Words of Hope from Amos Trust

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Words of Hope.

Please scroll down to read about news of why we're calling for a cultural boycott of Israel, details of the up-coming Amos Club bike ride to Amsterdam and news of the loss of a Street Child World Cup friend. 

'Beautiful Resistance' – the cultural boycott of Israel

Abdelfattah Abusrour, director of Alrowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Society has called for a cultural boycott directed against the Apartheid system of occupation and discrimination in Palestine.

Like Abdelfattah, Amos believe that a cultural boycott should be supported because:

• choosing to support Palestinian freedom will enhance a just peace for Palestine and Israel;
• Israel will not submit to the international laws if the international community does not pressure it to do so.

"An injustice is an injustice, and an occupation is an occupation, and those who support it, or treat it as normal, are complicit with it."
Abdelfattah Abusrour

Fellow artists who have already pledged their support include Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Miriam Margolyes, Jimmy McGovern, Alexi Sayle, Mark Thomas and Miriam Margolyes.

If you work in the creative industries, please think about supporting the boycott by signing the pledge now.

For a full list of who has already signed the pledge, there's a full list on the Guardian website.

Source: Artists for Palestine UK

Amos Club Ride 2015 – Amos to Amsterdam

The Amos Road Club is an informal group of Amos Trust supporters who get together from time to time to pedal and raise money for Amos’ partners around the world.

Over the last few years, rides have included two Coast-to-Coast rides, a four-day ride from Cambridge to Paris and the world-famous Dunwich Dynamo.

This year the plan is to ride from either Cambridge or London to Amsterdam over the weekend of 23rd – 25th May.

There are a few places left on this year's trip so if you're interested, please head over to the Road Club website for full details. All ages and cycling abilities are welcome but lycra is optional.

Photograph: Mike Rose

Remembering Nanko Van Buuren

Our friends at Street Child United are remembering their friend Nanko Van Buuren who sadly died on 14th February.

Nanko worked tirelessly for marginalised young people in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro for 25 years. A former psychiatrist for the World Health Organisation, Nanko arrived in Brazil in the 1980s to investigate the murders of street children.

"The children of the favelas have lost a father."
Jessica Medeiros, Brazilian SCWC Team Member

Amos Director Chris Rose said, "Nanko was a remarkable and inspirational man who kept his humanity despite the suffering and injustice he lived with every day.

I will never forget his tears on the final night of the 2013 Street Child Conference in Cambridge as he told us that that morning, nine of the children he worked with had been shot and killed."

For more details about Nanko's work, please visit the Street Child World Cup website.