at the prison included building, welding, rabbitry, education, piggery and farming. Health issues were generally good although hygiene issues needed a bit of attention. Chivhu (Background Information) Library and stationery. • Other needs included soap, hence they requested resources to start a soap making project and oil presser since they were struggling to get cooking oil for the inmates.. Challenges, Needs and Interventions The visit was on 14 March 2008. The situation at the Inmates clamored for: prison houses both male and female inmates were • Books for the library which had just been pathetic. The male section was dirty, smelly and filthy and established. attention was needed to help the inmates. However to • Inmates intending to review their cases needed sustain themselves they pursued gardening, fence and shoe legal making though at low scale. Technical education was Representation. Others applied for bails and needed funds there though this needed further boosting by availing more • Other requests were vegetables seeds for the resources. garden. • The inmates too needed soap among basic needs and maintain high level hygiene at the prison. Chikurubi female prison visit (Background Information) The visiting team on 21 May comprised of Mr Mudehwe, Mrs Ponde, Miss Bhunhu and Miss M Gwasira (ZACRO member – marketing). They got facts on the ground mainly on the needs of women and children in the prison The visiting team was met by CPO Makamure who was standing for the officer in charge and SPO Murodza - the rehabilitation officer. There were a total of 316 women at the prison and the breakdown was as follows. Convicted 270, Not convicted 34, Mental patients 12, Children – girls 14, Children boys 16, Pregnant women 13, and 48 Sick inmates. Most of the crimes committed by the women were economically driven like gold panning, theft and stock theft. Most kids in the prison were between 2 to 3 years. The youngest was three weeks old and 18 of the children attended the Day Care Centre run by Prison Fellowship. The kids attending fed at the Centre. They only returned to the cells when sleeping with their mothers. PFZ donated 100ml of Vaseline and 500 grams of washing soap to the mothers. The children in the prison were also increasing while their mothers’ relatives were not wiling to take and stay with them. The rehabilitation officer approached some children’s homes to place some of the kids there but most of them were full. There was need to talk to ZNCW and be engaged to help on the reunification process and link with children’s homes. Harare Central Prison (Background Info) Challenges, Needs and Interventions A lot of pregnant mothers and the children: • were not registered • Did not have basic needs like clothes, spirit and sanitary which they needed most.. The last sanitary consignment was donated by Farai but could not continue donating to the prison while they extended this benefit to other institutions. ZACRO had to source sanitary from the corporate for the inmates.. Sanitation problem was further enhanced by water crisis at the prison. The women had to fetch water from afar. • Pregnant mothers and those with babies did not receive visitors. • There was strong need for supplementary food like peanut butter and other proteins. • Thus ZACRO donated 5 boxes of supplementary food and had to feed the mothers, their babies and the sick women. They too wanted relish and ZACRO sought help from FAVCO which donated vegetables for this cause. • HIV/Aids was prevalent at the prison though VCT had been conducted three days before the visit while 48 were diagnosed positive. Of the 48 people 14 were already on ARVs and 6 were on Corte. They needed to start a program to help people understand more about the disease. Other needs were: Baby clothes, Vaseline, soap and pea nut butter and skills empowerment ventures like adult literacy sessions. Challenges, Needs and Interventions The prison visit was done on 1 July 2008 by ZACRO staff The Education Section. members - Mr. Charles Mudehwe – the Programs manager The students had many requests which included. and Patronella Bhunhu – the Welfare Manager The • A level text books mainly Accounting, MOB and purpose of the visit was to distribute vegetables for the 20