A second chance for Salimah Sukar
Salimah Sukar has been to prison three times. While in prison, she shares her regrets of leaving her 4 children behind. Even now, she still has flashbacks about those times and wake up with “nightmares about my children because I left them when they were still young.”
With the help of New Life Stories, Salimah was able to find her voice and reach out to her children through her writing. Under the guidance of the trained counsellors, she wrote the book, Hungry Fina during the New Life Stories 6-month in-prison programme.
“I always blame myself for what happened”
The in-prison programme provides incarcerated parents with tools and opportunities to connect with their while in prison and after their release. The weekly programme teaches the incarcerated ways to manage their emotions and parenting tips among many others. The programme also encourages them to write stories to their children back home and to record themselves telling a story. These are then printed and recorded, and then shared with the children when they visit their parents during the open visit at the end of the 6 months.
Through this programme, we hope that the incarcerated will leave prison with increased confidence that they will no longer reoffend and that they can reintegrate smoothly back into society.
Saleemah Ismail, Executive Director for New Life Stories shares that writing the books while in prison is part of their cathartic experience to put their emotions down into writing to give motivation and hope to their children so that they do not feel that their relationship with their parents have been strained.
““The storytelling is an expression of love to break down the prison walls, to make the walls invisible so that mother and child can reconnect.””
Salimah Sukar has come a long way since her days behind bars and now is satisfied to be home with her family. She feels very blessed for her children and believes that, “if your children can accept you for who you are before (all your mistakes), that is all that matters.”
Read Hungry Fina, written by Salimah Sukar here.
Hear more about Salimah’s story in the video below.
