I have
worked closely with several families who were receiving help from Hhugs during
2009, and I have seen how invaluable the contact has been for them.

Many
families have received financial assistance for their children which has made
an important difference to children suffering depression and confusion with the
loss of the father to prison. Families who have received school fee assistance
have been enormously grateful for being able to place their children in Islamic schools which were much
more able to cater to their special needs coming from their family
vulnerability.

Hhugs
family days out have been a beacon of happiness for many children and mothers.

Most
important too has been the effort to drive families to visit fathers in prison,
thereby avoiding stressful long journeys by train, which leave mothers and
children tired and tense for the much anticipated visit.

In some
special cases of urgent family crisis – such as the birth of a new baby in a Control
Order family, Hhugs has organised a rota of meal deliveries to the family,
allowing the mother a brief respite from a heavy load of shopping and cooking.

For a group
of volunteers, all with their own considerable family responsibilities, to have
been able to maintain contacts, advise on many family problems, from bullying
in school, to meetings with council officials to request re-housing, has been a
feat the organisation can be proud of.

Many of
these families are isolated, afraid, and have found Hhugs volunteers the only
resource of strength and kindness in a very harsh environment.


Victoria BrittainFormer associate foreign editor of the Guardian. Co-author with Moazzam Begg of his book Enemy Combatant. Her
previous books include Hidden Lives, Hidden Deaths and Death of Dignity.