“I whisper in his ear at night asking his forgiveness, I hold him close to my bosom allowing him to feel my heart and the immense love I have for him. It is so difficult to talk to him because I am always crying softly but love carries my baby and me through”

In a nursery tucked down the hall way of the Females Inmates Block seats a woman inmate carrying her 3month old baby and holding a wide smile on her radiant face.

31 year old inmate Kelera Rokisi is very fortunate to have not been separated from her baby boy named Joseph, at childbirth.

The young mother who is serving a 24mths sentence in the Females Prison Korovou attributes her good mental state and health to the engagement of Yellow Ribbon Project by Prison officers. 

“I am a mother first then any other thing. I came in to do time while I was in the last trimester of pregnancy. I envisioned many horrible things especially when I was told I would be locked in a cell and all the other stuff we usually see in movies would happen however when I walked through those gates on May 14th this year, the atmosphere was completely the opposite’.

Rokisi who is married and has two other toddlers at home says- the provisions on her and other mothers has been rewarding

“When I came here I acknowledged my wrong and accepted my sentence however it was very hard to realise that my children back home would be without a mother. The Female 
Prison Wardens are amazing. Not only I but other mothers were allowed visitation daily, we eat well, especially lactating mothers, for us we are not left hungry at all. The Yellow Ribbon initiative has made this type of mindset of visiting programs to change and we are given these chances. It’s basic and it drives a teaching to us especially me.”

A tearful and whispering Kesaia adds these provisions allows her not to wonder too much about home but concentrate on herself and Baby Joseph.

“I thank the authorities who have initiated the Yellow Ribbon Project because I am always thinking of home especially in this state. What they have done stops me from wondering about my children back home. Baby Joseph and the separation of my other two children allows me for self check and reflect on my past decisions while talking about it heals me and helps me refocus on all our future as a family.
 This is the reason why I never stop whispering to Baby Joseph at night.  I love him very much and someday I will explain this episode to him .”

The interview with Kesaia was always interrupted by a playful 3mths 3wks Baby Joseph- who is loved by everyone in that complex. 

Those that surround him now have become his first family and as you enter the nursery it no longer reflects a prison but a home, coloured with baby stuff.

This is a fine way to observe the rights of child- “by never separating a child from his mother”. 

www.corrections.org.fj