Hi, my name is Jana. I am 9 years old. I live in Seattle and I am in 4th grade.
Last year my grandmother and grandfather were in Egypt and they were packing their bags to come live with us. Before they could come the Egyptian government took them one night for no reason. Until today we don’t know why. There are a lot of people in Egypt who are in prison because they wanted Egypt to be like America. They wanted to live freely. But the president in Egypt treats people unfairly and is a dictator and has arrested anyone who speaks against him.
I have been praying for my grandmother Ola and grandfather Hosam to be free. I have been watching my mom talking in the news and traveling to Washington DC to talk to our senators and other human rights people.
Now I want to do something. I have prepared a letter for President Trump asking him to help. I believe even though I am only 9 years old I can make a difference.
But I need your help. If we all write letters to President Trump we can get his attention and hopefully he will help. If you send me a picture of your letter I can put it on our facebook page.
I hope you will help! I have prepared everything you need and all the steps I took. If anyone wants more information my mom also wrote an explanation.
Thanks
Jana
Activity Instructions:
You can help make a difference! Get involved by writing a letter yourself, organizing a get together for friends, or a class activity to help bring my grandparents Ola and Hosam home. Follow instructions below to start your own letter writing.
Supplies:
* Paper * Envelopes * Stamps *Crayons/Writing Supplies
Instructions:
- Write your letter asking for support freeing Ola & Hosam. Explain the situation and why it’s important to you. A good guide to get you started is your 5 W’s (Who, What, When, Where, Why). You can write your letter by hand or type it up and print if you would like. When you are done write out your name and sign the letter. You can also draw a picture if you want. Here is an example:
Dear President Trump
My friend Jana’s grandparents have been in an Egyptian jail for over 10 months. They need your help to bring them home to Jana and her family in Seattle.
Her grandparents were on a vacation in Egypt when they were taken by Egyptian police. They did nothing wrong.
Please help.
- Send me a picture of the letter at freeolahosam@gmail.com
- Stick your stamp on the top right of your envelope.
- On the top left of the Envelope write your address and in the middle of the envelope address the envelope to the White House:
President Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500.
4. Place your letter inside the envelope and mail it out.
Help for parents:
If you want to try to organize a classroom activity you can send an email to your child’s teacher or principal for permission. An example is below.
Sample email:
Dear Mr. / Ms. / Mrs. _______________
In Seattle Washington there is an American family who has been fighting for the freedom of their grandparents who disappeared in Egypt and have been held for in a prison for over 275 days. Their story has become widely known in US media because it’s a tragedy. According to Human Rights Watch over 60,000 innocent civilians have been imprisoned in Egypt.
For the past 10 months Ola Al-Qaradawi and Hosam Khalaf, have been arbitrarily arrested and detained by Egyptian State Security and are being held without charges. They have not been allowed visitors and have been completely separated from their family and loved ones. They are being held in extremely poor prison conditions. Ola is in complete solitary confinement and has been held in a cell with no bed, no toilet, and with insufficient ventilation and lightning. She is only allowed to use the bathroom for 5 minutes a day in the early morning. Both Ola and Hosam’s health and wellbeing is deteriorating and the family is very worried for them.
This is a human rights case that has been reported by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty. In fact Amnesty has a call for urgent action for its members to send letters as well. The case has been covered by media. Here are some examples:
http://www.newsweek.com/mike-pence-free-family-imprisoned-egypt-772111
http://time.com/5070017/egypt-captive-americans/
More information about the case could be found at www.freeolaandhosam.org and www.facebook.com/freeolaandhosam.
Ola’s granddaughter has kicked off a children’s human rights advocacy activity to gets other kids to send letters to President Trump to intervene. He has already successfully freed another American.
We are requesting permission to organize a classroom activity where the students can all write letters and mail them to the White House.
I hope you will consider this request.
Thank you
Download these sheets as a PDF here.
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