
• Your own contacts: universities, schools, local organisations, clubs, mosques, religious places, family, friends, colleagues, etc….

Other Tips And Practicalities

• You may want to provide refreshments and a sign-up list for people to be contacted in the future.
• You might want to combine it with more creative options for those who are very keen – such as making banners and placards for events.
• Organise the event at a school and get the teachers and pupils to take part.
• Organise the event at a community centre or workplace and get members/colleagues involved.
• Invite the press along to the event but make sure that someone from the group is on hand to take pictures as well. You can then send the photo to your local newspaper after the meeting, perhaps try writing a short article to accompany it.
• Try promoting the event at local colleges, universities, shops, coffee shops and mosques, religious places.

Please do notify TFI Campaign team about any event so we can include it in our publicity.

Posters And Leaflets

• Prepare posters and leaflets, and hand these out at community centres, shops, cafes, universities, mosques, religious places, etc.

Tell The Local Press

• They will be particularly interested if you have your MP or other prominent local figure / celebrity coming along.

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