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Regional News of Wednesday, 3 May 2023

Source: Emmanuel Acheampong, Contributor

YECA supports Senior Correctional Centre of the Ghana Prisons Service

A picture of some of the items presented A picture of some of the items presented

The Youth Empowerment and Counseling Agency (YECA) on May 1, 2023, visited the Senior Correctional Centre of the Ghana Prisons Service (SCC), Accra. This illustrious humanitarian visit was to support our brothers at the facility.

A group of medical officers, optometrists, nurses, pharmacists, and other health officers were present to also screen both the Prison Officers and inmates. Some certified counselors and pastors availed themselves to counsel and model our brethren into becoming the finest people we wish to see in our society.

In addition to the medical screening, YECA in collaboration with Alive Naturopathic Clinic, Momento Eye Centre, and the Accra Technical University GNAAS Fellowship donated items worth ₵12,000.00 to the SCC.

These items included: ten boxes of medicated soap, seven bundles of T-roll, six packs of carbonated drinks, fifteen bags of sachet water, five boxes of toothpaste, a box of toothbrushes, six bags of washing powder, two packs of bathing soaps and two bags of second-hand clothing. In addition to these items was cooked food for all the inmates.

Presenting the items on behalf of YECA, Pastor David Nketiah, said it was one of the many social responsibilities adopted by the organization to support the SCC periodically.

Receiving these items on behalf of the officer in charge was DSP James Akolbire who thanked the team for coming to their aid with the items the facility needed as well as the timely medical screening. He assured us that the donations will be used strictly for the purpose for which they were donated.

He again prayed that YECA and SCC would continue to have a partnership that will support these young ones to improve their lives while giving them hope and vision for a good future.

Having interacted with the inmates at the SCC, we must say that they are being taken through lots of life-changing training and trades, and hence would like to applaud the officers at the SCC for doing a great job. These gentlemen (inmates) feel welcomed and homely at the SCC and do not in any way see the place as an end to their lives. They request love from all and sundry and wish that Ghanaians support them with items that will make their living there and after much better.

The Senior Correctional Centre, formerly known as the Borstal Institute, an all-boys establishment of the Ghana Prisons Service, is a receptacle for young offenders and juveniles convicted for various heinous offenses and are under correctional therapy. It was established on May 17, 1947, to save young and careless boys from a wasted life of crime. Its motto is, ‘I shall rise again.’

Currently, it houses about two hundred and fifty-six (256) juvenile offenders.