Christmas Appeal 2009

This Christmas, British people held in prisons around the world desperately need your help.

Prison conditions in countries like Thailand and Brazil are barbaric. People are held in conditions that can seriously damage their health. Lack of clean water, a diet of little value, cramped and filthy cells, minimal medical care all add up to make otherwise healthy people severely ill. It doesn’t have to be like this - you can help prisoners to look after themselves.

In some countries prisoners are forced to wear rusty leg-irons for long periods which can cut through the skin on their ankles and cause infections. With the poor diet and filthy cells, left untreated these wounds may become seriously infected. Often prisons won’t pay for the medicine that’s needed. With your help we can make sure they get the treatment they need.

In Brazil, Britons need your help because their teeth can fall out due to the poor diet and lack of basic toiletries. Usually they would simply have to suffer the excruciating pain and misery. We can pay for dentists to treat the problem. We can also help them to get hold of the simple things that we take for granted that will prevent the decay.

Show Britons in prison overseas that someone out there cares, that you believe that their basic human needs are important and you believe loss of liberty should be the sentence, not hunger, pain and serious illness. Together we have a vital humanitarian role to play.

Please give a gift today.