Day 3- Prison Visit

Bill Gibson offers the morning devotion before breakfast on Monday

The third day of our IVIM team's trip to Senegal was built around the visit to a women's prison in Dakar.  In past years the United Methodist Church has been in connection with the prison by making visits, bringing food and care items.  Funding issues has made these visits less frequent.  You can support this ministry of the UMC by giving here- https://www.umcmission.org/Give-to-Mission/Search-for-Projects/Projects/14524A

But you can still very much see the hands and feet of Christ at work in the prison itself.  We were not allowed to take photos inside, heard and saw amazing stories of rehabilitation and resurrection.

Culturally women in Senegal are not given much opportunity.  Education and job training are hard enough to come by in Senegal; women are not given a fair shake in what little there is to share.  Out of desperation many turn to prostitution.  Our visit today revealed the most common crime among inmates was for Drug Trafficking, a minimum sentence of 10 years.  The prison we visited today housed 124, with 41 guards on shift at a time. Some of the inmates kept very young children with them; children can be housed within the prison until age 3.  It was very unlike any other prison we had seen before; for the most part inmates walked freely to common areas. One large room with mattresses on the floor would hold a dozen inmates or more.  The relationships between the guards and prisons was very cordial. 

We were graciously greeted by Prison Warden Amy Manga, who shared that she visited prisons in several other countries as a learning exercise, including the United States.  There were many differences for her.

"The big issue in the United States prisons is isolation and stress.  You can see here we have many beds in one room. Not much privacy.  But not much isolation," Manga said. "The community is present for each other.'

Manga continued "The guards, we are among the prisoners everyday. We don't fear them. We want a future for them."

Our tour of the prison included what that future might look like: learning a trade. We saw the work of many women in a sewing area, making sheets and tablecloths.  An area was dedicated to 

"That is really what I am fighting for, is to give the women something to have when they leave here."

"Deprived of Liberty, but not of Dignity."