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  Eleos is Greek for "mercy".

Project Eleos™ extends the loving grace of God to pregnant women incarcerated at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women (LCIW), who are not offered pastoral care by a female staff chaplain during their time of pregnancy and delivery.

As the women begin to go into labor, they are transferred to an unfamiliar medical facility. Due to state security regulations, family members are not allowed. These women feel worthless and abandoned by God and their family during this time of personal crisis. These grieving mothers are unable to fully celebrate life and participate in the nurturing of their newborn baby.

By dealing with their grief on a spiritual and deeply personal level, they will feel they are important to God and thus be better able to control their behavior while incarcerated. Their children will benefit from additional parenting and the residents will be enabled to become better mothers, better neighbors and better citizens when released.

  Project Eleos™ provides the following services :

(1) Confidential, individualized pastoral care of incarcerated pregnant females by a female chaplain offering grief care surrounding the loss of the opportunity to care for their baby,

(2) Continuity of pastoral care through the birthing process at Earl K. Long Medical Center and continuing with follow-up visits for hope and compassion at the facility, and after inmates are released back into society, and

(3) Unique pastoral care by a female chaplain to female inmates who experience miscarriage, abortion, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth or neonatal death. This can include, but is not limited to, grief care for the mother, performing rituals, creation of a memory box, and ministering with family members and friends.


Ministry Needs:

Transportation:
To assist with transportation costs related to caregiver bringing the infant to visit with its mother during L.C.I.W. visiting hours.

For the Baby:
To give the newborn a baby shower and/or help with infant supplies, formula, food, etc.

Spiritual and Emotional Support for the mother:
 To offer friendship, compassion and empathy without intrusion or pity. To listen with strict confidentiality to her insecurities, complaints and fears.

Physical Support for the family:
Assisting with finding affordable housing; helping with repairs, transportation to work or appointments as needed; assisting with utility deposits; creating and keeping a budget, etc.

In this busy world few have time to help these women and their newborn infants, as our ministry has called us to do. We rely on the generousity of individuals and corporate funding to make this possible. If you are able:

 

     Bretta says, "I feel like I can tell Ms. Cathy anything and she won’t judge me and won’t laugh at me. She accepts me more than my own mother. She said I could trust her God until I can trust the real God. She said I could borrow her Higher Power until I get to know God.

     The father of Shamica writes, "Ms. Cathy, my daughter just needed one person to believe in her. I love her, but we have had problems for years. We don’t talk. Shamica told me you listen to her as if she was the only person on earth. She says you are kind and loving and she is so thankful you were with her during the delivery of her tiny twin boys. She was very frightened and didn’t want to be alone. Her mother died several years ago. Thank you for giving of your life for my daughter."

     Paula said, "Ms. Cathy, you are the only one I talk to. I just stay by myself and keep out of trouble. I talk to God sometimes, but no one knows it. I thank God for you and the time you spent with me when I was at the hospital. If you hadn’t been there, I would have been alone with the guard. No one should have to go through labor without family...you are family. Forever."

     Wendi writes, "Ms. Cathy was the only person that saw any good in me. I knew from the first time we met at the prison that she saw me as a child of God with potential. It didn’t matter to her what I had done. She saw my future and was willing to stand by me. Without her presence during my long labor I don’t know what I would have done. She stayed with me throughout the night - she didn’t have to - she wanted to. I saw the face of God in her. Now I know God loves me, and I’m never coming back here."

     Shawanda’s mother writes, "Without your steadfast love for my daughter, I am afraid she would have tried to kill herself. She told me she can feel God’s love every time you come to the prison. You have done more positive things for her than anyone in the past 7 years. I truly owe it to you that she made the parole board."

Paracletia, Inc.    18642 Magnolia Estates     Prairieville, LA 70769      225.677.9303

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