Council backs rehabilitation programme
The Lomaiviti Provincial Council stands ready to help former inmates from the province re-engage positively with the community and facilitate activities to support them.
This was made possible after council chairman, Joji Qaranivalu, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Fiji Corrections Service (FCS) on Community Action for the Rehabilitation of Ex-offenders (CARE) at Sawaieke Village in Gau last Friday.
The signing was also witnessed by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.
Chairman Qaranivalu said they
were happy to support the rehabilitation programme. Representing the Corrections was the director rehabilitation at FCS, Superintendent Salote Panapasa. Ms Panapasa said the establishment of the CARE Network targeted the rehabilitation of former inmates.
“CARE is the mother organisation responsible for all rehabilitation activities outside the prison walls, which helps to improve the effectiveness of the rehabilitation of ex-offenders by engaging the community and co-ordinating member agencies’ to facilitate activities to support ex-offenders,” she said. “It serves to provide inmates with the opportunities to adapt to society and enforce positive reintegration through restoring their relationship with the community.” According to Ms Panapasa the FCS had conducted awareness programmes with the council, promoting its objectives and educating the delegates to understand their roles and responsibilities towards their loved ones who once went off track, rehabilitated and returned to their own hands for support. “This programme is a tool that the FCS is using to engage and garner community, stakeholders, corporate, public sectors and interested persons in the holistic rehabilitation and successful reintegration of ex-offenders back into their families and the Fijian society as a whole,” Ms Panapasa said.
To date, the FCS has 105 serving inmates who are from Lomaiviti. From the 12 districts in the province, there are six inmates from Batiki, two from Bureta, six from Cawa, 18 from Levuka, eight from Lovoni, 10 from Moturiki, 19 from Mudu, eight from Nasinu, six from Navukailagi, 21 from Sawaieke and 12 from Vanuaso.