The day began at 3.30am, the children were already awake to start the Journey that they do once in four months and before this day they have been counting the days left to this day. For all things that we do for Children of prisoners under our care, children visiting their parents in prisons is one thing that I have found to be the most life changing.
By 10.00 am we had all reached the respective prisons, apart from the Women’s Prison where children waited for 3 hours before they could see their mothers, the children visiting their parents in the other two prison started off immediately after going through the security checks. The visit in the women prison was delayed because they were still counting the prisoners and they were not getting the numbers well and the mothers were still preparing the special meals that they eat with their children on the special day.
Ellen asked little Agnes 5 years whether she knew why she had come, and she said she had come to see her sister 1 year who is in prison with her mother. Inside the prison Agnes and her sisters Sarah and Rose were so occupied playing with their baby sister Rebecca. Sarah told her mother that she longed to see her father also whom they have taken long without seeing. Their mother and father are serving a 60 year jail term, but the father is in another prison which is a big distance away, its quiet expensive to do this visit alongside other visits on the same day.
Grace 7 is one girl who met her father on death row for the first time, she narrated to her father how she had been suffering before she came to Wells of Hope. The father came to me and talked to me while crying and requested if we can help his other two children. He said that Grace told her that she had been working, cooking, fetching water and firewood ,digging and would go without food on some days and that they would beat her.
By 10.00 am we had all reached the respective prisons, apart from the Women’s Prison where children waited for 3 hours before they could see their mothers, the children visiting their parents in the other two prison started off immediately after going through the security checks. The visit in the women prison was delayed because they were still counting the prisoners and they were not getting the numbers well and the mothers were still preparing the special meals that they eat with their children on the special day.
Ellen asked little Agnes 5 years whether she knew why she had come, and she said she had come to see her sister 1 year who is in prison with her mother. Inside the prison Agnes and her sisters Sarah and Rose were so occupied playing with their baby sister Rebecca. Sarah told her mother that she longed to see her father also whom they have taken long without seeing. Their mother and father are serving a 60 year jail term, but the father is in another prison which is a big distance away, its quiet expensive to do this visit alongside other visits on the same day.
Grace 7 is one girl who met her father on death row for the first time, she narrated to her father how she had been suffering before she came to Wells of Hope. The father came to me and talked to me while crying and requested if we can help his other two children. He said that Grace told her that she had been working, cooking, fetching water and firewood ,digging and would go without food on some days and that they would beat her.
Usuallly the children go with their school reports and past papers. During the visit the children were going through past papers, doing correction together with their parents. Some parents were helping their children with homework. Most moving was a mother of Helen and Catherine, their mother is attending elementary school in prison and is in the same class as her daughter Catherine, so they did homework and corrections together, so did Asiimwe whose mother gave her notes and also did homework together.
Betty 15 cried when her father gave her 30,000/= ($12). She was overwhelmed beyond imagination. It is those moments that are difficult to explain.
Mary 14 was also seeing her father for the first time since 2007, Mary is the girl who was defiled by the father and gave the overwhelming evidence that the Judge based on to convict her father. We had been told that the father would be hostile and also we thought Mary never wished to meet her father. But because we work in the best interest of the child, Mary requested us some days back to help her see her father. The visit was real moving. Mary’s father said this was a turning point in his life and that Mary was his first relative visiting him since he was imprisoned. He was grateful that we enabled her daughter to come and see him, however he was saddened about his son Aloysious who was unable to come because he is still in hospital having undergone an operation recently.
Also moving was Marias 7 who peacefully slept off on her mother’s lap, for a long time and it was sad that the visit came to an end before she could wake up by herself, so we had to wake her up .
Betty 15 cried when her father gave her 30,000/= ($12). She was overwhelmed beyond imagination. It is those moments that are difficult to explain.
Mary 14 was also seeing her father for the first time since 2007, Mary is the girl who was defiled by the father and gave the overwhelming evidence that the Judge based on to convict her father. We had been told that the father would be hostile and also we thought Mary never wished to meet her father. But because we work in the best interest of the child, Mary requested us some days back to help her see her father. The visit was real moving. Mary’s father said this was a turning point in his life and that Mary was his first relative visiting him since he was imprisoned. He was grateful that we enabled her daughter to come and see him, however he was saddened about his son Aloysious who was unable to come because he is still in hospital having undergone an operation recently.
Also moving was Marias 7 who peacefully slept off on her mother’s lap, for a long time and it was sad that the visit came to an end before she could wake up by herself, so we had to wake her up .
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