Campaign Story

Northcot Training Institute is an institution which falls under the Department of Social Welfare and admits children up to the age of 18 years (girls and boys) who are primarily undergoing rehabilitation after committing various small criminal acts but are given a chance for rehabilitation due to their young age. The children are referred to as “children in conflict with the law.” The children are admitted through referrals from the Department of Social Welfare after a careful selection process. Northcot Training Institute is situated in Mt. Hampden just outside Harare and was a meant for child offenders only before it started also taking street children. It now also enrols children from neighbouring suburbs and farms.

The institution is located about 20km from Harare’s Central Business District in Mount Hampden. The institution has boarders as well as a few day scholars from the surrounding communities who are “normal” children but come from disadvantaged families. The idea behind integration with kids from the surrounding community is to allow the boarders to live a normal life during the rehabilitation process. The students engage in various small projects like chicken farming, and academic education.

The institution premise were once used as an army barrack and a remand prison during the colonial era but were transformed to cater for the plight of the young offenders during their reformation process.