April 17 - Brook - Today was an early morning Rotary presentation at the Manukau City Sunrise Club. After a lovely breakfast and conversation with the members of the club after our presentation we headed out for our Vocational morning at the Auckland Women's Correctional facility. Darius a Rotary club member had arranged this visit as he works for the correctional department as a manager of the patrol officers and their programs.

I think I can safely say on behalf of our team that we all really appreciated this vocational visit. This New Zealand facility seems to be quite forward thinking in many aspects of humanely detaining prisoners. We were able to visit the health unit and speak with the nurse manager there and some of the RN's working today. After learning about the challenges and rewards of prison nursing we were taken on a tour of the facility. I was surprised to find many similarities between working as a prison RN and my current position as Primary health care nurse in a small community.

We were then taken to visit the Women's and babies unit. This is a very forward thinking aspect of the prison. It is an area where women (who meet certain criteria) who have been pregnant in prison can go and live with their child after it is born until the child is 2 yrs of age. These women live 3 women and baby pairs to a self contained unit. They shop, cook and clean for themselves. The women also benefit from the support and guidance of the staff and are able to learn parenting and other life skills in a safe and positive environment.

After this we went to the facility Marae. We were very honoured to have an impromptu welcome ceremony performed for and with us by some of the inmates and their cultural support staff and volunteers.

After this we were treated to lunch at the very "flash" Villa Maira Vineyard by the Manukau City Sunrise Rotary club. After this wonderful lunch we were given the opportunity to shop a bit more then we were taken back to our host families for the evening.