Former prisoners get skills

THE Zimbabwe Ex-Prisoners Development Aid (ZEPDA) has launched income generating projects aimed at assisting ex-prisoners integrate into the society.

The organisation’s objective is to rehabilitate prisoners during their time in jail and equip them with life skills that will help once they are released.

Speaking during the ordination of the organisation’s country programme director, Mr Rejoice Msimanga Samakiwa in Bulawayo last week, ZEPDA chairman Mr Dickson Sibanda said the organisation was complementing efforts that the Government was undertaking in helping prisoners.

“We as ZEPDA are there to complement Government efforts to comply with the DOHA Declaration which advocates for prisoners’ rights upon realising that ex-prisoners suffer from stigma after release, therefore these projects are there to improve their well-being and integrating them into the society,” he said.

Mr Sibanda said the organisation was also aiming at educating people to accept that prisoners, upon release should not be treated as outcasts.

“We do not condone the acts of commission but we are advocating the society to take responsibility for their acts of omission,” he said.

The newly ordained country director, Mr Samakiwa said everyone has a duty to ensure that ex-prisoners were accorded the chance to restart their lives.

“Structures and services inside the prison are not conducive especially food and clothing, these affect the mind of a prisoner, therefore it is our duty to change that spiritually, emotionally and economically and we are assured that educational and vocational training skills like carpentry, animal husbandry and sowing among others will help bring out useful ex-prisoners back into the society,” he said.

The organisation has carried out pilot projects of fishing with ex-convict Mr Phathisani Nkala who is based in South Africa. The organisation has also initiated projects such as carpentry all with an intention to empower the ex-prisoners.