Inmates learn basic skills

NINETY-SIX inmates from the minimum security unit at Bomana correctional institution graduated with flying colours among 160 people last Friday after a two-week basic skills training programme ran by Ginigoada Foundation.
The 96 inmates and 64 others comprised mainly CIS officers and their dependents, attained certificates in budgeting, cash flow, cash book, book-keeping, hygiene, conflict resolution and first aid.
During graduation, the inmates were challenged by Ginigoada Foundation manager Pastor Mike Field to decide their future by looking at where they wanted to go and change from inside the prison.
“You have a future – whether you are inside or outside the prison,” Field said.
Field assured the inmates that Ginigoada would do what it could to help them become useful men and women in their lives.
“When your turn is up in prison, you can come and see us for enrolment but it won’t be just within a day or two. It takes up to a month for us to consider and enroll you as we are giving the same opportunities to other less fortunate youths, men and women outside the prison in Port Moresby,” Field said.
He told the 160 graduands that their future depended on them and that they were the ones to decide and create their own future. 
“Your future does not lie with your parents. You decide your own future.”
Inmate Benjamin Nambate, on behalf of the inmates from minimum security unit, thanked Ginigoada for facilitating the programme.
He said Ginigoada’s main aim was to reduce poverty and fight crime and that through its programmes it had helped and changed many unfortunate people in settlements in Port Moresby.
Nambate said they had learnt a lot from the two-week programme and he believed that Ginigoada had brought light and hope to the hopeless to live positive lives.
Nambate, from Popondetta, Northern, said what they learnt would not be a waste but would produce fruit.
He urged the prison management to consider bringing similar skills training programmes for those inmates serving life imprisonment so they could have the chance to be useful in prison.

The National