Prison Welfare

Philemon is committed to serving prisoners, regardless of faith, gender, age, ability or background.

Practical Needs

A dedicated team of volunteers and Philemon staff - many of them former prisoners themselves - regularly visit prisons across different regions in Kenya.  Philemon teams provide clothes, foodstuffs, sports equipment, toilet paper and bibles, soap and other toiletries for prisoners as a practical demonstration of God’s love. Philemon has also been involved in setting up shops, schools, business skills classes and mentoring groups for prisoners, often in partnership with other organisations.

Philemon have also established working relationships with medical students from leading University hospitals to set-up ad-hoc “medical camps” for prison officers and inmates.

Spirutual Needs

To meet the spiritual needs of the prisoners, Philemon are often asked by the prisons to organise meetings for the prisoners.  During these meetings, it is not unheard of for many of the prisoners, who choose to attend, to respond to the demonstration of God love, and to make decisions to turn their lives around and follow Jesus. Meetings can often number in the several hundreds and many hundreds and thousdands of prisoners have been impacted trhough Philemon as they demonstrate the message of God's love for them.

Some churches in Kenya now partner with Philemon to practically serve those who are marginalised and abandoned in Kenyan prisons.  Philemon also has links with other organisations who meet other other prisoners' spiritual needs.

High-ranking government ministers, such as the former Vice-President of Kenya Moody Awori, have taken great interest in and shown support of the work Philemon is doing.

Christmas Visits

Historically, Philemon have taken a number of goats or “mbuzi” to celebrate with both prisoners and officers in prison at Christmas-time. As an explanation of the meaning of Christmas, Philemon has previously organised a large projected screening of Mel Gibson’s film “The Passion of the Christ” to fascinated prisoners – many of whom had never seen a film before!

The team also take gifts for Christmas, such as soda, bread, milk and other items.

Philemon benefits from good relationships to talk and share with inmates and guards alike.