Prison inmates acquire skills in weaving

Authorities of the Amanfrom Prison Camp at Amanfrom near Bantama in Kumasi, has urged Civil Society Organisations and philanthropists to contribute meaningfully towards the expansion of its kente-weaving training programme.

The programme, which is one of the flagship training projects at the Camp, is the brainchild of the Methodist Church of Ghana.

It was introduced last year with the intention to provide the inmates with training to acquire employable skills to boost their reintegration into the society after they have completed their sentences.

Chief Superintendent of Prisons (CSP) Benjamin Dwira-Ampratwum, Officer in – charge of the Camp, told the Ghana News Agency at Amanfrom that six inmates had already been trained to acquire skills in weaving since last year.

In addition, some eight inmates had also reached the advanced stage in their training and would pass out soon.

CSP Dwira-Ampratwum appealed for more looms, computers and other teaching and learning aids so as to bring the training of the inmates to standard.

The Camp, he said, is committed to training the inmates to acquire skills in farming and agricultural technology, stressing that the facility had harvested about 150 bags of maize from its 25- acre land at Amanfrom.

CSP Dwira-Ampratwum emphasised the need to for the prison authorities to take the training of the inmates seriously to benefit the society, explaining that “unemployment and idleness were some of the leading causes of crime amongst the youth”.