dually between now and 2012. It will be closely monitored by a joint steering committee composed of the Zimbabwean Ministry of Justice, the Zimbabwean Prison Service and the ICRC.
The ICRC will continue to support the prison authorities by helping to boost production on prison farms, renovating water and sanitation infrastructure and ensuring that inmates have better access to health services and the judicial system.
We will also continue to monitor conditions of detention and the treatment of inmates, while maintaining confidential, constructive dialogue with the authorities on how best to improve the situation.
Supporting prison farms is one of your main activities. How does this help improve diet in prison?
We currently support several prison farms that are producing groundnuts, maize and vegetables for 8,000 inmates.
The main difficulties are poor soil quality and a lack of water, particularly in the winter. To increase production, the ICRC has therefore set up irrigation systems and provided training, seed and fertilizer.
At Mutimurefu Prison in Masvingo, for instance, the ICRC has supported the planting of 1.8 hectares of tomatoes, cabbage, spinach and leafy green vegetables. As a result, each of the 390 inmates now receives 200 g of fresh vegetables per day.
The main purpose of this project is to boost food production for inmates, thereby helping the authorities to manage the food supply more independently. We are aiming for long-term results!
In 2010, the ICRC:
- visited 11,400 inmates in 26 prisons and provided them with blankets, soap and other essential items;
- provided medicines and medical supplies for prison dispensaries;
- supplied groundnuts, beans and oil for more than 8,000 inmates in 17 of Zimbabwe’s largest prisons;
- helped 18 prisons to grow sugar beans, groundnuts and vegetables;
- renovated irrigation systems on five prison farms;
- renovated kitchens in eight prisons and renovated the water supply system in four;
- provided knitting machines and vocational training to several prisons so that inmates could make warm clothing
- helped more than 4,000 inmates to keep in touch with their families using ICRC writing materials.