This name was chosen by the founders of our organisation to express their hope in the future. The organisation was founded on April 10, 1995, by a group of prisoners held at our local Corradino Correctional Facility in Paola, Malta. The main original aim of the founders was to help themselves and their families undergo the prison experience with more dignity and self-esteem. In August of that same
year, following their release from the prisons, two of the leading founders continued the group on the outside, thereby coming into close contact with the non-government organisation Daritama (which in Maltese means "House of Hope"). In this way the group became part of a larger organisation under the leadership of Rev. Montebello OP. From then onwards the organisation continued to grow, flourish and extend its services to prisoners, their families, ex-prisoners and victims of crime. Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawl is affiliated to Action for Prisoners' Families of England and Wales (APF), and an associate member of European Group of Prisoners' Abroad (EGPA). Mid-Dlam ghad-Dawlis also part of the local Association of Prison Volunteers. In our work we are guided by a set of principles and a personalistic philosophy. Our organisation is:
• a valuable partner for the authorities and justice administrators of our country for the improvement of justice;
• an association of professionals who provide advice and support in improving the structures of the penal system; and
• an uncompromising foe of criminality and an unflagging defender of every prisoner's future possibility of living happily whilst upholding the legitimate laws of the nation.
