By
Caesar Abagali, GNA
Tamale, Oct. 03, GNA – A Tamale-based NGO, CSD
Reform has presented used clothing to the inmates of the Tamale Central Prisons
as means of helping alleviate their plight.
The presentation was under CSD’s ‘Harnessing
Opportunities for Prison Ex-convicts’ (HOPE Project), a two-year (2018 to 2020)
pilot project, which aims among others, to help decongest prisons and also
provide economic and social support benefits targeted at remand prisoners and
ex-convicts in Tamale and its environs.
Mr David Issaka, the Executive Director of CSD
Reform outlined the activities of CSD to the Northern Regional Command of the
Ghana Prisons Service and assured of regular support and other intended
intervention to help the inmates.
Mr Issaka said under the HOPE Project, CSD
Reform would provide legal services to remand prisoners and ex-convicts and
sensitize their families and communities to accept them as a means to
facilitating their reintegration into society.
He said the sensitization programme would be
carried out on the local radio stations with the support of the Prisons Service
who will provide officers to serve as Resource Persons.
He indicated that the Project would also
provide remand prisoners and ex-convicts with counselling and psycho-social services
as well as business advisory services with the support of the Technical and
Vocational Unit of the Prisons Service, the National Vocational Training
Institute (NVTI) and the National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI) to
give the beneficiaries a decent means of livelihood.
Mr Issaka explained that the roll out of the
HOPE Project during the pilot phase will cover only remand prisoners and
ex-convicts in and around the Tamale Metropolis and expressed the hope that it
will be scaled up to cover the whole of the three regions in the northern in
the next phase.
Mr Simon Adzah, the Acting Regional Commander
described the presentation of the items as a timely intervention, and indicated
that the Regional Command will seek clearance and directives from their
superiors to ensure a successful implementation of the project.
The HOPE Project, which is funded by Misereor,
a Germany-based Catholic funding agency, will be formerly launched in Tamale on
October 09, 2018.
Out of the total of 236 prisoners currently at
the Tamale Central Prison, 128 are convicts while 100 are remand prisoners and
the rest falls into other categories of prisoners.
The HOPE Project is a social inclusion and an
economic justice project being implemented by CSD Reform; a non-governmental
organization based in Tamale, which is working to ensure that the legal,
economic and social rights of excluded and marginalized groups are protected
through integrated project initiatives. The primary constituents for the HOPE
project are prison inmates (remand) and released prisoners living in and around
Tamale.
GNA