We’ve met some incredible people here. It sounds a cliché but it’s absolutely true!
Our Western concept of what it means to work hard or be busy, bears
no comparison to some of the people here. It’s a strange thing to get used to – on the
one hand time keeping is non-existent and we seem to spend a lot of time waiting
for one thing or another, but people are incredibly hard working and their days
start at first light and end at darkness.
When I came 2 years ago I was deeply moved by the plight of the
children of women prisoners. If a woman is arrested and her children are at
home with her, unless someone comes and offers to care for the children, they
go with her to the prison, and there they stay.
Often the family will disown a woman in prison and the children get left
and forgotten. Woman who are pregnant go to hospital with guards and the mother
and baby go back to the prison together. Babies who are not being breastfed, and
any other children, have to share the mother’s food. They become institutionalised and sick.
Our friend, Gertrude, who works for Global Care, is part of a team that
visit women’s prisons and take in food, clothing & other necessities for
the woman and children.
his year she gave us exciting news. There are two new initiatives for the children of prisoners - there are almost 100 children in the system at the present time.
Children’s Home: Two ladies offer a home to 22 children of
prisoners. They apply for papers from the probation service for each child and
then give the children back to their mothers on their release. It takes time to
process the papers and if they are not given, the children can go to the day
care centre. The children’s home means
that the only children left in prison are those who are still breast feeding or
whose papers are not processed.
·
Day Care Centre 41 children attend the day care centre where
they are given food and play and reading. They go back to stay overnight with
their mothers in prison but to have the day out is a major improvement.
It is encouraging to know that people don’t give up – that they
work tirelessly until they find a solution.
It’s hard for us to imagine a situation where children would be treated like
this – but if you think hard about it you realise there are plenty of situations
throughout the world where children are neglected and forgotten. It’s easy to pretend it doesn’t happen in my
country – then my conscience doesn't have to worry about it! Note to
Adrian W. – I feel another study topic brewing in my brain…..
Yesterday I met the lovely Betty who is the person entrusted by
her community to look after a nursery school.
The parents and guardians were concerned that schools were a long way
away and they decided to start their own initiative to bring the children
together. Betty is the only teacher and she has had no training.
Betty said: “In 2010 we started with 25 children which is now lowered to 17
because of the challenges. These are that we have a major problem keeping children because they
are very sickly, and parents are not able to support by providing food so they come
with no food. They have nothing to sit on and sit on mud and cow dung. There are
no learning kits like blackboard or chalk.”
Children are aged 3-5years and when they arrive at 8am they sweep
their class and then start. They pray,
recite their alphabet, draw and sing and go home again at 10.30am because they
are so young and also because there is no food to give them.
The skills workshop
here made them school uniforms which they were given yesterday.
What incredible people – I wasn’t exaggerating was I?
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