A great way to spend your Valentine ’s Day

Valentine’s Day is a time when people show feelings of love, affection and friendship. You therefore have many choices when it comes to the choice of who or where.

But the reality is that many people find themselves lonely and feel dejected since the person they love is either not feeling the same way or he/she is still a mirage.

However, if you think missing out on gifts or spending Valentine’s Day alone as a free person is hard, well imagine being in prison and having to deal with feelings of loneliness and dejection every day.

Imagine having no one to visit you, send you a card or just someone to shower you with affection not only on Valentine’s Day but also for most part of your term in prison!

Those who have been imprisoned will tell you that Valentine’s Day in prison is probably one of the hardest holidays to deal with and there is nothing more valuable than freedom.

Remember, prison experience is neither normal nor natural, and constitutes one of the most degrading experiences a person can endure. This prolonged adaptations to the deprivations and frustrations of life inside prison lead to certain level of psychological trauma.

Therefore, one of the most important Valentine’s gifts you can give to those in prisons is to show them love and affection through visitations, sending cards and gifts.

There are many forgotten prisoners serving long sentences, and feeling like “a defeated loser in life” since no one seems to care about them. We all know there are such people in jail, yet for some reason they still cling to hope and torture themselves to the possibilities of “what if”.

Many prisoners will be peeping through the windows of their lonely cells hoping that somehow, someway, a Good Samaritan may have taken the time to send them something this month of love.

An organization based in Nakuru is actualizing the “what if” this week by visiting Nakuru women prisons with Valentine’s gifts. This will be in addition to ongoing weekly psychological support activities that our psychologists provide to prisoners and prison staff.

What is your plan for Valentine’s Day? Do not complain that you have no one to share you love and affection with. Moreover, if you are bila mpango, we could have room for one or two people to accompany our team. Otherwise, your gift will still reach the intended recipients if you send it through us.

Iregi Mwenja is the Founder/CEO of Psychiatric Disability Organization based in Nakuru. Email: [email protected], Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Psychiatricdisability/