Alan Shorb (right) exchanges cards with a Japanese journalist at the United Nations in June 2017 as Nuri Ronaghy smiles at the camera. Both were part of the WILPF-US delegation to view the historic, successful vote on the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Photo by Ellen Thomas.

By Ellen Thomas
Disarm/End Wars and Social Media Committees

Nuri Ronaghy, Alan Shorb, and Ellen Thomas are launching the online 2019 Nuclear Free Future Tour  for WILPF US in August, when they will fly to Japan to participate in events in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and nuclear-free Kobe from August 1 to 15. 

Arrangements have been made to deliver the 7,360-plus signatures collected so far on the WILPF US petition to the Senate supporting the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, adding to the more than nine million signatures that have been collected worldwide on the “Hibakusha Appeal” (“Hibakusha” means “atomic bomb survivor” in Japanese).

If you are planning any events to commemorate Hiroshima and Nagasaki, you can send greetings to the Japanese on a new Facebook groupWILPF SMARTwhich we have set up to provide all WILPF US members a place  to post greetings, photos, videos & more.

If you would like to send a message of solidarity to the Hibakusha, please use the new Facebook group to post your message by August 4th. We will be sharing all the messages of solidarity with the Hibakusha and their supporters when we visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Photos and videos are much appreciated!

We’re excited about this new group, as it is an excellent opportunity for WILPFers to comfortably share information and communicate with each other. Non-WILPF members are only able to view posts and cannot create posts or comment.

This could be a great recruiting tool!

Please invite all of your WILPF friends and colleagues to join, and invite all your non-WILPF friends to join WILPF so they too can be a part of this vibrant online community.  

If you need to learn how to upload photos and videos to the WILPF SMART group, join the next Monday WILPF US Social Media Training Call on June 10 at 8 pm EST, 5 pm PST.  You can register for the call here.

It’s great to have this opportunity to get to know each other better! And to let the Japanese people know how much WE want to get rid of nuclear weapons, too!

For more information, contact Ellen Thomas: 202-210-3886 (cell/text) or et@prop1.org