An officer of the Ghana Prisons Service in Kete-Krachi, Sargent Yaw Salifu, has called on The Church of Pentecost to bring back the Vocational Training Programme the Church started some years back in Kete-Krachi to train prison inmates.
Speaking at a lecture organised by the Area Prisons Ministry as part of the 2018 Apostolisation Retreat during the ministers and wives session, Sargent Salifu said it is the role of government to provide vocational and technical training for all willing inmates in the nation’s prisons.
He however called on Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and religious organisations to partner government’s efforts through their social responsibility programmes to help provide such essential training for inmates.
Sargent Salifu noted that The Church of Pentecost was offering some vocational training for inmates of the Kete-Krachi prisons through Pastor Richard Osei Mensah (the former Area Prisons Ministry Chairman) who trained the inmates in Kente weaving. However, the training stopped when the pastor was transferred from the Area in 2015.
“Currently, the only vocational training given to willing inmates is basketry, and I believe that if the Church could pick up what they started some years back, it could go a long way in the transformation process,” he stressed.
“Most of these convicts coming out are fully changed and need to be integrated fast into society. If they go out with a learned vocation it could help settle them easily, taking their minds off any wrong doing,” he added.
Sargent Salifu bemoaned the way society shuns ex-convicts and mostly do not want to have anything to do with them. This, he said, is affecting their transformation process.
“They were imprisoned for correction, therefore, help them by involving them in decision making and in leadership roles. By so doing they will feel accepted and shun their evil ways,” he indicated.
The prisons officer regretted that society stigmatizes against ex-convicts, considering them as social outcasts, hence fails to accept and support them in order to integrate them into society.
He called on Christians, civil society organisations and other benevolent institutions not to discriminate against ex-convicts when it comes to job opportunities.
“When these ex-convicts are gainfully employed, they can contribute immensely to society and nation building,” he affirmed.
He used the occasion to thank the Area Head and the Church for the donations made to the Prisons Service during the Christmas festivities.
Report by: Overseers Isaac Klutse & Ernest Perbi-Asare, Kete-Krachi
