Letters from strangers telling of their mundane lives and thoughts may sound like mysterious mail, but these make for good spiritual food to support Hong Kong protesters now held in custody and detached from the outside world, their middleman and fellow letter writer has said.

Since July, Eunis, an assistant to Sham Shui Po district councilor Joshua Li, has been delivering letters between 42 protesters being locked up in Lai Chi Kok detention center and their pen pals, on top of writing to 10 of the detainees herself.

“The protesters would like to read letters with interactive content,” even if it meant receiving a humdrum account of the writers’ day-to-day existence and what they shared with their friends, the former beauty industry worker said.

In return, the pen pals outside were given insights into the tough life in the detention center. Rats and cockroaches crawled around stinky corridors and cramped cells, Eunis said, while visitors could be waiting for more than two hours to see the inmates as the number of arrested protesters rose.

The stories of the arrested protesters were often filled with sorrow. Eunis found a number of teenagers among them. Some had been remanded for more than a year before being convicted and sentenced to a further custodial term. One arrested protester was barred from seeing a family member who was dying in hospital, she said.

Eunis also came face to face with inmates who felt dispirited upon learning about Hongkongers migrating because of the city’s political deterioration, but there were others who showed emotional support for fellow Hongkongers. “They would take time to write letters to encourage them not to give up.”

She believed that the letters and visits, despite being a small source of comfort to the arrested protesters, at least gave them some glimpses of hope. “I hope we won’t abandon them. They have paid a high price for Hong Kong,” she said.

“They are in custody alone and need support from others. They are innocent. They should not be facing this ordeal.”

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