HIV Awareness raising in prisons and communities

We usually try to share a personal story of one of the prisoners we work with. Not this time, we now have some good news to share: our prison program is growing so rapidly that we need to hire more staff! 

Only 4 years ago, when we registred this project on Globalgiving.com, our prison program consisted of 1 prison; The hospital section of KlongPrem prison, in Bangkok. We worked with HIV-infected prisoners and trained them in their medication usage. 2 years ago, another prison was added to our program: the woman's correctional institution in Pathum Thani. In that year, we worked with around 60 inmates on a monthly basis.

Succesfull trainings
Last year, one youth prison invited us to come and teach the juvenile inmates about the risks of (unsafe) sex. We accepted this invitation, because many of these youngsters don't get any visitors. We believe that, eventhough they messed up some things in life, they deserve to receive love and attention. The training sessions in this 'new' prison, were succesful and soon, other youth prisons started to invite Siam-Care as well to work with their inmates.

From 1 to 7 prisons
Now, 2018, we give trainings and do counseling in 7 prisons. Which means that hunderds of inmates undergo training by Siam-Care. Next to training, we play games with them in an attempt to distract them from their dire situation. Life in prison isn't easy and all inmates are longing for a bit of distraction. We also offer a shoulder to cry on and listen to the stories of the prisoners. It is amazing and very encouraging to see what a little bit of love and attention can do for the inmates.

Add one staff to our team
Thanks to people like you, we can reach out to all these prisoners. Because we now visit this many prisons, we would love to add another staff to our team. We don't have the budget yet, we need to raise about 500 USD per month. If you know or are the person who would like to invest in these forgotten people in prison: please contact us. Thank you for being a blessing to people in need!

As you perhaps know, Siam-Care doesn't meet most prisoners many times. We usually train the inmates 3 or 4 times, offer counseling, and then start training a new group of people. But recently, this has slightly changed. We have been asked by prison staff to spend extra time with young inmates who have been released and arrested again several times.

Many of the youngsters in prison, are from a poor background. Most of them ended up in prison because the were caught selling drugs. Apparantly, some of them don't just learn their lesson by spending a couple months in prison, as quite a lot of youngsters who currently are in prison, have been there before. After being released, they hang out with their old friends again and often start making the same mistakes again: either selling drugs or stealing. And then they get arrested again, until they are released again and the story starts again. 

During the last couple of months, Siam-Care has been giving extra attention to teenagers who have been in prison 2 or more times. We have been spending time with them, talking about their future and about their dreams: where do they see themselves in 10 years from now? It was touching to see, that most of them are not dreaming of a big carreer and a lot of money, but simply of a house, a family and a happy life. Of course we cannot change them in 3 or 4 sessions. But what we can do, is listen to their stories and remind them of their dreams. They are still young and most of them have been sentenced to 'only' a few months. Once their become adults, and keep on making the same mistakes, the sentences will be much higher and they might actually ruin their own lives. Siam-Care tries to convince them of the fact that they can change, if they really want to. They just have to make good decisions.

Thank you for allowing us to give love and attention to young people, of which many have not received much love and attention from their parents. If they know their parents at all.