Support Ana to keep afloat whilst in prison!

Aim

Ana's benefit payments have been stopped whilst they are in prison - please donate to make sure Ana has enough to cover their living costs.

Ana is currently serving a 3 months sentence at HMP Bronzefield for her involvement with insulate Britain's campaign of peaceful civil and moral resistance. Ana is not due to be released until 01/01/21 so will be spending this Christmas inside.

For Ana, insulate Britain's aims have a personal importance as well as a social and environmental impact. Ana lives in a Housing Association flat which is poorly insulated and has contributed to her disability and ill health. Due to this Ana is on limited means and survives on welfare payments to pay her rent and for her basic living expenses. Whilst in prison Ana has received the news that some of her key payments are being stopping and this will leave Ana in rent arrears when she is released and her monthly outgoings will have eaten into her reserve which is a small overdraft.

Please help to share the financial burden Ana now faces, by giving what you can so she can leave prison without finances to worry about. Read Ana's letter below to hear in their own words why they took action with Insulate Britain, and their experience of the judiciary and prison.

Sharing this page with your friends and family would be massively appreciated!

"We simply cannot just stand by watching our world disintegrate around our children if we are to find the love and beauty I know is within all. Join me in recovery, healing and self determination. Take responsibility, rewrite your own rules, reclaim your power, let's heal ourselves and mend our world. Let’s dance this mess around and remember how it is to breathe easy." Ana Heyatawin 2021

Letter from Ana - 07.12.21
Three months ago yesterday, on 13th September, I started a medication strike. I stopped taking Statins, Quetiapine and all painkillers first (for high cholesterol related to diabetes, Borderline Personality Disorder and longer term Sciatica). I did this by instinct, which coincided with the start of the Insulate Britain campaign whose actions I am involved with, and serving a 3 month prison sentence for. We had sent a letter to the government asking that all social housing be made fit for purpose by effectively insulating them by 2030. We gave a deadline to answer us by, which they ignored. We did not ask for action, but wanted a meaningful statement which we could trust, whereby they indicated they would engage with a plan to insulate our homes up to basic health and safety standards. We pointed out the resounding benefits of effective insulation;

1. We would save 8,500 lives, which is the number of people who die in Britain from fuel poverty each year. Mainly it is elderly who suffer death from having to choose between food and heating, and I feel this is truly sinful in a country as rich as ours. 

2. This would create thousands of purposeful jobs helping to boost Britain’s economy coming out of lockdown. We thought the government wanted people in fulfilling employment - a win-win.

3. As Britain hosted COP26, the fact that if we implemented Insulate Britain’s demands it would give us the most significant reduction of CO2 per pound sterling available. Insulating Britain’s leaky homes is a no brainer with the bonus of a phenomenal soundbite for the British Government to publicise the UK could truly lead with on climate and social justice platforms.

Our demand was for the government to indicate it would insulate our homes and if they didn't respond, we would disrupt the UK economy and infrastructure with nonviolent direct action in a civil and moral resistance movement by repeated blocking of the M25. We envisaged that if they chose to ignore us (i.e. no statement/reply, refused to meet/discuss, etc) our actions would put us on remand to prison, of course we did not want to go on remand but we were prepared to do our duty and also to risk our lives, homes, jobs, relationships, and the general public's reactions. Over many years we have tried every other method to keep the UK healthy and safe amidst increasing threats and most of us feel we have only got our bodies left to use as nothing else has worked and the timescale is such that the time for talking is over, and only actions will save what we call civilisation, what we know as humanity. My mind, heart and soul cannot stop the human suicidal tendancies, I only have my body left to use. On sentencing I stopped taking Mirtazapine for depression and Amitriptyline for nerve damage and anxiety. I went on medication strike because:

What is the point of me trying to keep balanced and healthy when I live in a Housing Association (flat) that is not safe and healthy, and is the main contributor to my ill-health and unemployability. I have recently been registered as Disabled and it is ironic that the insulation, ventilation, heating and diet are better in this prison than in my home.

I want to use this part of my campaign to highlight issues surrounding disability and mental health, especially regarding the judicial system, prisons and sentencing. 

Outside the Royal Courts of Justice on our sentencing day, a Disability rally was being held quite separately, attended by Labour MPs amongst others, talking of unfair financial discrimination imposed by the current government. I struggled to access the court as there are no provisions for the disabled. I was held in Custody suites 8 times on arrest for my actions and it became evident that in reality the Police are predominately performing social care in the community work, as their whole outlook was not crime based, but the health and care of themselves and the people they deal with. The prison is the same, the main ethos being the prevention of harm to individuals under threat of overwhelming mental health conditions and pandemics of viruses and drugs (both prescribed and illegal). Our problems are not criminal, but health related, i.e. why do people commit crimes? In our broken and corrupted systems, where material gain is of the highest value and self worth, the vulnerable, weak and poor are penalised, caged, invisible and reviled, it is no wonder Britain is in the top list of rich Europe, for the most saddest of reasons. Please look at the statistics for where we are placed regarding disease, child poverty, male suicide, etc. I’m a British subject and NOT proud of it, whilst I carry these burdens of shame and neglect. I’ve spent too long numbing myself out from the distress of governments and systems driven by greed and profit at any cost, driven by usury and carelessness of its people and have decided to honour my psychotic disabled life that I, and we live, front facing and feeling. Physical pain, dark hallucination, psychosis, paranoia, anxiety, grief and our emotional reactions need to surface and communicate the demand for our human and universal right to thrive into the future and a better life for all, rather than merely survival into oblivion. We simply cannot just stand by watching our world disintegrate around our children if we are to find the love and beauty I know is within all. Join me in recovery, healing and self determination.

Take responsibility, rewrite your own rules, reclaim your power, let's heal ourselves and mend our world. Let’s dance this mess around and remember how it is to breathe easy.

This project successfully funded on 17th January 2022