REPORT ON PRISON OUTREACH AT JINJA ON 12TH -10-2007

12th October- 2007 was a public holiday, the fares were quite high. We had three volunteers on the team, Julie, Recheal and Emma. The programme consisted of 4 items.
1- Presentation of the Good Samaritan programme.
2- Giving food supplements
3- Meeting the beneficiaries on the family programme.
4- Handing over bibles to inmates that requested for them and following up on inmates who trained in the scripture placement programme.

The outreach was mainly for Psycho- socio support, we had expected to reach out to both HIV+ and HIV- inmates however it wasn’t possible because the day was a public holiday and most of the security officers were off, mixing the convicts and condemned inmates means beefing up security which was a challenge to the administration.

We ministered to 37 HIV+ Inmates, 16 of them are on ARVS and the rest on Septrine. The welfare officer Jinja prison acknowledged the great need they have for the high protein maize flour, she says it has improved the health conditions of the inmates especially those on ARVS. We had aimed at taking 2 bags and 1bag of sugar however the factory was not able to deliver them to us on time therefore we delivered two bags of sugar instead.

Another item on the programe was to present the Good Samaritan programme. We wanted to do it with both the HIV+ and HIV- inmates because the HIV+ inmates are a minority group at Jinja main prison and there is a lot of stigmatization. The programme was well responded to, we trained 37 inmates. The chairman Aids control programe promised to continue with the training with that same group and other inmates as well.

In total we distributed 50 Luganda and 50 English books of the Good Samaritan. The inmates gave their experiences without fear which means they had overcome fear and stigmatization and were free with their situation and living positively.

The team also managed to meet the fathers of the children who are benefiting on the education support programme. They are 8 in number and 2 ex-prisoners.
They acknowledged that their families had visited them and reported about the education contribution and were so thankful. The ones whose families we did not reach, we promised to reach them next year.

Two bibles were given to2 inmates who had asked for them, they were handed to the pastor Mr. Nashaba Paddy who will make a follow up of the scripture placement books then he will hand the bibles over to them.
Two inmates asked for a Swahili and luganda bible.
We also followed up the inmates who trained in the scripture placement programme of the bible league in 2005, 101 inmates participated and will receive certificates.

Challenges to the outreach.
-Limited transport to have more volunteers visit.
- Inadequate amount of food supplements.
-Transportation of food supplements from Kampala is quite costly and time consuming.