By
Anthony Apubeo/Rita Avoka, GNA
Navrongo (UE), Oct. 1, GNA – The Women
Ministry of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church in Bolgatanga at the weekend
presented assorted items to the inmates of the Navrongo Prison in the
Kassena-Nankana Municipality.
The items included a bag of rice, quantities
of bowls of gari, beans, pepper, onions, 25 kilograms of salt, dried fish,
sugar, 55 tubers of yam, 25 litres of oil, 10 loaves of bread and a box of key
soap.
Presenting the items to the inmates on behalf
of the Ministry, Mrs Felicia Baafi, Bolgatanga Municipal Director of the Women
Ministry, said the Church holds the inmates dear to its heart considering the
inconveniencing conditions these inmates lived.
She said the items signified the Church’s love
for them and added that the Church ceaselessly prayed to God on behalf of the
inmates and asked them to continue to pray for themselves as they underwent
their respective reformation periods.
The Director expressed optimism that the items
particularly the food stuff would complement the food supplies they received
from government and other donors.
Mr Edem Crentsil Williams Mensah, an elder of
the SDA Church, who led the women to pray for the inmates, admonished them to
cultivate the culture of humility, as it was the backbone of most successful
persons in society.
The elder told the inmates of God’s love for
them, and encouraged them to persevere in resisting the pressures that came
with their conditions.
He
urged them to respect their caretakers because humility was the surest way to
obtaining God’s blessing and favour.
Mr Francis Deku, the Deputy Superintendent of
Prison (DSP) at the Navrongo Central Prison who received the items on behalf of
the inmates, expressed gratitude to the SDA Church, especially the women wing
for remembering them and exhibiting such kind gesture.
Mr Deku promised that the Service would put
the items to good use to achieve the intended purpose, and indicated that the
donation would go a long way to assist them in their daily feeding hurdles.
The DSP who used the opportunity to appeal to
government to review the current feeding rate of GH¢1.80 upwards to enable them
meet the inmates’ daily feeding demands, revealed that the prison had five
dilapidated cells which housed about 240 inmates, creating serious congestion
and unhygienic conditions.
He explained that his outfit lacked drugs for
its sick bay to give emergency and minor treatment to the inmates who fell
sick, and disclosed that the prison had only a three-seater toilet facility
which was woefully inadequate for the inmates.
The DSP stated that prison service as an
institution played critical roles in maintaining the country’s security and
peace as well as helping other institutions such as the courts, the police
service among others and said the institution had less attention in equipping
it to make it conducive for effective reformation.
The DSP, who lamented that almost all the
inmates in his outfit were youth who were the human resource base of the
country that could propel the sustainable development and economic growth,
appealed to government, Non Governmental Organizations, philanthropists and
individuals to assist the institution to give vocational and technical capacity
building training to the inmates.
This, he said would equip them with gainful
employable skills to make impact to society when they were released to
integrate to society.
He admonished families and the members of the
public to avoid stigmatizing them and support them fit well into society.
GNA