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In the 20 th anniversary of his release from captivity, the actions of the old church sent the concerns of protesters in San Pablo

Friday, it will be 20 years since Terry Waite was released from captivity after a hostage in Lebanon for as little as five years, and you want to use the anniversary to draw attention to the nearest of his heart.

But his themes have more to do with social injustice in the United Kingdom and the Middle East or his experiences as a hostage. "Our company will break if we are very, very careful," he said. "I think the State has done - which together collectively - have a responsibility for the elderly, the sick, children, and for those who are victims of society seems to be a perfectly reasonable thing to do instead to jump off. this and chipping away at it. "

Waite is comfortable talking about his years of captivity, not knowing if he would be released, to make peace with loneliness and even the torture he suffered. But it quickly moves the debate on what he sees the most pressing problems.

"I took a lot from this experience [of captivity] It allowed me to focus more clearly that allowed me to say." OK it is important -. Give yourself other things ""

Waite left his job in the Church of England shortly after his return to the UK, and became a lecturer, charity campaigner and author. He even played with, but ultimately rejected, will the policy.

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there was a period during the 1980s when the images of the calm, statesman Waite were often intermittent on television screens. As a special envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, who negotiated the release of Western hostages in the Middle East. Surprisingly large and eloquent, he was a composite figure in a politically unstable world stage.

now 72, Waite is considered a kind of humanitarian wick. Themes and projects involved with exhaustive. Protection against homelessness prisoners and reconciliation projects for young victims of war in the Middle East, which has lost none of his enthusiasm for a challenge.

With a double-dip recession threatening the UK economy and the coalition government begins to feel young is particularly keen to highlight the lack of housing and to discuss the work you do with charity Emmaus homeless.

"There is a great myth that all homeless people are lazy," he said, raising his voice for the first time. "It is simply not true that I can not emphasize this strongly enough: .. People from all walks of life [end] in the street, I met my former master sergeant in an Emmaus community has left the army has lost his job .. He lost his family and he was on the street. "

For Waite, the problem of homelessness is inextricably linked to personal dignity, and has little patience for a corporation or a political elite that do not always understand. "The first thing to do is allow people who were in the streets, and may have many difficulties, [they] have the same dignity as human beings," he said.

Emmaus, a charity with a long history in France, established its first residential "community" in Britain, Cambridge, just past Waite was released. Currently there are 20 communities across the UK, with more planned. Emmaus is not about providing a bed for a night or even find someone to live in an apartment, but focuses on providing an atmosphere in a residential community that promotes a route back into society .

Waite, who describes himself as a "socially conservative" is a strong advocate of the homeless and prisoners approach it. He spends much time in prisons across the country, talking to inmates and staff as patron of a number of charities. He says he "absolutely" connects with the prisoners because of their own imprisonment, and they with him. Even a joke about "how easy" they have in comparison, she laughs.

is keen to argue that politicians are unable to answer the fundamental question of rehabilitation. "The political and criminal policies of rehabilitation should be coordinated, rather than hit and miss, start and stop policy, what happens all the time," he suggests. "What we have to [do] is what which is the best medicine? How can we stop this happening again? "

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