16th – 18th April 2010

Cath Ramos writes,

Citizens for Sanctuary will be sending letters to prospective candidates asking them to commit to protecting sanctuary and to the stopping of the detention of children. If you wish to sign up to this letter or attend a meeting with your candidates, please let us know and we can put you in contact with the group in your constituency. If you are in the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency and wish to see the letter being sent to the prospective candidates with a view to signing, please let us know. If you are in the constituency of Stuart Bell, Eleanor Garrity is leading the Citizens for Sanctuary group in that constituency. Emg6139@aol.com

There will be a joint meeting for those in the two Stockton constituencies; at Norton Methodist Church on Tuesday 20th April at 7pm (for Stockton North constituency) and at Thornaby Methodist Church on Wednesday 21st April at 7pm (for Stockton South constituency).

The election is under way – please send a letter to your local newspaper now!

On the day that Gordon Brown called the election, a team of leaders from the Sanctuary Pledge campaign visited Yarl’s Wood detention centre. It was a poignant moment when they had passed through rigorous security checks and were able to distribute Easter eggs to the children locked up there:

Click here to read the article on the Sanctuary Pledge blog.

Sophie Stephens, who organised the visit, said:

The children were really excited when we arrived and loved the Easter eggs. We had the chance to speak to staff and detainees and find out more about the everyday realities of child detention. We came away more determined than ever that we must get politicians to back the Sanctuary Pledge and end the detention of children.

Make sure you take part in the Weekend of Prayer for the Sanctuary Pledge.

We are encouraging the many faith organisations across the country that support the Sanctuary Pledge to join together on Friday 16th, Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th April for a weekend of prayer in support of the Sanctuary Pledge. We hope that people of many different faiths will pray for the success of the Sanctuary Pledge over those three days and throughout the remainder of the election campaign.