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SPECIAL REPORT FROM WELLS OF HOPE
Today we made a dream come true for the children of Prisoners under our care to visit their parents in prison. Before the interaction we had to counsel the children and the inmates separately. The parents in prison were surprised, they did not expect us. The first thing each parent did was to put his/her children on his/her laps and pray for them.

In women prison seven children visited, two siblings Benjamin and Esther saw their mother for the first time after 9 years.
Their mother known as Sanyu could hardly notice them, she requested that she meets her real children among the ones who were visiting because she could not recognize her children, she was looking for a scar on one of the boys, who was Benjamin, and she could only recognize Benjamin from the scar he sustained from the measles he got when he was a baby. Esther and Benjamin were quiet at the beginning possibly because they were seeing their mother for the first time.
In his first words with his mother Benjamin congratulated her for having survived the war(kulika olutalo), because the boy could recall when the mother was bundled up by Police ,beaten and taken away-his last memory of the mother. The mother was surprised that a boy of 2 years could remember all that chaos at that time. To him Benjamin (9 years now) thought that was war.

The prison officers were happy because Benjamin’s mother was psychologically disturbed; she would wake up at night to cry, thinking she would never see her children again.
Esther,benjamin’s sister had never seen the mom before because at the time of the arrest she was living with her grand mom .Benjamin’s father does not know where Benjamin and Esther are right now, their mother says that if she is released she will introduce the children to their father, however, Benjamin’s mother called Sanyu is on death row. The children were very happy;

Before we could leave, the women quickly went in their wards and collected gifts which they gave their children which included soap, bibles and handcrafted bags,sugar, a Luganda bible for Benjamin. They even bought for them bread, do nuts,
.The officers thanked Margaret and Carol (From Wells of Hope) for looking after the children well. It was a lot of joy at the women section yet we had only visited four Parents.

Vincentia and Einstein are the children who had been deceived that their grandmother was their mother. They were able to meet their mother, after 4 years, they could not recall, at first they were quiet, but she was able to engage them until they were comfortable .The kids told their mothers that we treat them nicely, that we give the clothes ,food ,education.
The prisoners counseled their children to be good children and obey what wells of hope people tell them.
Lillian’s mother told her children to read, she explained to them that she is in prison because she did not go to school.

The officer in charge thanked us, “Thank you for bringing joy” she said. Lillian the welfare was so sad; she said she felt so bad seeing the children meet their mothers in prison ; she had a lot of sympathy.

At Upper prison.

25 Children visited their fathers in Upper Prison Luzira, Like Carol ,Rachel Mirembe(Wells of Hope) did pre counseling and made sure everything goes well. Getting inmates was a problem, looking for them, so it delayed the whole process; this prison has over 2500 men in there.
At about 11.30 am when we arrived, the children jumped out of the taxi and were moving freely in the prisons parking lot, anxious to meet their parents. When the children entered the prison walls it became a bee hive of activity, from hugging, cuddling, shouts of joy and movements. You could see the men doing their parenting in that short time they had. The parents in prison who had their children visiting would call their colleagues and introduce their children to them.

One of the inmates said that we had made their Easter-this was real Easter for them on a Tuesday, and he said that,” for a condemned prisoner to see their children it is giving them life again”.
The headmistress had time to talk with the parents in prison and answered their questions regarding their children’s education and welfare at the school.
Bridget is the only child who cried, the father is in prison and on death row, however, the father was so happy to meet her.

Nyakato one of the girls visiting embraced Rachel after seeing her father like a gesture of appreciation.
Joan was equally so happy to see her father Davis .If you recall from our stories Joan’s mother Aidah was scarred from acid burns, it is alleged that it is the father of Joan who poured acid on her and the judge presiding over that matter gave him seven years in prison, he will be released next year. While with Joan his daughter, Davis told her that she loves her so much and also had forgiven her mother, he sent a message to her that she should not be scared of him.

The officer said the government should recognize the function, they were bewildered and amazed, and this was a significant moment. They could real figure out that the men they are keeping have children like these.
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Vivian, Carol and Ian sat on their father’s lap; their father could not remember his son Ian who was a three months old baby at the time of his arrest. In such moments it was Rachel one of our volunteers to introduce the children to their fathers.
Generally in their talk, the inmates comforted the children telling them not worry and promising them that they will come out one day. They donated gifts to their children including necklaces bags. Betty came back with a heavy package from the father, we don’t know were the prisoners get the gifts, but I think from visitors like Wells of hope.
Brian one of the children looked confused all through, he had never seen his father and mother, he was seeing his father for the first time, and he had no words.

I was busy at the office, but coordinated the entire outreach. I wish I was their too had it not been for office work, the volunteers visiting included Rachel, Carol, Margaret (Chairperson AGM), Florence. Alice the headmistress of the school and her deputy William also visited.
It was so sad Nagujja Mary the smartest girl at the school did not meet her father who we imagine had been transferred to another prison.

At Murchison bay Prison Fiona the headgirl of the school, could not wait for her father to arrive, she Just ran and met her father while he was along way(It is not normal to run in a prison). His father was laughing endless; he could not say much, he could only mention “Fiona”.

We have many inmates who have applied for help; we are helping 120 children of prisoners. One of the inmates has asked us to help her 3 and half year child because of poor care she is receiving having lost one who was two years old last year.

The visit in general was life changing, each moment was so touching, and Carol one of the volunteers who went with the children was speaking with tears at certain intervals as we were putting up this story. “It was a visitation day for the children, like as if their imprisoned parents had visited them at school”, Carol says

The Next visit is on the 8th April 2010, we will be going to Jinja Prison, so that the other children also visit their parents. We thank God for the taxi driver we hired, he was so patient with us, We also thank Margaret our chairperson who came along and also offered her car for some of the children and volunteers.

As I speak now, the children have just arrived at school and they are so happy, opening their gifts, Eva Nabwire their matron has told me that she wishes the children would go to see their parents in prison every day, because they something positive has come into their lives, they are telling stories about the visit. Its excitement all over the place.

The children who did not go visiting or did not find their parents are crying, but we have counseled them, we will make sure each child sees his/her parents.
Some parents died while in prison like John the father of Elvania and Kosea, its not easy to handle such situations.
We cannot take pictures in prison easily, besides our lone camera is no more, we have been borrowing lately.

Thank you for your prayers. Please feel free to contribute to our work. God bless you.

From me and the entire Wells of Hope team, have a good week.

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