Nakuru Women’s Prison

$12561 Raised of $12,561 Goal

PROJECT: Virtual connections for the Forgotten children of incarcerated mothers

We were honored to be mentioned in Fast Company's 2023 list of World-Changing Ideas in May.

Our project, The Forgotten Children of Incarcerated Mothers, was highlighted under the social justice category among 15 other projects. This category features projects that help advance the cause of civil rights for marginalized people or groups.

The project uses technology to connect incarcerated mothers with their children, and leverages agriculture to give the same women the opportunity to earn income to support their children.

Objective: Reconnect children with their mothers in the criminal justice system

      Provide a way for incarcerated mothers to support their children back home

      Provide quality nutrition for the sick, pregnant and lactating mothers in prison.

Summary: When a mother enters the criminal justice system, they are forced to leave all children above 4 years behind. Most of them completely lose touch with their children often due to financial challenges that make bus fare for visits inaccessible. Going years without seeing your child is torture for any mother. Through partnering with the children's department and the Nakuru women's prison welfare department, we initiated a project to restore family connections by exploiting technology. 24 children were visited and successfully reconnected with their children through virtual calls.

The Forgotten Children of incarcerated mothers is a greenhouse and open irrigation project, meant to help incarcerated women support their children financially, from agricultural proceeds. While tracing the families of the first 25 women involved in the project through our virtual connection program, we discovered that the children live in tough conditions. In less than a year, we have managed to trace 15 families with about 33 children among them.