This week I had the privilege of accompanying five UWCCR students and a teacher to a service activity in San Jose. The activity was at a house called Semillitas de Amor: Seedlings of Love. It is part of the organization: Confraternidad Carcelaria de Costa Rica, an international organization that was founded in the USA in 1976 by Charles Colson after his release from prison. In English it is known as Prison Fellowship International. Colson was the chief counsel to President Nixon before being imprisoned for obstruction of justice during the infamous political Watergate scandal. This scandal led to many top government officials being imprisoned and president Nixon resigning from office.
Prison Fellowship provides many services to prisoners such as education and work training, victim/offender programs, legal assistance, reintegration support as well as representing prisoners to authorities relating to prison reform and overcrowding.
Prison Fellowship is also involved in providing assistance and support to prisoners’ families and this is
the focus of Semillitas de Armor. Here children visit together with their main caregiver and are engaged in a range of activities. The center has psychologists who work with both the children and their care givers. Activities range from individual and group therapy sessions, directed play and activities focusing on improving children’s self esteem and building their coping skills. It is hoped that by identifying and helping children at risk, the circle of crime within the family can be broken.
While the UWCCR students were doing various activities with the children, either a mother, or 
grandparent or older siblings was in a group therapy session with the psychologist.
The center caters for children aged 3 – 17. The number of children visiting varies, but on the day of our visit, there were 7 children aged 3 – 11. Two children were first timers and I was very impressed with the sensitive way the UWCCR students integrated them. Initially the children were both very shy, only wanting to watch, but by the end of the session they were running around laughing and playing with the rest of the group and getting plenty of hugs.
The UWCCR group is very ably led by Miriam, a 2nd year student from Norway. On the way to the center Miriam discussed the program they had planned and on the return journey she led a discussion reflecting on the session.
The session itself lasted 2 hours and was very dynamic. Miriam explained to me that due to some children finding it challenging to pay attention for any length of time, they need to keep the sessions very varied. The group started with some singing and action games in a circle then moved on to a story reading by Johnny, a Spanish teacher at UWCCR. Following on from discussions about the story, the children spread out on the ground to begin their drawings that reflected on the story. They each drew a cloud and filled it with pictures depicting their dreams and ambitions. It was wonderful to see them all so concentrated on this task and seeing the UWCCR students being so caring and affectionate with the children, who at times were very demanding.
The children’s identities are protected in the slides. Click on the first picture to enlarge & advance.
Below are reflections from the participating UWCCR students. Click on the first slide to enlarge and advance.
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