Malindi Prison Training in Kenya, by Megan Yarberry

The following is a guest blog by Megan Yarberry, originally posted on the the Traditional Chinese Medical College of Hawaii website.  She is dean of academics at TCMCH.  Megan has facilitated several NADA trainings including Haiti, Uganda and Kenya, including one at a few years back at Omari Project, whose counselors have been providing NADA treatments inside prisons.  This training was designed to empower the prison staff at Malindi with NADA ear acupuncture skills, so that treatments could be available more frequently to the prisoners. 

 Malindi Prison Training in Kenya, By Megan Yarberry

http://www.tcmch.edu/blog/?m=201104

It was a surprise to me when Shosi suggested it would be possible to train staff at the Malindi prison on this trip.  At the prison, there are about 600-700 male prisoners, and there is a small women’s ward next door with around 50 women.  The idea of training prison staff tends to raise eyebrows, concerns and objections, but NADA President Dr. Kenneth Carter had described the success of NADA programs in UK & US prisons when visiting Omari in December (see December blogs), and I had done some interning in Oregon prisons years ago, and remembered how much the inmates appreciated the treatments.

The Omari Project has been providing programs at the Malindi prison for years, and began incorporating
NADA into their counseling sessions after their staff received NADA training.   Because the Omari staff was providing services only once per week at the prison, Social Welfare Officer  (at the prison) Said Omar discussed with Shosi the possibility of training prison staff to increase the frequency of treatments.

So, while Shosi and I were overseeing clinical hours at the Faza training, we whipped up a letter of invitation to the Senior Warden and sent it off to Omari offices in Malindi to be printed on letterhead and delivered to the prison.  The invitation was accepted, and in 3 days we began training prison staff at a little church outside the prison.  

The trainees included the In Charge of the Prison Dispensary, the Officer of Spiritual Welfare, two Officers of Social Welfare, the VCT Counselor (who does HIV testing and counseling), and prison guards.  Because NADA had for years been incorporated into the prison programs, the trainees already had a good idea of what treatment entails, and the benefits to their prison population.

I was amazed at how smoothly this training went, and how the training was supported by prison administration.  For example, several of the guards were on night duty at this time, but their schedules were rearranged so that they could participate in the full session and still be rested.   When it came time to do the clinical portion of the training, we were given full access to inmates and were provided numerous treatment sites to accommodate the large numbers of prisoners being treated.  After years of requesting and being denied permission to photograph the work Omari is doing in the prison, we were given leave to do so.

The training demolished some of my own preconceptions about prisons.  On the 2nd day of training I was speaking to a couple of the guards during the break.  I asked about the relationship between guards and prisoners, assuming it was hostile and prone to abuses.  Both young men said “we all get along well; this is our community since we live in barracks near the prison 11 months of the year and see each other every day.”  I wondered if this was really true, as I’ve spoken with people who served time at this prison some time ago, and they described serious human rights violations, so I asked Shosi and other senior staff about it.  

Every person asked said there have been huge changes in the prison system in the past 5-10 years and that the relations between staff and inmates are positive.  Shosi said that years ago Omari would never have had access to prisoners, as the situation was such that noone was allowed into the prisons to see what was going on, but the system and approach have shifted from purely punitive to rehabilitative.  And in fact the interactions I observed between staff and prisoners was almost familial as they were so comfortable and seemingly without suspicion or mistrust or any sense of one group dominating or intimidating the other.

Another surprising characteristic of Kenyan prisons is that children live in the women’s ward.  I had seen this in Langata women’s prison in Nairobi when visiting Ketan Joshi’s NADA sessions there in December.  The same is true in Malindi, where one of the first sights I had upon entering was a woman giving her toddler a bath in the courtyard.  Many of the women came in to the treatment area with their small children slung on a hip, and the women shared the care of the children while moms were treated.  I asked Lilian, the VCT counselor about the presence of these children and she replied as if it were perfectly obvious ‘the children haven’t done anything wrong, why would they be punished by being removed from their mothers?”  I suggested that in US prisons there might be some concern about the children being harmed in a prison, and she looked horrified and assured me that the children here were cherished by the whole prison community.

In spite of these relatively positive aspects of the prison, it is still a prison.  There is overcrowding, disputes among prisoners, high rates of disease such as HIV and TB, lots of drug dependence, as well as mental and psychiatric disorders including depression and suicidal ideation.  While Omari provides a program to those who are addressing addiction issues, we are hoping a larger segment of the prison population will benefit from increased access to NADA.

Most of the trainees were nervous about their skills during the classroom session, and there were lots of sore ears after the 2nd day.  Once clinical sessions started with the inmates, however, and they saw the relaxation and heard the responses from the prisoners, they themselves relaxed and became much more confident.  I was surprised when – in describing the treatment to new groups – the trainees described their own experiences since they’d started receiving NADA points during the training:  better sleep, decreased cravings for cigarettes and alcohol etc.  These are normal responses to the treatment, but they hadn’t mentioned them during our time in the classroom.

The Omari team had been providing NADA in the men’s section of the prison for years, so many of the male inmates had already experienced the treatment.  It was wonderful to have a prisoner pass by, see what was going on, and ask whether he could join a session.  The treatment had not been available in the women’s prison, so we spent more time there describing it and giving demonstrations.  The responses were classic NADA:  “it feels as if a big load has been removed and I feel lighter,”  “I feel very relaxed,”  “I feel happy in my body.”

After completing the clinical sessions, the Warden joined us for the awarding of certificates, and expressed again his support for the program and appreciation for provision of the training.

The Omari team is hoping that by training prison staff in the NADA protocol, treatment frequency will increase and better support inmate health while improving overall outcomes at this site.

As an alumni of the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, Megan was introduced to NADA prison work as a student intern at the Washington County Community Corrections, which has had acupuncture for 18 years, a program which will sadly be closing this June due to budget cuts. To see more of her photos, and several other blogs on her recent NADA work in Kenya in Dec 2010 as well as April 2011 go to http://www.tcmch.edu/blog/?p=386.