Mlondolozi prison hospital and challenges Bulawayo central remand prison and challenges Mlondolozi - a hospital prison houses mental patients. By time of visiting it had 98 inmates - males and females, four children, psychologists, administrator and a nurse. Needs: The prison was experiencing serious food crisis especially for mental patients under treatment who needed a lot of food and these requested more food from ZACRO.– Other demands were: Baby clothing mainly for expecting mothers, sanitary wear, soap and Vaseline for female offenders, new equipment after the prison had a sewing workshop but had obsolete and malfunctioned equipment. They too needed candles, torch or rechargeable lights to use when experiencing power cuts, gardening seeds like carrots, rape and onions to occupy the mental patients. They also requested resources for rabbit keeping, plates, knives, hard brooms, disinfectants and bins. The officers welcomed peer education program but like all other prisons they emphasized the support component. Note: ZACRO donated thirty plates – courtesy of the welfare Manager Miss P Bhunhu which would be used by the inmates. The visiting team met the 2nd officer in charge and a nurse. The prison had 560 male inmates. Of these 281 were already sentenced and there was one female at the time of visiting. The prison services four satellite prisons that are around Bulawayo. Challenges were slightly different from other prisons. They housed remand inmates with shorter sentences. However the following were the challenges faced: They requested transport after experiencing serious transport problems involving ferrying remand offenders to attend court. The result - the remand prisoners spend long time before trial. The prison was not spared from food shortages – thus they requested more food while the death rate was very high. Inmates requested postage stamps to communicate with their relatives. There is a small library needing intensification but the scope of the books in the library was not wide hence ZACRO was called on to donate more books. Inmates further requested indoor games like chess, draft, snooker and other recreational materials to occupy them during spare time and money for bail payment for some inmates who had been granted bail and ZACRO managed to pay bail for 4 inmates. While emphasizing the need for solid support system to accompany the peer education program After prisons visits in these regions during the last quarter o f2008 ZACRO was still by end the programming period involved in some interventions in response to needs arising from situational analysis which included rendering humanitarian assistance, fostering rehabilitation, restoration and half way home projects log sheet. 30