J.K. Rowling described her experience working at Amnesty International

Dear Tim,

As I reflect back on a historic year, one moment burns especially bright—because it captured the essence of what Amnesty International is all about.

In her commencement address at Harvard last June, J.K. Rowling described her experience working at Amnesty International in London before she invented Harry Potter. It changed her life, just as it changed mine. Here’s what she said about Amnesty:

I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International’s headquarters in London. There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. I saw photographs of those who had disappeared... I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries... I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard and read.

And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before. Amnesty mobilizes thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.

Like J. K. Rowling, your dedication and passion are the lifeblood of Amnesty International’s work. Through your activism, we have freed prisoners unjustly detained for their beliefs, and given them hope when all hope seemed lost.

As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights this month, there is still so much work to be done. From Guantánamo to Congo and Zimbabwe, people are still being illegally detained or tortured and ill-treated. Many more face unfair trials and fear of being locked up if they speak out for their rights.

Will you commit to improving human rights worldwide in 2009 by making a tax-deductible donation to our “America I Believe In” Matching Gift Challenge? If you donate before midnight tomorrow, your gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar by a group of generous Amnesty members up to $250,000.

I wish you a happy new year and look forward to your continued passion for justice. Sincerely, Larry Cox
Executive Director, Amnesty International USA