material for the on coming baby. The offenders housed at Shurugwi were serving sentences of not more than 36 months. Many offences committed involved gold panning. However there were no meaningful programs run at Shurugwi. There was a knitting machine but was old and broken down and was taken to Connemara Open prison Whahwa Young Offenders: Midlands Province. (Background Info) At Whawha the visiting team met the Officer in Charge of Whawha, the senior rehabilitation officer and officers who were teachers. Whawha young offender housed inmates between 16 and 20 years old. Holding capacity was 218 and offenders mainly committed rape, house breaking and robbery. Of these 47 were D Class offenders – their maximum sentences were not less than 6 years. Education was key focus area. The education programs ran from grade 1 to form 6. They were being assisted by representatives from the Adventist church but found it difficult to pay examination and trade tests fees for all students eligible to write exams. The prison had a library manned by a library while more books were needed. The death rate at the prison was very low. The last death was recorded in 2003. The food situation was generally alright as compared to other prisons. Offenders were still getting two meals per day. It also had a clinic as well as admission ward manned with trained nurses. At the same complex is Whawha Medium prison which had a hospital. Serious cases were therefore referred to the hospital. The prison had a workshop with trained artisan officers who taught technical skills to some of the offenders in the area of welding, carpentry and mechanics. Ntabazinduna Prison Matabeleland Province would be difficulty to do any Voluntary Counseling Test (VCT) at the prison. The officers therefore recommended that peer education training and psycho social support was more ideal for the Shurugwi Female Prison. Following this they also specifically asked for a supplementary feeding to cater for the sick, children and pregnant mothers. Challenges, Needs and Interventions Needs were: Tools and new machinery to replace ill maintained machinery for the workshop. – Text books, writing pads and stationery for studies and examinations. – Seeds for gardening such as tomatoes, carrots, onions and spinach which could enhance the inmates’ diet. School furniture and chalks were also needed. The prison had to borrow desks from nearby institutions to enable inmates to use them for examination purposes. The one desk and chair that was in one of class rooms was in sorry state, the rest of the inmates learnt whilst seated on the floor. – There was also request for assistance in tertiary education for offenders who successfully completed their A levels. – Repair of cooking utensils was also requested. Inmates were engaged in some sporting activities like soccer and using plastic balls and other materials available and nthus they requested balls from ZACRO. In the HIV Aids area, the prison had some offenders trained as peer educators by the Midlands Aids trust. These could assist in the HIV/Aids program and only required IEC materials. The officer in charge stressed the need for a strong counseling program after Start New Centre was conducting VCT but their counseling service was reportedly weak. The clinic could do the testing using self testing kits once orientated on how to use them. They also asked for more food and have two meals per day, salt, cooking oil or other dietary supplementary food for all those who were already under medication. Challenges, Needs and Interventions (Background Info) Ndabazinduna is a satellite prison under management of Bulawayo Central prison. The ZACRO visiting team had a meeting with the assistant officer in charge and the rehabilitation officer and later on toured the prison. There were only seven inmates with sentences r from 3 to 6 months. The cells had no toilets. They had to use some plastic gallons as toilets. The holding capacity of the prison was very small, holding only those few seven inmates while facing severe food challenges. The prison - a training centre for ZPS recruits, had the few inmates staying there offering cleaning and support services to those recruited to be officers by The inmates requested: Cooking oil or salt, plates to serve food, soap, Vaseline and hand towels. Because this prison was designed to train ZPS officers, the officer in charge was of the opinion that the HIV/AIDS peer education program could be incorporated at the training centre and requested the program at this prison. Trained recruited officers would then cascade the model to their placement stations. Because of the set up at this prison ZACRO decided that the program could be structured differently to other prisons by targeting ZPS staff only. The staff would then reach out to the few inmates who were housed at the prison. This was also because inmates were serving very short sentences hence it would be costly to train them as peer educators whilst their duration of stay was relatively short. 27