Who really gives a toss?: Hands up for Burma

Here is an interesting campaign idea from Amnesty International, especially since our Christmas appeal for Christian Aid – on a very similar subject – is winging its way to the printers as we speak.

With 2,200 political prisoners in Burma, and thousands more exiled to the Thai-Burma border, AI are collecting 5,000 photos for their petition. All the photos will be collected and taken to the summit meeting of political leaders from South East Asia in Viet Nam at the end of October – the Association of South East Asian nations summit (ASEAN).

What's interesting about it though, is the writing of one prisoner's name on your hand. We've been talking a lot lately at Open about giving donors the choice of where their money goes. This petition allows you to physically pick out and align yourself to one real person, creating, not so much a sense of ownership, but certainly a strong bond and sense of responsibility.

At a time when signing an online petition can be super-quick, yet super-impersonal, this is a real nice piece of supporter engagement in action. You can watch the video to accompany the campaign at the end of this post, after some photos of Open standing with the people of Burma.