As students in Liverpool we experience all the best this fantastic city has to offer: three universities, a modern and well-equipped city centre and a thriving cultural scene. While this Christmas we might quibble with our housemates about the cost of putting on the heating, or peruse Liverpool ONE looking for the perfect present, the situation will be very different for others in the community.
Liverpool is a city of great opportunity and innovation, but it is also one that suffers from a long-term homelessness and poverty problem.
Part of the ethos of English PEN, and subsequently Liverpool Student PEN, is that literature should be available to everyone regardless of their situation. This can be seen in PEN's social outreach work among prisoners, refugees, soldiers, and old and young people (more information can be found here). While people who find themselves homeless obviously require the primary care of somewhere safe to stay and food to eat, once this is achieved it is important that they have the same access to literature and information that people with a permanent residence and stable income perhaps take for granted.
Charities in Liverpool such as the Whitechapel Centre work tirelessly to provide front line care for homeless people, and alongside the run education schemes and provide reading materials.
In a time when our local libraries are in danger of cuts and closing and Liverpool is still home to some of the poorest areas in the country, it is important that we protect the right and ability of every individual to practice the freedom to read.
Come along to our stall in the Liverpool Guild of Students on Wednesday the 17th between 11 and 1 to donate your books, and learn more about how you can get involved with the society next semester!
