Stories from children
China
Eight-year-old Xiao Zhou cries because the aunt with whom she lives is angry. Xiao Zhou used to earn high scores at school. But her latest report card shows she has fallen behind the rest of the class. Xiao Zhou sniffles and says that she just wants her mom. It has been nearly a year since her mother was incarcerated and Xiao Zhou hasn't seen her since. Her well-intentioned aunt is convinced the prison is not a good environment to bring children to.
Children are traumatized when their parents are imprisoned. The trauma has many serious consequences, such as shortened attention spans and declining school performance.
morning tears trains adults in China to - among other things - help children cope with their trauma. Bringing Xiao Zhou to visit her mother would definitely help her overcome her trauma - and lift her grades at school.
Europe - Belgium
Ten-year-old Veerle has to take a break from writing in her diary. A tear melts on the paper when she thinks about how she misses her father. Yes, she understands that he did something wrong, but she does not understand why visiting him in prison in not possible.
Veerle?s mother divorced her father when he went to prison. In Belgium, children need to be accompanied by adults during prison visits. But no one is willing to accompany Veerle. She is only told that visiting her father is not possible.
To help children like Veerle, morning tears is setting up a volunteer network of adults to accompany children to visit their parents in Belgian prisons. And it will soon put up a website to provide relevant information to these children, too.
Europe - Russia
Nine-year-old Dimitri does not understand why he is in a state shelter. They are hard on him here although he did nothing wrong. His father is, indeed, an alcoholic but would still make sure to occasionally take Dimitri to visit his mother in prison. Every time he thinks of her, a silent tear escapes his eyes.
Russian law dictates that children with a parent in prison must be "placed" in a state shelter if their other parent cannot take proper care of them. These children can legally visit the imprisoned parent but it's very rare for shelter staff to take them.
morning tears is setting up a home for children of prisoners in Russia and will make sure its children frequently see their imprisoned mothers.
