Maintaining a normal relationship with an incarcerated parent can be extremely difficult, but the Women's Storybook Project of Texas is hoping to make it a little easier. Comprised entirely of volunteers, the organization goes into women's prisons in Texas to record mothers reading children's books, then delivers the recording to the inmates' children.
"The mother's voice is very powerful," Judith Dullnig, director of the Women's Storybook Project, told HuffPost Live on Friday. "When we first began, the children that would receive these cassettes would carry that tape with them wherever they go. They took it to bed, just so they could hear their mother."
What started as five volunteers with four tape recorders in 2003 has grown into a nearly state-wide project. With 191 volunteers, the program is committed to focusing on quality children's literature and has now reached two-thirds of the female prisons in Texas.
Kristin Sample, a volunteer of the program and author of North Shore South Shore, recounted her first time visiting the prisoners to record them reading for their kids.
"There was a variety of emotional reactions to us," Sample remembered of the prisoners she met. "But the gratitude was there no matter what."
Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation about the Women's Storybook Project here.
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