US donors deliver early Christmas to Kisumu Women's Prison

Inmates at Kodiaga Prison Women were treated to an early Christmas celebration as the Andre Carter Foundation, a US-based charity organization, donated foodstuffs and assorted items to them.

The inmates on Sunday received donations from the foundation and marked the occasion by cutting a cake in anticipation of the upcoming celebrations on Tuesday.

Apostle Patrice Carter, the Executive Director of the foundation, expressed her decision to celebrate and support the women in prison.

“I am not a visitor here in Kodiaga, I thank God that I am returning to celebrate with the ladies,” she said.

Some of the items donated include milk, wheat flour, drinks, cookies, sanitary pads and other assortment of items.

Carter expressed that her Foundation is committed to reaching out to vulnerable individuals during festive seasons to offer hope and love.

She emphasized her desire to ensure that those in prisons feel included and not abandoned, conveying that they are an integral part of the community.

"Am happy to celebrate this day with this women at the Prison. They are part of us and should never in any way feel abandoned during such festivities," she added.

The Foundation has in the past established a children’s center, where children of the inmates can learn and play.

The Centre is fitted with a bedroom, where they can sleep when tired, a playing area fitted with modern playing equipment and a kitchen where their food is prepared.

“I thought about this Centre, because the children are not in prison, it is their mothers, so I felt that children should feel the same as children outside there,’ she said.

The prison management team expressed gratitude for the donations, stating that they will significantly contribute to bringing smiles to the faces of the inmates.

Both the management team and the inmates appealed for additional support for the prison, which currently houses over 70 inmates and five children.

They specifically requested assistance from the Foundation for projects such as drilling a borehole, establishing a dispensary, and constructing a shade within the facility.

“We want a dispensary here so that it can be stocked with medicines to help us when we are sick,” said an inmate.

While responding to their requests, Carter promised to look into the urgent issues, which she says over time, her Foundation will support in terms of momentary assistance.

Carter, who was in the company of her daughter, Keerah Yeowang, said her Foundation will also continue giving out sanitary pads to girls in Kisumu and women in the prison.

“The dignity pads will continue to be distributed since it was spearheaded by my daughter Keerah,” she said.

The inmates who spoke did not hide their joy noting that some of them are abandoned by the family and are unable to access the pads.

“Some of us are here in the prison due to family feuds, so no one thinks about us, no one comes to pay us a visit with presents like bathing soap, pads and other materials important in the lives of a woman,” said another inmate.