HOPE BEHIND BARS

Some are disabled. Some are octogenarians.  Even worse, perhaps, some are innocent of wrongdoing or were forced to own up to crimes in exchange for money to alleviate extreme poverty.  Many are living in regret and asking for forgiveness.  These are the people that society has labeled with numbers --  faceless, forgotten.  In many ways, prisoners die before their time to a world they knew but which is now only a faint memory.

Hope is what Tan Yan Kee Foundation’s Hope Caravan, with volunteers from the Fortune Tobacco Corporation, brought to the New Bilibid Prison’s Medium and Minimum Detention Center inmates.  With the message that they are not forgotten, volunteers provided counseling sessions as well as entertainment through songs and dance.  

Prison Chaplain Msgr. Roberto Olaguer and Officer-in-Charge Gen. Antonio Cruz expressed their heartfelt gratitude for the help and concern of Hope Caravan and Tan Yan Kee Foundation.  Aside from counseling and entertainment, Hope Caravan provided the following:

• Drums to store clean water for drinking and sanitation as well as food preparation;
  


• Beddings for more comfortable rest and to help absorb coldness of cement floors where they sleep;
  


• Scrap wood (Palotsina) used for chairs, benches, and fence for their church and school, basketball court, and renovation of their kitchen;
  


• Scrap Cartons used for ceiling to absorb heat and as dividers for privacy during visits by spouses and family;
  


• Scrap Foil and Scrap Strap Plastics, the former used for livelihood projects and sold with proceeds going to personal needs such as toothpaste, soap, rice, etc. and the latter used for making carry-alls, laundry bags, and can also be used to make folding beds;
  


• Slippers because many of the inmates walk around barefoot;
  


• Used Clothing for their daily use;
  


• Biscuits and Noodles;
  


• Aluminum Plates, especially for older inmates who have a hard time lining up for plates during mealtimes.