Prison Work

The dignity and protection of the rights of PLHIV in rehabilitation and correctional facilities is key in ensuring quality access to HIV and TB services. ZNNP+ is committed towards working with prison in-mates and ex-inmates. The ZNNP+ Prisons Project started in 2008 in Bulawayo Khami Medium Prison. At the time, there were no funding partners available to provide support services or programmes for inmates in general and inmates living with HIV in particular. Therefore, activities were financed by ZNNP+ and mainly by dedicated staff who volunteered their time after having seen the importance of providing support to people living with HIV (PLHIV) in prisons. The type of support provided to PLHIV included peer counselling, support group formation, treatment literacy and adherence and positive living.

In 2010 and as a result of the work in Khami Prison, ZNNP+ received financial support from Comic Relief through Trócaire Zimbabwe to scale up the prisons project. The funding targeted Bindura, Mutare, Gwanda and later Masvingo prisons respectively. The activities under the Trócaire supported project included training of peer educators, peer educator review meetings, support group formation, treatment literacy training and support for prison initiatives including the procurement of hygiene and sanitary ware. In 2014, Inquiry Based Stress Reduction (IBSR) and income generating support was added to the list of activities under the prison project.

In 2015, Prison project received support from Voluntary Service Oversees (VSO) with the aim of improving the health services of both prisoners and ex-prisoners through a number of activities. ZNNP+’s targeted Harare Prisons namely Chikurubi Maximum, Chikurubi Female, Chikurubi Farm, Harare Central and Harare Remand.

The primary focus of the prisons project is to improve TB/HIV services within prisons, the project will also work to ensure that ex-prisoners, particularly those who are HIV infected, will be linked to community HIV and AIDS services for continuum of care, linking the ex-prisoners to community based referral structures and provision of psychosocial support and socio-economic community reintegration.