Kadoma prison (Background Info) On 2 September ZACRO welfare manager Mis Bhunhu held a meeting with the Mashonaland Rehab Coordinator. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss challenges that faced in the region and try to come up with ways to overcome the challenges. Prior to the meeting the Rehab Coordinator had undertaken a visit to Kadoma Prison and ZACRO noted that: The farm prison housed both males and females. On the visiting day - the prison had 670 inmates, 7 were female offenders. There were two children at the prison, one aged 3 months and the other five months. Challenges, Needs and Interventions Health standards were deteriorating mainly due to limited drug supply: • Thus the prison badly needed the drugs. • The sewer system was malfunctioning which caused an outbreak of diseases and requests from this prison included: soap, balls, salt, scissors, stationery, clothes for babies, Vaseline and sanitary. • The prison also wanted to start a rabbitry project. Chikurubi farm (Background Info) Challenges, Needs and Interventions The organization also visited Chikurbu farm during this period under review. The prison intended to start a rabitry project and had already made the structures to house the rabbits. This was necessary in terms of boosting food production and skills empowerment for the prisoners. The prison needed: Resources and rabbits and to kick start the project ZACRO was to transfer some rabbits from Mazowe Prison to Chikurubi farm after Mazowe showed greater competence in the project now spread to other prisons. Chinhoyi prison. (Background Info) At Chinhoyi prison bee keeping project was progressing fairly well. The offenders firstly acquired bee keeping skills through training. The region however needed to expand the bee keeping project to Hurungwe prison and other prisons that has good forage. This was welcome as the region was suffering from an acute shortage of food and offenders going for days without anything to eat which increased death rate of offenders thus humanitarian assistance was urgently needed. Chikurubi prison visit by (Background Info) Dorcas Ministries on 24 August 2008: The 7th Day Adventist church requested to visit the prison and meet inmates. Dorcas Ministries – the church’s women wing had seven participating members with Miranda leading the crew after showed interest to assist inmates mainly women and children in prison. The program was arranged by the Welfare Manager, Miss Bhunhu. Though she got sick on the visiting day - Ms Matingo and Mr. Mudehwe led the group into the prison. Mashonaland Regional Coordinator Zharare graced the occasion. The women shared experiences in the word of God and testimonies from the prisoners. They were moved by performance of the prison choir. The rehabilitation officer who gave vote of thanks expressed joy and hope that the relationship will continue. An exchange visiting program was arranged for interaction to create a leeway to reunification upon release. In fact the visit was a great success in terms of spiritual uplifting and moral busting to those in prison Dorcas Ministries Challenges, Needs and Interventions Inmates requested: • Certification after the bee keeping training. • They requested ZACRO to source food for the offenders The prison requested aid in form of transport for some dead inmates after relatives were not collecting them while the mortuary was over populated and ZPS was not coping up with pauper burials which were expensive. Observations The event created a platform where society can directly talk to talk prisoners and instill hope for them to continue interacting after release. Although prisoners were being punished for their wrongness; the church noted that rehabilitation was still necessary for them. They noted that churches and other charitable organizations did not know that they had a vital role in resolving challenges faced by the prisons, and achieve objective of making prisons be correctional and rehabilitative centers.. In response: The rehabilitation officer was very impressed with the exchange program initiated by ZACRO at Chikjurubi with the Dorcas Ministries. The idea – noble as it was had to be intensified to other prisons with various denominations. Thus ZACRO agreed to try and intensify the program by visiting a number of different churches and get offenders 22