Hope for children raised in prison

Fondation Dora supports Plan International in its Hope Behind Bars for Children programme in El Salvador.

In El Salvador, the children of incarcerated mothers are entitled to live in prison with their mothers until they are five years old. As many of the women have experienced abuse or other violations of their rights, they are at-risk to replicate these dynamics in their parental roles.

A guide to improve child welfare

The programme works to provide the mothers the training they need to be more attentive to their child’s developmental requirements and to help establish a more positive and loving relationship.  

From 2017 to 2018, Fondation Dora supported phase one of Plan International’s pilot programme to create an “Early Childhood Comprehensive Care and Development Guide” (CAIPI, in Spanish) for incarcerated mothers, pregnant women, as well as the penitentiary staff. The guide focuses on children's rights and early childhood development and aims at improving the development and the well-being of the children living in prison. Phase 1 was conducted in El Salvador’s Izalco Prison with promising results.

Phase two of the project will work to institutionalize the CAIPI guide and its practices in order to ensure the programme’s sustainability as well as work on strengthening the transition route for children who have aged out. The project will help smooth their transition to new homes outside the prison and work to ensure their rights are protected. 

Main Goals of Hope Behind Bars, Phase II: 

• Improve the parental skills of women deprived of their liberty so they can provide love and care to their children with a focus on children’s rights
• Institutionalize the comprehensive “Early Childhood Comprehensive Care and Development Guide” as part of the Penitentiary Governmental Model
• Provide comprehensive orientation and care for women and children when it is time for the 5-year-old child to leave the prison
• Extend the programme to other prisons housing women of reproductive age

Target beneficiaries: 

• Direct: 600 women deprived of liberty and their children under 5 years old (181) who are living in the penitentiary centre
• Indirect: 40 penitentiary staff and 30 staff from different government institutions

Plan International is a development and humanitarian organization that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

Fondation Dora has supported the “Hope behind Bars for Children” programme of Plan International since 2017.