“When the community comes together, no one individual has to
do a lot.”
On behalf of the staff and volunteers of the Tostan Prison Project, a sincere
thank you to all who donated to the recent clothing drive for the women’s
prison. The response from the community was beyond my expectations. My
intention was to collect clothes for the women’s prison in Dakar in Liberte VI,
but the community was so generous and receptive that we had enough clothing to
donate to four prisons, the women’s prison in Rufisque, Thies and four
bags to the youth prison in Hann-Dakar. Thank you to the Dakar Women’s
Group, ISD and US Embassy CLO Office for being drop off sites for the
clothes. And a big thank you to Marlene Driggers for transporting bags of
clothes from here and there to the Tostan office. Special thank you to
all for taking care to donate clothes that were gently used, new, clean, often pressed
and neatly folded. It made the task of going through each bag
much easier. The clothes donated were distributed to the women in Liberte
VI on March 8th at an event celebrating International Women’s Day. Know that
your pre-loved clothing ( and some shoes and bags) are well appreciated.
Sometimes it is the small things that can make a big difference.
The Tostan Prison Project, initiated in 2003, is in 5 prisons in Senegal.
The aim of the project is to strengthen prisoners’ capacities and
self-esteem, and train them in important income generating skills so that they
could positively reintegrate their families and communities and permanently
sustain a new way of living after serving their sentences. The project is
dedicated to changing lives, strengthening families and building safer
communities. This is a small project that is having a major impact on the lives
of a vulnerable population. If you would like to know more about the prison project
and how to donate funds to support our efforts, please feel free to contact
Tostan at 33-820-5589. Please visit Tostan at www.tostan.org and join us on facebook and twitter.
Jerejef!!
Marie Nazon,
Fulbright Scholar
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