Non Profit Organisation Registration No. 040~713  (NPO) 

Contact Us :- E-mail  fosada@live.co.za / fosada3@hotmail.com

Call:                 Lucy +27 083 380 0572

P O Box 5270, Lambton Postpoint, Delmenville, 1403, Gauteng, South Africa

Banking Details: Account Holder - FOSADA

FNB City Deep Branch Code 25-56-05  Account No.: 6207 925 8995

If you have any queries, suggestions or would like to become a "Penpal" send an email with your details or contact us on the cell number above

I’m a prisoner but I’m still a human being

Locking me up and ignoring me won’t solve the problems you are having

I have to be set free back into society some day…

And unless I am equipped and armed with education and job prospects,

I will just end up going back to doing what I have done before, maybe even worse

Most of us come from poverty stricken, abused and broken backgrounds

We don’t even know what it means to be built up and encouraged

Coming to prison, our treatment is not much different

How do you fix what is broken?

How do you give hope to the tormented?

Trust to the betrayed and bring justice to the afflicted?

How do you rehabilitate a prisoner when the teacher needs to be educated herself?

I reach out but there is no-one to hear me calling!

I humbly beg for help but no-one can prevent me from falling!

Pleading for a chance, for love, understanding and care.

And in return I am confronted with ice-cold stares!

Human, what has made your heart so cold?

Judging my actions, yet not knowing what my heart holds?

One mistake and I am impaled with a severe conviction

Giving me no chance, killing me day by day by your unjust afflictions.

I am a prisoner, a criminal, but I am still a human being

I have intelligence and feelings capable of love, learning, changing myself, my life…

If only given a fair and proper chance

Build up the broken people; make us strong in the broken places

What we could not gain in society due to poverty and other disadvantages, give to us in prison

Give us a chance to learn, grow and become people fit to be released and contribute in a positive way

But with no chance, no rehabilitation, with poverty a reality where are we left?

Does someone out there care about our lives, feelings and our future?

We are the rejects of society … but not all of us by choice, but circumstance beyond our control.

Not all of us are driven by greed, but by hunger and cold, the cries and pain in the eyes of our children; by the helplessness of unemployment and a need to have a safe place to rest our heads.

Is there any hope for us, oh human who has the power to help us?

We want to place our faith in the system, but time and time again we have been discouraged by injustice.

What can a prisoner do to become a better citizen, to improve our lives, in such hopeless circumstances – if no-one out there is serious enough, dedicated and compassionate enough to help us?

We want to change, we need your help! But, do you really want to help us?

~ Anneline Mouton ~ 13 July 2007

"By keeping prisoners physically isolated from outsiders, incarceration naturally strains family ties and friendships, promoting the loss of contact and the breakup of relationships. Besides the adverse affect this has on prisoners' psychological well-being while confined, it also bodes poorly for their future readjustment to life outside. It is critical, given these concerns, that the prison system not further exacerbate prisoners' isolation beyond that which is inherent to incarceration." Human Rights Watch quote

Concerned family members and friends of detainees' abroad established a support group in South Africa to assist the prisoners abroad and provide non-judgemental, confidential assistance and support to family and friends left behind. 

They are detainees in countries where in many instances the only way to make it through each day is to buy your own food, bedding and clothing because the country does not provide basic necessities, any form of medical care or essential medicines.

It is only when you become personally involved that you realise the plight that these people are facing, many without support from family or the country of their birth.

The main thing to remember is that we are talking about people - PEOPLE who are brothers, fathers, sons, sisters, mothers and daughters.

They are being forgotten and it will only be through caring and support that they and their family members, who have not commited any crime, will all get through what is proving to be an extremely difficult situation emotionally and physically.