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AOE

medical assistance

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1. These are as varied as they are surprising for visitors: there are those who make slippers and small bags from mute, weavers of woolen bracelets and makers of wooden crosses... everything and anything that can be used as activities to pass time and then to transform into a way of earning money.

2. The infirmary is, in its current form, inadequate to deal with the needs of the sick, even for those that are most sick or suffering from acute conditions. Formal applications have been made to the government on this issue and we are currently awaiting a response.

1. Medical assistance

Access to treatment in prison is still far too frequently based on the ability to pay. The prisoners have no income apart from their occupation in prison 1 (for those who are lucky enough to have one) and their families. The majority, therefore, have no resources. Their situation, particularly when they have been incarcerated for several years, gets progressively worse as families tend to visit less and less as time goes on.

Jean-Michel distributes medication, trains nurses, and provides diagnoses for chronic problems, advising local staff how to continue treatment in our absence. He advises on hygiene and the precautions that need to be taken regarding contagious illnesses. From Belgium, he is in regular contact with religious staff in the prison as well as our local team, in order to supervise activities in the prison.

When we are working locally, we bring bread and yoghurt for the infants, the sick, the weak 2 and the abandoned.