Number 61                                                             February     2004

Sister In Law Claims Brother In Law's House
A sister in law to a deceased man of Mongu is reported to have changed the ownership of the deceased's house into her name.
The woman claimed that the house was bought by her husband who happens to be the deceased's brother.
Young brother to the deceased, Mundia said his elder brother who was a government employee at permanent secretary's office was offered a house to buy in Mulambwa as the sitting tenant.
Mundia said since his deceased brother did not have money to pay for the house, his other brother Kasiye paid for the house.
When the man died, Kasiye's wife claimed the house and changed ownership of the house claiming it was her late husband who paid for it.
Mundia complained that the action taken by Kasiye's wife was not good because the family of the deceased were suffering without accommodation.
Mongu LRF paralegal Sianga Mulunga said the woman had no right to change the ownership of the house into her name because according to the Intestate Succession Act the widow to the owner of the house as life interest and the children are the absolute owners of the house.
And in another development, the Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) in Mongu recently helped a man to get back his job after his employer terminated it.
Mungenisa who has been working for APG Milling as a switcher from 1998 todate said on January 19 2004 he was served with a dismissal letter for being absent from work for three days.
Mungenisa said he was only paid K34, 930 as his dues.
Mulunga wrote a letter to Mungenisa's former employers requesting them to avail the office with a disciplinary code of conduct so that they could know whether the dismissal was lawful.
Mungenisa was reinstated by his employers on January 26, 2004 after receiving the letter from LRF.

Damisheal Brings Hope To Children Imprisoned With Their Mothers
By Madube Pasi Siyauya
A lot has been said about deadly diseases that have rocked almost all prisons in the country, little or no solution has been found.
The saddening thing is that the children detained with their mothers are affected too.
The children are being denied their right to shelter, education, clean water, safe and habitable environment with freedom of movement in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Children's Rights.
Prison meal routine is only once a day, all prisoners are locked in at 15:00 hours together with their children in congested cells until the following day.
It is to everyone's knowledge that conditions in prisons are not conducive for the children as they are crowded most of the time exposing them to communicable diseases.
The children do not enjoy their sleep like any other babies as they are forced to wake up early and go to court with their mothers. They go hungry, are subjected to the scorching heat and rain as they wait for long hours at court. They are also cramped in inhuman court cells, which have poor ventilation and sanitation.
While some of these children were arrested together with their mothers, others are born in prison.
The women who are jailed or remanded with their children stay with them in prisons because they have no relatives who can take care of them outside prison.
Just like all the children in the world, the children in prison also need clothing, food and medication. But most of these children have no one to provide these necessities for them as they live on hand outs from well wishers.
A visit by LRF staff at Lusaka's Central Prison found a mother with a two-week-old baby who only had one pair of clothes donated by inmates. Loveness Mbewe 30, of Chibolya compound was arrested with a six months pregnancy and gave birth in January 2004 had nothing to change her baby.
Most women interviewed said, the Catholic Church usually donates milk and soap to the inmates, which is usually not enough.
The Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) prisons programme has started assisting women by making follow ups on their cases. Some of these women have been remanded with their children for over one year pending trail. Most of them have complained of delayed trial while other organisations provide education to the children in prison.
Damisheal Christian Academy (DCA) a school established ten years ago by Susan Banda has embarked on a Silon Ubuntu Project.
The project aims at providing education for the children imprisoned with their mothers.
The children are picked from prison in the morning and are taken back in the evening.
Banda says she hopes that this would be an on going project as long as there are mothers who are incarcerated with their children.
Banda says the guideline principle of her school is the building of strong and moral character in children based on bible teachings.
"At present the children and their mothers are in the same dwelling quarters as the rest of female prisoners. The first phase of the project will be construction of sleeping quarters, playroom that will be used as a classroom, a kitchen, dinning area and meeting area.
The projects will also provide education for the kindergarten to pre-school stage. The project will cost about K300 Million. DCA will provide teaches and other school requirements," she said.
Banda said the Lusaka City Council has already approved the plan for the pre-school and the project has been granted land adjacent to the female section of the prison with building materials already on site.
Currently, DCA goes to prison to collect the children to take them to their school and back to prison every day. The school has provided all the requirements for the children such as uniforms and food.
Banda said the project aims at separating the innocent children from the unconducive prison environment. She says the separation from the prison environment enables the children enjoy some of their rights. It will also cause people to detach the deeds of the parents from the innocent children.
However, Banda says the project had a number of children fluctuating between 5 to 30 due to transfers, acquittals and discharges.
Banda says there are a lot of NGOs looking after the rights of the child but no one is paying attention to the rights of a child in prison. "If they were asked to speak a thing the children in prison would say that they are not happy.
The difference between street children and the children in prison is that the ones in prison do not choose to be there while the most on the streets want to be there by running away from homes, she said.
Banda said that she has not received any funding from any one and that she is just using her resources from the school to fund this project. She said as a Christian she believes that business is not for one person but that it must benefit other people.
Some people have asked her to adopt some children but Banda says that is not her vision. " The aim is to let the child grow with the mother and we are just contributing by making life easy for the child. There is a lot of potential in these children which is not being released in prison. We also want to facilitate for children who are left at home by the women who are incarcerated to be able to come to prison to visit their parents, "she said.
Banda shared that the first time the children were picked from prison, they cried but now they are used and usually do not want to go back there.
She said some times when she drives them through the prison, 'the children call prison their home'. She said some of these criminals around are as a result of being born and raised there. She said the children grow up thinking that prison life is normal. Lillian Lukanga a remadee in Lusaka central Prison told the LRF news that she has three children two of which are being looked after by her sick mother.
She is remanded with her two year old daughter. Lukanga says she is not happy having her daughter in prison "If I had someone to take care of her, I would give her up," she said. Lukanga is a happy mother because her daughter leaves prison for school every day.
Currently, there are13 breast feeding mothers and five expectant mothers at Lusaka Central prison.