19 - 25 August 2019 Set Aside As Prison Family Week 2019.
According to the ZBC News Online:
…There are hundreds other inmates who receive virtually no visitors and they all have one wish-for someone to pay them a visit. It is a hope that they nurse everyday as they ask themselves endless questions on why life has given them such a bitter portion as the forgotten.
Zimbabwe every year sets aside the Prison family Week and this year it has been set for 19 – 25 August. During this time visitors can go visit their incarcerated relatives and get to interact with them freely as family and friends. The Prison will be open from 8AM to 4PM.
Gen Zimbondi urged Zimbabwe to remember to visit their relatives during the Prison Family Week as the visiting hours will stretch for 8 hours for 7 Days. Speaking to ZBC News Online Gen Zimondi said:
They need support from their families and friends. We encourage everybody, men and women to go and see their relatives in prisons, families can bring children so that they can see their mothers they should be able to discuss with them what is happening at home. We are also concerned with visits by men to the female prison, our experience is that men usually don’t want to come and see their wives at the female prison.
Husbands of incarcerated wives were also asked to visit their wives as they reportedly shun the prison. One female inmate who spoke to the publication said:
Dai varume vedu vambouyawo kuzotiona mhoti tavasuwa, todawo kuwonekwa chero hug chaiyo. ( We wish our husbands would come to see us, we yearn to be seen and even be hugged at least)
More: ZBC News Online