Candrasekhara das (Director of ISKCON Prison Ministry): There is a prison in Peru in the high desert called Larri Ganchos which was built to accommodate 3,000 men. It now houses over 10,000. There are only a few guards. There is not enough money to hire more. They are placed in various strategic and generally safe areas outside the main prison. The actual security within is maintained by prisoners sanctioned by the administration called the Council of Inmate Leaders; and yet each dorm or block or pavilion is like a pirate ship and there are regular raids into each other’s territory. There are regular attacks, some rapes, and beatings.

The water is turned on briefly twice a day. Inmates come with buckets but usually there is not enough water to go around. Some inmates become outcastes due to minor offenses such as petty theft or suspicion of gang disloyalty. They are denied access to proper indoor housing and wander a vast outdoor desert wasteland within prison confines and try to somehow live. They scavage through an open garbage pit for any part of discarded food bits. Wild dogs roam here and there. It is hard to properly describe the conditions throughout Larri Ganchos. There is a constant and vicious struggle to exist: for power, for drugs. This place seems to be a replica of the rest of the dark and sad cosmos.

One inmate, Carlos, looks like a handsome Indian doctoral student but- he is an outcast. He has been beaten recently and his coat, stolen. Somehow he has to endure the cold nights. He is HIV+. He has no family and no friends and wanders about. He has no real hope without Srila Prabhupada; without the care and the concern of the Vaisnavas. It is my job to introduce Krsna consciousness to Carlos and ten million other inmates like him around the world. Please help me to do that.

If you have a motorcycle to donate I could use it to visit dozens of prisons and hundreds of inmates from my base in the Southeastern United States. It is tax deductable. We also have solid IPM prison programs set up in India complete with lively kirtana, a movie presentation, a tasty prasadam feast, and a lecture with discussion but the programs have stalled due to lack of funding. We also need preachers, volunteers, Prabhupada book donations, and Laxsmi for postage.

Please consider the good work going on in IPM and contact Candrasekhara dasa at chandra16108@yahoo.com or write Bhakta David at bhaktadave@gmail.com

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