Sara from A to Z - ZamNews!

As I've been sharing on this blog, Zambia lacks a well-functioning juvenile justice system. Juveniles cannot afford lawyers or access legal aid. In court, they are undefended, which leads to absurd charges (trafficked children charged as traffickers) and one-sided trials (12 year olds cross-examining police). Juveniles committing petty crimes (stealing from a clothesline) end up in prison for years waiting for court dates (teens waiting since 2012 for a judge to sign their sentencing order). During these long detentions, juveniles are held in adult prisons in inhumane conditions leaving them vulnerable to physical and sexual violence with little or no access to healthcare, education, or other social services.

It seems so much longer than one month ago that I woke up to a new adventure.

I’ve spent nearly seven years in Zambia, most of those years with an unexpected quiet pulling on my heart to get involved in prisons in Zambia. The how and when of this involvement had been elusive time and time again. Since my first visit to the juvenile cells in Kamwala Remand Prison for a legal briefing in March 2014 I could not shake the feeling that I had been tasked to do something about that look of hopelessness in the eyes of those teenagers. Then, months later, during my next visit to the juveniles in Kamwala Remand to make a simple blanket donation with friends, the 59 boys in custody gave us a challenge: Don’t just walk away and forget now that one good deed had been done. It was in that moment that the Undikumbukire Project was born.

In the local language Chinyanga, “Undikumbukire” means “Remember Me”. We chose this name for our project inspired by the boys’ plea to be remembered as well as the plea of Joseph in Genesis 40:14 when he pleads with his fellow inmates upon their release to remember him. As the word “Undikumbukire” is quite a mouthful for locals and expatriates alike, we often shorten it to “UP”.

In the year that followed that June visit, we kept true to the boys’ request and came for visits every three weeks, then every two weeks, until now volunteers visit every week. Our visits have been filled everything from sports to first aid to cooking to origami. More and more people were willing to give of their time and resources to give these boys a few hours relief from their grim daily existence.

A growing number of our weekend volunteers were lawyers. Though we kept ourselves busy chatting to the boys about football, bringing snacks, coaching them in volleyball, etc. we could not ignore the elephant in the room. We also had the skills that could help many of them be free of these cramped and miserable conditions. But how do you intervene in a overburdened and failing judicial system without the knowledge of the specific problems and procedures and without the relationships with the key authorities in the realm of juvenile law?

Momentum to expand the project from supportive visits to include legal interventions was building. Looking back I am amazed at the amount the few of us accomplished  through early morning emails, rushed meetings with officials during our lunch breaks, and late evening group chats as we reviewed case documents. But there simply was not enough time available in the day to build the foundations required for such an important and detailed project.

And that is how my new adventure began. I made the decision to leave my day job of managing a corporate legal services company. I would then be able to devote my time to the investigations, networking, and groundwork our legal project would need to begin making an impact on the legal cases of the young men we have come to know and care about.

So on 1 October 2015 I woke up knowing that I finally had the freedom to pour my time and energy into helping these juveniles who had a strange grip on my heart. The past month has been a whirlwind of court observations, document requests, letters of introduction, guardian tracking, networking, and glowy stars. The creative mind I inherited never stops generating ideas and it takes all the time I have and more to put them into action. Though its only been one month, my earlier frustration has quickly given way to a determination that the many opportunities opening up will be seized on behalf of these juveniles.

I believe I and others can make an impact that will change the system and the lives of these boys forever. It’s monumental task to be sure, and one that will not be accomplished by our efforts alone. But with each joyful spike of a volleyball in the cramped cells and each relieved smile as a boy recognizes our presence at his trial, there is a joy that carries me forward on my new adventure.