The Greater Accra Youth of the Church of Christ has donated quantities of items valued at GH¢3,000 to the inmates of the Akuse Medium Prisons.
The items, which were made up of used clothing, soap, disinfectants, buckets, ladies pant, bowls and sanitary pads, were donated by various youth from 50 congregations within the Greater Accra Region as part of the youth’s bi-annual celebrations.
This year’s celebration, which is the 37th edition, was on the theme: “I have made you a watchman over Afienya”.
The Chairman of the Youth Planning Committee, Mr Ato Anderson, who presented the items on behalf of the youth, said the gesture formed part of the church’s social responsibility.
He said since the prison officers made every effort to reform the inmates to meet societal approval, it was vital for corporate organisations to offer the necessary assistance for reformation of the inmates.
Assistant Superintendent of Prisons (ASP) Sampson Adu, who received the items on behalf of the inmates, expressed profound appreciation to the youth for the gesture.
He said overcrowding in the cells, lack of household items such as buckets and disinfectants had led to the outbreak of communicable diseases in the cells.
‘About 30 inmates use one bucket and this puts pressure on both inmates and officers who have to run around to ensure that incidents of deaths are avoided in the yard,” he said.
ASP Adu called on corporate institutions to come to the aid of the prisons as they strove with very little resources to transform the prisoners.
An inmate serving a six-year term, who leads the Scripture Union chapter and doubles as a choirmaster in the cells, expressed profound gratitude to the youth leadership for the gesture.
He called on the youth to continually pray for the inmates as they served their sentences.
He indicated that the reformation process in the prison had helped some of them to reorganise their lives and continually seek the face of God as they had come to understand that being in prison was similar to the judgement day where every individual, irrespective of age and status in society, would appear before the Lord for accountability.
He said their decision to turn from their bad ways and embrace the Lord as their personal saviour was praiseworthy.
Inspiring his colleague prisoners, the inmate whose name is being withheld, said during a court trial, family members were with them, however, they all entered the prison yard individually without anyone accompanying them, hence the motivation to surrender to the Lord.
The Regional Chairman of the association, Mr Stephen Nyanney-Bortsie, later told the Daily Graphic that the youth forum was adopted in May 2000 as part of the church’s outreach programmes to reach out to the lost sheep and win souls for Christ.
Mr Nyanney-Bortsie indicated that the church had also initiated programmes in career counselling and development as well as entrepreneurship for the youth to help them engage in activities that did not distract their focus.
This year’s Youth Day celebration was hosted by the Afienya congregation with over 1,000 youth drawn from the 120 congregations within the Greater Accra Region participating in a house-to-house evangelism within Afienya and its environs.
Mr Addo Adela, the resident evangelist in charge of the Prampram branch of the church, in his welcoming address asked the youth to focus on the vision of the kingdom.
He paid glowing tribute to the late Bright Osei, a former employee of the Graphic Communications Group under whose able leadership the programme was planned.
He called on the youth to continually remember to pray fervently for the family of their departed associate.
Quantities of ladies bags, sandals and shoes were also presented to female officers on duty at the prison.
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