Please find here a Voice of America article with Gabriel Shumba speaking on Zimbabwe and the ratification of the UN Convention Against Torture.

Link: http://www.voanews.com/zimbabwe/news/Zimbabwe-Moves-to-Ratify–139735773.html

[Posted by Monica on behalf of Gabriel Shumba]

We praise God for the successful screenings we have had so far with the
first human rights film festival in Sierra Leone. We’ve had huge crowds of
students, youth groups, journalists and sex workers who have attended the
screenings.

Today we are taking the festival to Kroo Bay, one of the largest slum areas
in Freetown and one of the most deprived communities. Please pray for
safety and for everything to go smoothly as well as many people being made
more aware of human rights issues and where to seek redress.

Thanks

Sabrina

–
Sabrina Mahtani
Executive Director
AdvocAid: supporting justice, education and reintegration for women and
their children in detention in Sierra Leone

Office: 1st Floor, 39 Liverpool Street, Freetown, Sierra Leone
SL: +232 76 983 150
UK: +44 7957 286 231

http://www.advocaidsl.com

http://www.justgiving.com/advocaid

[Posted by Monica on behalf of Tinashe Chitambira]

1) For the Restorative Justice course with juvenile offenders in Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town – thank God for His choice of participants on the course. Please pray for good relationships to be built. That trust and integrity can be paramount and relationships healed and restored.

2) For wisdom and inspiration as I mentor another worker to run the course . That we will be able to work well together and see rapid results in the lives of the young men, their families and ultimately their communities.

3) For the long standing court case regarding a young man we work with. Things are beginning to get moving in the courts please pray for justice to be done.

4) Personal prayer for my health – I had a gastro infection and ended up in hospital on a drip last week. I feel better now but have little energy – and there is much to do…It is highly frustrating feeling so weary but I am having to trust God and learn to rest in HIm – I just know I need to learn that more !!

5) For my wonderful family as it straddles 2 continents – for God grace and favour and HIs wonderful presence to be more evident in our lives.

[Posted by Monica on behalf of Lindsey Pettit]

- She is giving the finishing touches on a research report on Women, Violence and HIV in Bolivia. Please pray for timing, sharp analysis and logic thinking.

“Please also pray for my understanding of what does the Lord wants me to do in 2012. I finished my roles in the Bolivian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (REDBOL) and this means I have much more free time. I am feeling I might focus on work on violence against women, but I want to hear the guidance of God. Or maybe this is a time for rest and a time to concentrate on my personal life”.

Please lets pray for God’s wisdom to be with Gracia.

[Posted by Monica on behalf of Gracia Violeta Ross Quiroga]

Please Pray for Njihia Njoroge and myself as we work with Prison Officers to prepare Prisoners for release.

[Posted by Sean Callaghan on behalf of Kelvin Mwikya]

Some prayers points, please keep us in your prayers:

1.Purchasing of the Community care centre building

2.Pray the Hope Community slum school children who are going to do their the final examinations.

3. Pray for the Hope home children, who stay at AKS home and are also going for final examinations.

4. Pray for funding sustainability, so that we can be strengthened and for the work to continue.

5. Please pray for Manju and Lawrence and their children, that they will live a life like-salt and light so that when people see their good deeds they glorify our Father in heaven.

6.Finally, please also pray for their children who are also going to final exams.

[Posted by Monica on behalf of Manju & Lawrence Singh]

Just wanted to share with you another exciting project we are involved with – the first Human Rights Film Festival in Sierra Leone, which starts this weekend!

You can find out more details on our website at http://www.opinyuyi.org ot our teaser advert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1qnP-1uwN8

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Sabrina

[Posted by Monica on behalf of Sabrina Mahtani]

I thought you might be interested to receive an email or two every few months, sharing the work that we are doing with some of the most vulnerable people in Africa, through your generous support.

I am writing this sitting in the APP office, on the edge of Kampala. The sun is setting over the town centre, a few hazy kilometres away. The breeze from Lake Victoria, not far from here and clearly visible from our premises, reduces the lingering heating – Uganda has been experiencing a heat wave for the past few months, and you can tell. Kampala is a lush city, with plants, flowers and trees everywhere. The combination of equatorial sun and regular, intensive rain, is the perfect recipe for a vibrant, green landscape. With the rain missing, in places that green is beginning to fade to brown. The sound of worship drifts in through the window from our neighbouring church, which has always been ready to step in and conduct funerals for prisoners without families who were cared for by us before they died.

This afternoon I was with Bosco and Geoffrey, prison warders who you, dear supporters, are helping to study, for a diploma and degree in law respectively, with the University of London by correspondence (two of eight students we currently support through your help). We were joined by Fred, who completed his A levels (and was involved in our health, education and sports programmes) whilst in prison. Fred was sponsored by one of our volunteers to read law when released from prison, and is now doing the bar course to become an advocate.

We were conducting a moot – mock court proceedings, which gives students a chance to prepare a case and present in a court like environment, as if they were barristers (or advocates as they are known here). The case was one of capital murder, in which the advocates were making submissions at the sentencing stage about whether the defendant should receive the death sentence. The moot was based on the case of Derek Bentley, a British teenager, executed at the age of 19 after a highly controversial trial in which he was convicted for the murder of a policeman, after uttering to his co-accused who fired the gun ‘let him have it’. The case was pertinent both because of the youth of many of those that we serve in prison, and because the death penalty is still a very present reality in Uganda and many other African countries, not just for murder but crimes like treason, cowardice and mutiny too. We believe that moots can help prepare prisoners for their own court proceedings, and that prisons staff, and ex inmates, can play an important role in the law in countries without, or with a very limited, legal aid system.

On this visit to Uganda I will also be attending the opening of a library we have established, at Murchison Bay primary school within the Luzira Prison Complex, for 1800 or so children, mostly the offspring of prisons staff. The library contains about 4000 books supporting the Ugandan primary curriculum, and can host 100 or more children at a time. When I met her yesterday, the school’s librarian was beaming with delight at the new facility. Our team of librarians will be supporting her in the management of the new facility, over the coming year. We believe it’s crucial to invest in the development of the whole prison community if we are to bring about change in the lives of prisoners. By supporting, nurturing and helping develop prisons staff and their families, we believe that we can equip those who are with prisoners day in day out to be instruments of change, and help make prisons an attractive working environment.

That’s all for the time being. It would be great to hear from you if you have comments or suggestions in relation to this travel journal.

Thank you again for helping to bring dignity and hope to men, women and children in prisons in Africa, through healthcare, education, access to justice and community reintegration.
Best wishes,

Alexander

[Posted by Monica on behalf of Alexander McLean]

[Posted by Monica on behalf of Gabriel Shumba]