Chreso Ministries (Go Centre) has been active in prisons since 1992. Initially providing counselling and support for daily necessities.

When Chreso Ministries became a recipient of PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief by the US Government) support in 2004, being the first private NGO who offered free AR Treatment in Zambia, an outreach for testing, counselling and treatment was started in the Lusaka prisons. This work is still ongoing even in 2022.

This has partly been documented in a Research by Human Rights Watch which was published under the title: Unjust and Unhealthy:

See some excepts below:

Access to ART has also improved among the prison population in recent years. For inmates who have tested positive for HIV, ART is often available to HIV-positive inmates at the prison referral hospital or through the Go Centre/CHRESO, for those six prison facilities they serve.

Of the prisoners we interviewed who had tested positive for HIV, 60 percent overall were started on treatment including ART, cotrimoxazole, or any other form of treatment, 89 percent of them on ART. Prisoners at the larger prisons, particularly Lusaka Central and Mukobeko Maximum Security (both served by the Go Centre), were more likely to be started on treatment than their counterparts at smaller, rural prisons.

Quoted from Page 60

HIV treatment to prisoners is highly dependent on the intervention of the Go Centre at the facilities where that NGO operates; Go Centre health professionals dispense the medication, which may be kept on the inmates’ persons in between visits or delivered by a nurse. At Mukobeko Maximum Security Prison, where the Go Centre conducts voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) and provides drugs, the prison administration reported that 142 prison inmates were on ART, 15 of whom were also on treatment for TB. At Lusaka Central, 113 prisoners were on ART, and 19 on both HIV and TB medication through the Go Centre and Hospital. Waiting lists to access ART were reported both through government hospitals and NGOs.

Quoted from Page 60

Unjust and Unhealthy – HIV, TB, and Abuse in Zambian Prisons – Copyright © 2010 Human Rights Watch

ZAMBIA INMATES SKILLS TRAINING AND PSYCHOSOCIAL PREPARATION FOR RELEASE

This project has been started in 2019 with funding of the European Union and in collaboration with VSO. The objectives are as follows:

Overall Objective: To contribute to inclusive sustainable growth through skills development of incarcerated populations and strengthened community based systems for their reintegration.

Specific Objective: To enable the successful reintegration of released inmates from 5 correctional facilities through the provision of technical, entrepreneurial and vocational skills training for their economic empowerment and improved response capacities in communities. 

This program seeks to train inmates in various skills in readiness for their release from correctional facilities. The aim is to make them self reliant after their release. It also provides psychosocial support for inmates and communities to which they will be released. This is with to help inmates and their families to increase the chances of a better reintegration into their communities. This program is implemented in four correctional facilities, namely Nyimba and Chipata in Eastern Provice, Samfya in Luapula Province and Namwala in Southern Province.

The program is nearing the end of its lifespan and has very successfully enabled inmates to gain skills. Some of whom have already released from their correctional facility have shown remarkable progress in the utilisation of their skills.