14 At a lower level, a District Committee composed of the local or provincial magistrate, representatives of the Police, Prison, Local NGOs, Civil leaders as well as representatives from the Ministry of Social Welfare, supervise the service. Funded for the first 18 months with funds from the European Union, ODA provided the funds for a similar period thereafter. With effect from August 1997 the Government of Zimbabwe will take it over. Community Service operates throughout the country, and relies for its successful implementation mainly on volunteers. A mark of its success is the requests for its study from diverse countries like Swaziland, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, Kenya, Cambodia and the Government of Trinidad. New guidelines have been issued, in consultation with the judiciary as in the case of the earlier ones to guide the courts in administering the scheme. There are guidelines for supervisors also. A training programme has been carried out for supervisors with a view to achieving uniformity of treatment of offenders who are sentenced to Community Service. I visited two locations where Community Service was being performed. 15 Training Chikurubi Training Depot It offers in-service training, initial training, promotion and refresher courses. Conversion Courses are also run by the Depot. They enable technicians to join the Prison Service at the appropriate level. The Depot also trains dogs for use within the prison service. The depot is situated on a 4000 acre maize farm which is under the headship of a female officer. 900 male prisoners work under the female prison officer's supervision. Legal Resources Foundation has been involved in training some Prison Officers at the request of the Commissioner of Prisons. A Training of Trainees was organised on 5-10 May 1996. It was limited to 20 Senior Police Officers drawn from all over Zimbabwe because of limited financial resources. Three objectives were to be met by the Workshop (training): (a) human rights education; (b) trainees were to be equipped to train others; and (c) highlighting the rights of specific groups of prisoners - juveniles, women and the elderly. Rntsanana Clinic Located about 15 kilometres from Harare, the Sisters in charge of the clinic stated that first offenders are sentenced by the court to 60, 180 or 300 hours. An offender who reports for community service is counselled by the Sisters under whose supervision he/she signs for the hours done each day. One such offender was seen working in a garden of the clinic at the time of My visit. Six months after the Workshop, an evaluation exercise was undertaken to assess the impact of the training. As far as possible, the skills of the offender are used: an electrician or painter will be assigned jobs in his area of expertise. 18 offenders had been sent to the clinic, of which number 3 defaulted. Prison Fellowship International Glenview Clinic It is located about 20 kilometres from Harare. Offenders sent here work either 3 weekdays or 2 weekends. Finally I attended a meeting of the National Committee which reviewed the past and looked into the future after foreign support ceases. A second workshop with in-depth training of techniques of human rights education and substantive human rights involving more prison officers is being planned. This NGO facilitates visits of relatives to prisoners. It also has an economic outreach named GEOGLOBAI. ECONOMIC OUTREACH. Under this scheme, 104 families have been given loans. The scheme which was embarked upon on discovery of the plight of families of prisoners has been a success, in terms of repayment of loans, with a rate of over 80%.