Another visit !

The Prison Babies came to our school again last Thursday. Unfortunately, only five of them came this time and also we couldn't do anything as none of us have got any plan for them. One of the children, Thail(hope I spelled his name correctly), gave us an inspiration saying that he wanted to play football with us. We went down to the primary field and played there. It was pretty fun and I believe the children enjoyed it.

We heard a good news and a sad news. Good news is that we had a new baby last week. She looked frightened a bit, but she seemed to be getting along with others pretty fast. A sad news is that the eldest girl's mom is discharged soon that today was the last day with her. It's certainly good for her, but we'll miss her a lot.

Anyway, we've only got two weeks from now on before the December break. We made Corien and Upanda come up with a plan for next week and we are planning to go to McDonald with them on the last day.

I(Young jun) didn't know that the language B department is fund raising for Prison Babies. I saw a poster of Prison Babies they made on the wall and heard that they are fund raising for us. It's really good to hear and I hope we can do more with the children or donate some basic needs and goods they may need.

Second Visit !

We visited the prison this week for the second time !
The plan, that we'd visit them once in two weeks, seemed to be working very well.
We went there and met the children. We brought some play dough, the paper and the scissors into the prison. (we were probably not allowed to, but the guards didn't realize it.)
We cut the paper and made the crown for them. We also made Halloween pumpkin with the play dough. We couldn't bring any sorts of electric appliances that we couldn't bring the camera and couldn't take the picture which is really sad.

It was raining that day and we thought we'd not be able to play with them at the playground in the prison. But they seemed that they REALLY REALLY REALLY want to play that held our hands tight bringing us outside.

The time past so fast that we thought it's only been a few minutes, but then we had to leave at one point. We said goodbye to them for that day and wished to see them next week as well.

Long Time No see!

After the one week-long summer break, we had the first meeting with the children this week.
Maybe because of the visit we had last time, more new children came this time. It's certainly a good thing that more mothers are opening their minds to send their children here.
We couldn't really plan anything for the children that we just played with them at the primary field. They seemed to be getting familiar with us more and more after each week we meet with them.

First Visit !

Last Thursday, we visited the prison for the first time this year as we planned. It has been changed pretty a lot.

We were not allowed to bring anything that we couldn't take any photos. It seemed that they have tightened the guard and security that they frisked our bodies which was different from the last visit from 2008.

The most significant change was that they have finished building the school for the children and many more new faces were there. Now they actually have a place to teach and play only for children. The new building looked good and clean which was reasonable for children to stay.

As we brought some coloring pictures and color pencils and pens, we painted with them again like last week. We wanted to plan something new, but we couldn't really bring anything into prison that the activities we could do was limited.

After painting, we came outside and played with them. Many of the children were new that they didn't really open their minds to us. We were not so familiar to each other that they were scared of us and cried only last time. Good thing about this visit was that many of them are actually opening their minds and smiled as we are getting familiar.

This visit was really meaningful and fun. We hope that we can visit them more often this year.

First day with the children

Prison Babies in 2007 - 2009

What we basically do in Prison Babies is to visit the prison and play with children living in there. Since their outdoor activities are limited and are deprived of a normal childhood existence with family and friends, instead spending their days with prisoners and institutional staff, the students at OSC have decided to visit them to spend at least an hour with them.













However, we were not able to visit the prison for the security reasons for last few years. Fortunately, we could still have contact with them and bring them to our campus that we were able to continually meet with them every Thursday after school. Most of us are non-Singhalese speakable. We cannot understand every single words they are saying, but still we can see and feel the innocence and brightness in them. We believe that we ain't so different, but we are much more similar in many ways that we can be good friends. We hope to believe that they would feel the same way as we do.












From the year of 2009, we are planning to visit the Prison more often. We've been planning this from last year, but it didn't really work well because it was hard to get the permission from them. We could only visit there once from last year, but this year, we are planning to be more active. As the long Sri Lankan civil war is over, we wish that it'll be much easier to get the permission to visit them.

Prison Babies at OSC

In 1996, after reading a newspaper article about imprisoned women and their babies, the students of OSC undertook to help these children. Initially the activities consisted of art, games and singing in an attempt to brighten their days. Gradually our group realized that the children required more than games, such basic necessities like a balanced diet and proper clothing. The babies seldom received cereal, special baby food or even fresh fruits, things most of us take for granted.

These children were deprived of a normal childhood existence with family and friends, instead spending their days with prisoners and institutional staff. The OSC has contributed immensely to changing this situation by their positive interaction and assistance, thereby, bringing a much needed ray of sunshine to their day.

The aim of the prison babies group is to further improve the quality of life of these less fortunate children who serve a sentence for crimes they never committed, condemned to this life as the unfortunate victims of their mothers crimes.

The hard work and commitment of the student volunteers of the OSC have not gone unrecognized. In 1999, this project was selected for the first prize among 27 international schools due to the unique nature of this activity. Furthermore, in 2000 the program was awarded a NESA grant. The OSC sponsors a regular local teacher in the preschool.