Dascha Polanco Is Helping Former Incarcerated Women And Their Children Inspired By OITNB Character

On Friday, November 3, Dascha Polanco, the actress that portrays Dayanara Diaz with a baby in jail on “Orange Is The New Black,” witnessed the reality of what real women who were incarcerated faced while having their children.

Polanco visited a 4-block radius area in Queensbridge (Queens, NY), where “Hour Children” organization supports 167 women and their children. Founded more than 25 years ago, Hour Children strives to end the cycle of intergenerational incarceration. It was named to acknowledge the important hours that shape the life of a child with an incarcerated mother – the hour of their mother’s arrest, the hour of their visit, and the hour of her release.

Their mission is to help incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and their children successfully rejoin the community, reunify with their families, and build healthy, independent, and secure lives.

Delivering Good, a non-profit organization that honored Dascha last year at their gala for her charity work in Dominican Republic, set up the OITNB actress’ visit. Since November 2016, the actress has been visiting federal facilities to help inmates that are about to be deported and find legal counsel with the Dominican Consul in NY.

During her visit, Dascha was blown away by the love these women were receiving from the organization Hour Children, and by the stories of how these women kept their relationship with their kids outside of jail.

Dascha was happy to see and know that “Hour” doesn’t judge these women and they also hire some of them. Currently, Dascha is planning to work closely with “Hour” on raising funds to help with education and housing for these women.

The visit to Hour Children along with Delivering Good was in support of Polanco’s ongoing efforts. In addition, the visit comes days before Delivering Good hosts their annual gala at the Natural History Museum on Nov. 8, 2017, where they met the actress.

Delivering Good unites retailers, manufacturers, foundations and individuals to provide people impacted by poverty and tragedy with new merchandise, effectively distributed through a network of agency partners to offer hope, dignity and self-esteem to at-risk children, families, and individuals.

This year they’re honoring Bethany Frankel at their gala as they have raised $1.6 million for Puerto Rico’s recovery thanks to her help.