behind prison walls

I sat in the shade of an avocado tree looking out at the faces of 100+ women in the female ward of Lusaka central prison. A few CIDRZ colleagues had gathered there to give a talk on HIV and cervical cancer. After initial approval, it took several letters and 3 meetings with the head officer at the prison in just the past week to get the "final" approval, but there we were, inside the prison, with the chance to speak directly with the female inmates.
The women gathered around on cardboard and plastic mats. I could see all their cooking supplies hung up on the surrounding trees and a communal food area in the shade of another tree. We were gathered in the outdoor space where they can spend the daytime and you could see a few shabby buildings where I think there were sleeping quarters. There was also a makeshift washing area with sheets hanging around it to offer a bit of privacy.

Dr. Manassa Phiri, a well known public figure in Lusaka, works for CIDRZ and gave the 1st talk on HIV/AIDS. Most of what was said was in Nyanja and Bemba (2 of the common local languages here) so I had to gage the response from the faces around me. But I got the gist of it. :) Dr. Phiri was really good at interacting with the group. He would pose questions (How is HIV transmitted? How can you protect yourself? ect...) and see what answers the women had. They were really talkative! I was surprised. Often when we go and give health talks, everyone is shy to say anything at first. But these women were very interactive and at the end there was at least an hour of questions they had. Several women came up to Dr. Phiri at the end with questions about medical problems they currently have. They have a prison clinic, but I imagine the care is minimal there. We are in talks to see if there's a way to bring cervical cancer screening to them via a mobile clinic.

What was really a surprise to me was how many children were there in prison with their mothers. Any child under 8 1/2 is allowed to be with the mother in this ward and at least every 3rd woman had a child, many around 1-2 years old. I was shocked at first to see these toddlers living with their mothers behind the prison walls. But after thinking about the family structure here, where the mother is fully responsible for the care of the children, I realized in some cases, it probably made more sense that the child stay with the mother than be left behind. There's not much of a foster care system here that I have heard of and even if the mother had relatives, they often have many children of their own and may not want to take another child in. It was comforting to see that several ladies looked out for each child, so it was almost like a big motherhood for the children that were there. But still, to see so many young kids in prison with their mothers was heartbreaking.

Throughout the talk, I also couldn't help but watch as I saw family and friends walk up to the chain link fence with bags of food and letters to give to their family members inside the prison. If they get a permission slip, they can walk right up to the fence and speak with an inmate. Often, there were children that came to visit and my tears filled up when I saw them holding hands with their mother/sister/aunt through the wire fence as they talked to each other. I don't know what the majority of crimes were that these women are imprisoned for, but my heart went out to them.

The second prison we visited was an all male remand prison, meaning the inmates were on trial or awaiting conviction. We first sat and chatted with the chief officer, named Happy, no joke. He was a minister and very friendly. He talked about how excited he was that we had come and paid notice to his prison and that they needed more of this kind of dialogue.
We were then escorted in by Happy into an open dirt yard with 3 plastic stools set up in front of 500+ men, gathered and seated on the dirt in front of the chairs. About 3 guards stood by leisurely keeping an eye out....no handcuffs, no fence to separate us. I'm not sure what it was about the inmates, maybe the many smiles that they welcomed us with, but I didn't feel threatened during our time there, which I had been worried about when we first heard about what it would be like inside.
This talk was another example of a group of people really interested in learning, or at least in keeping us there for as long as possible. I don't think many women had been to visit recently! We were a highlight of the week I think. My colleague spent the whole talk on HIV and answering a barrage of questions, from "If I have sex with a prostitute, can I still get HIV?"....to "How do mothers pass on HIV to their children?" You could tell there was a wide range of knowledge on the issue, including some interesting misconceptions, such as "If I have sex really quickly with different people, I can't get HIV, right?"...I think we clarified that one. :)
Needless to say, it was an entertaining talk and a prisoner served as an english translator so I could understand all the questions and answers being given.

My fellow colleagues said that it is rare that any public groups come and speak to prisoners in Zambia, they are often a forgotten or ignored segment of the population. But these inmates were so hungry for knowledge and for someone to show that they cared enough to visit them. I was really impressed that CIDRZ had taken it upon themselves to include this group in their outreach. I hope they keep up the dialogue and help these inmates access the same services that are available to the rest of Zambians.