FREEDOM FOR THE PRISONERS

Life in prison 

The majority of the prisoners in the jails of Mozambique - 60% according to the Justice Department - are young people no older than 25. 39% is between 16 and 18 years old. They come from the poorest areas, the suburbs of the cities or the forest villages. More than half of them are in prison for "minimum crimes", small larceny.

Many have no clothes and are forced to wear the same set for months. They sleep on the floor, only the luckiest have a mat to sleep on. 

Soap is a luxury that they receive only once or twice a year. 

 The amount of food they receive is scarce. It's normal to eat only once a day: usually a plate of sweet corn pudding, often with no salt or oil. If one's family lives far or if it's too poor to bring clothes or food, one runs the risk of severe under-nourishment. Hygienic conditions are very bad as well.

Help programs in prison

In many cities of Mozambique, like Pemba, Lichinga, Cuamba, Quelimane, Beira, the local Communities of Sant'Egidio have been present in the jails for over five years. They endeavour to improve the life conditions of the prisoners, to guarantee and promote the respect of human rights, they undertake formation and rehabilitation projects, to prevent people from returning to jail. But they also try to assure the fundamental rights of every man and every woman, to guarantee one's survival and one's dignity: to eat , to be dressed, to take care of one's hygienic conditions.
The work of the Community is on several levels:

1. human rights:
The presence in the prisons, the visit to the prisoners, is the first, important action to protect human rights. It reveals any violations and the most urgent needs of the prisoners, it also gives the chance to support a legal action wherever there is need of it. It isn't rare to discover that, because of their poverty, some of the prisoners stay in jail "forgotten", sometimes for years, waiting for judgement or after their term has already expired, because of the lack of any legal tutelage. The action of the Community of Sant'Egidio has revealed hundreds of similar cases and given the chance to help.

2. Formation and advancement:
Another fundamental right is that to personal dignity and personal advancement. For this reason the Community of Sant'Egidio organises the following courses: 
 - literacy courses, which end with a primary level state exam;
 - professional courses for shoemakers, stuffers, carpenters, zinc-workers,     clay-workers. This professional formation prepares the prisoners to re-enter society once they have served their sentence.

3. food aid:
Under-nourishment and malnutrition represent an extra punishment, a surplus of injustice. Food in fact is the first right to support, fundamental for the survival of the person. That is why, in many African prisons, the Community of Sant'Egidio visits the prisoners regularly bringing them food. This kind of help, which at the beginning was connected to the Easter and Christmas celebrations, has now become a regular activity which reaches thousands of people.

4. sanitary aid:
Together with the food, the right to one's health, thanks to decent hygienic conditions and assuring the possibility of being cured is another unalienable right. The Community endeavours to improve the health conditions of the prisoners by means of some small projects. In some prisons it was possible to promote structural interventions: That is how two "Postos de sa�de", two small hospitals, were built in the prisons of Lichinga and Cuamba, counting 17 places together;
- more than 12 latrines were restored together with the whole water;
- tanks have been installed to collect water.