NGO constructs childcare center at Kisumu Women's Prison

An American Non-Governmental Organisation has built a childcare center at the Kisumu Women's Prison.

Carter Foundation constructed the center at a cost of Sh8 million.

The foundation director Patrice Andre Carter said the center will help children whose mothers are serving different sentences in the prison.

While handing over the facility, Carter noted that she was touched by the welfare of the children whose mothers are in prison.

She said the centre will allow the children to learn and interact with other children.

“This is a centre that will bring smiles to the faces of children and give them an opportunity to interact with other children,” Carter said.

More than 15 children are always with their mothers inside the prison depriving them of the opportunity to learn and interact with the outside society.

Carter noted that she has the vision to help other correctional facilities set up such centers.

Prison always allows mothers to be with their children for up to four years while serving their sentences before they are released to other family members.

Further, Carter stated that children are not imprisoned and should be given great care while their mothers serve their sentences.

She noted that she will try and mobilize funds to put up the same structures in other women correctional facilities across.

“I am not ending here as I will try to mobilize funds to be able to put similar centers in other women correctional facilities across the country,” she said.

The center is fitted with state-of-the-art toys, full of beds, and a classroom for the children.

There are also rooms set aside for the mothers, which they can use to breastfeed their children away from the glare of the public.

While receiving the center, Deputy Commissioner General Prison Florence Momanyi hailed the project noting that the center will go a long way in shaping how children accompanying their mothers should be treated.

Momanyi said that other correctional facilities will borrow heavily from Kodiaga Women Prison facility to give the children an environment that is conducive for their growth.

“Our children who are victims of circumstances, serving a sentence for a crime they do not understand, a crime which they did not commit,” she said.

Momanyi thanked the Carter Foundation for the big heart in putting up the state-of-the-art facility.

Josephine Mutuku, the boss who is in charge of Kisumu Women Prison also noted that the project was one of a kind in the Western Kenya region.

Mutuku said the center will be beneficial to the children for years to come.

“This is a blessing to children from now and the generation to come. This project has brought joy and excitement around this prison since it is first of its kind in the entire region,” she said.