Campaigns

   Care Not Custody - A visit to a Prisoner

 Our secretary, Georgina, made a 130 mile and 12 hour journey from London to Blundeston Prison in Lowestoft, Suffolk to visit Adrian, a life sentence prisoner as part of a project to raise awareness of the challenges faced by the loved ones of those imprisoned in the UK. Ten WI members from across England and Wales made journeys to visit isolated prisoners who have little or no contact with their families. The journeys form part of the Care Not Custody campaign.

The full account of Georgina's and other member's journeys have been published in a special edition of the Action for Prisoners Families magazine.

To launch the magazine's publication Georgina and Amy, our president, went for afternoon tea at the House of Lords. Organised by Action for Prisoners' Families and the National Federation of Women's Institute (NFWI), the event was attended and speeches made by Michael Palin, Ruth Bond, The NFWI chair, and The Baroness Linklater of Butterstone.

After the event Georgina wrote to Adrian and sent him a copy of the publication. Shortly after he wrote back emphasising the need for something to be done:

"Whilst I was at Exeter prison, my local, I used to get visits every week. Since I moved I have had 2 visits in 10 years. My family would still visit me every week. My son costed up a visit to Swaleside at approx ?200. The trip involved 3 days of travel just for a 2-hour visit.....thank you once again for visiting, it is one of the top events in my prison journey."

For more information on the campaign visit the WI website.

LOVE your LIBRARIES

 

Click on the link to add your voice to the WI's Library campaign and help us get to 100,000 signatures. We already have 16,415 signatures, but we need many more.

Please show your support.  http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1269

It's National Libraries Day 4^th February 2012  www.nationallibrariesday.org.uk  Or follow on Twitter via @NatLibrariesDay

Join the Libraries Lobby Day on Tuesday 13^th March

The next stage of the Love Your Libraries campaign will be a lobby day in Parliament. Members are invited to come along on 13^th March to join a rally in support of libraries, and to meet with your local MP to explain why libraries are so important to you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are supporting the campaign to get shops to close their doors when using heating or aircon and stop wasting energy.  

You can find out more here  http://closethedoor.org.uk/ and here https://www.facebook.com/pages/Close-the-door/128964107155996

London is one of the worst offenders when it comes to open shop doors, Islington Angel and the West  End have all the doors open even when there is snow on the ground. Independent Cambridge University found evidence that closing a shop door when the heating is on reduces energy usage by up to 50% and cuts a shop’s annual CO₂ emissions by up to 10 tonnes, equivalent to 3 return London to Hong Kong flights! Leaving the door open wastes money too and makes shop assistants have to work in awful conditions.