Today Prisoners Abroad is celebrating UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day. World Book Day is dedicated to celebrating and promoting the power books have to promote humanity’s social and cultural progress.

World Book Day also celebrates the pleasure that reading brings to people around the world from all walks of life. In inclusive and equitable societies this pleasure should be available to all. UNESCO promotes access to books, knowledge, and cultural life for the visually impaired; those with learning disabilities; youth; and the underprivileged.

In many instances, Britons detained abroad fall into this category of people unable to access reading material.

Prisoners Abroad helps to amend this, as we send novels, language-learning materials, and our newsletters to British citizens detained abroad.

Books and newsletters can help alleviate the isolation and distress of incarceration, and help prisoners to develop their understanding of our great, diverse world. Our clients’ own words attest to books’ valuable contribution to helping people get by in prison:

The prison here… does everything possible to prevent us from anything here that might be enjoyable. Without having these books and magazines to look forward to I don’t know what I would do.  

– R. D., detained in the USA

The books and newspapers bring light and joy into what is a darkness.

– S. A. G., detained in the USA

More than helping people cope, the books and newsletters we send help detainees to develop a better understanding of others’ lives and the conditions that other prisoners face. In helping us to do this, you are helping fulfil one of World Book Day’s greatest goals: 

To inspire understanding, tolerance and inclusive societies.

Our clients hugely appreciate this opportunity to learn and feel solidarity with other prisoners around the world, for example:

Reading people’s prison experiences made me not feel alone and grateful for what I have, [compared to] the people in the newsletters.

– R. O. C., detained in Malta

If you are interested in helping  us deliver reading material to detainees abroad, to help people cope with their imprisonment and to grow as people, find out about donating to Prisoners Abroad here.