Barbar el Khazen, incarcerated women

Why are they in prison?

Most of those women are detained but not trialed yet. They are Lebanese or foreigners, educated or illiterate, mostly incarcerated because of drug use, prostitution, or for not having a residence. Disappointed by lack of family support, some of those women have the sole responsibility of raising their children. In the absence of a father, the children share the burden of mothers in prison.

Mouvement Social’s Action

In order to face this situation of marginalization and social exclusion, Mouvement Social turns prison sentence into a period of rehabilitation. Women will come up with a plan that organizes personal, educational and professional aspects of their life. This plan is the key to a better future and an easier reintegration.

Our social workers and psychologists ensure individual and collective follow-up to incarcerated women. These sessions will help each woman regain her self-confidence and believe in her potential. By giving those women the means to improve their social and economical situation, such as education & professional skills, Mouvement Social gives rehabilitation its full meaning.

Literacy & Education
Mouvement Social offers literacy and foreign language courses, a basic computer literacy course and many more trainings to improve incarcerated women skills. Mouvement Social founded a small library in prison to improve the access to education and knowledge. It was equipped with the help of the volunteers and run by incarcerated women.
The necessity of a vocational training

For a successful reintegration
Mouvement Social offers in its workshops at prison different vocational trainings that meet the labor market’s needs such as: Make-up and esthetics, industrial sewing, jewelry making…
Products made by women are sold in the framework of a fair trade exchange and during exhibitions. The collected money will help women meet a few of their daily needs (food, hygiene products, clothes…) the rest will be saved to help them start a new life after prison.
Working and selling their own products give a great satisfaction to incarcerated women and help them become more positive.

Towards a better future
We help them improve their living conditions, we give them a space of freedom, we encourage them to become a more responsible person. Through our daily support for incarcerated women and through trainings and recreational activities, we prepare women for a better integration into society and into the labor market after prison.
After prison, those women enter a critical phase; they are supported by Mouvement Social’s team who will be there to ease their reintegration, to prevent recidivism and to help them become autonomous.