The air-conditioned salon, fitted with modern equipment including hair dryers, washing basins and furniture, was funded by the Catholic Church in Rome, Italy, through the efforts of Rev. Fr. Aggrey Graham, who is also the Chaplain at the Ankaful Prisons in the Central Region.
Additionally, the prisons have also opened a ‘Reformers Shop’ to showcase the handiwork of the inmates.
Apart from hairdressing and braiding, the Sekondi Female Prison which serves the Western and Central regions, offers various skills training including bread baking, pastry, liquid soap making and beads designing.
Speaking at the launch, the In-Charge of the Sekondi Female Prison, Chief Superintendent Hannah Hilda Ewoame, said in line with the mandate to rehabilitate inmates in new areas of skills training, the Command sought assistance from the Catholic Church in Rome which agreed to provide funding for the project.
She said the salon, which is located outside the prison, was opened to the public, and added that it would create an income to serve as the seed capital for the inmates to start a trade after their discharge.
“In line with our mandate to rehabilitate the inmates they would be trained and equipped with the requisite skills in hair dressing/braiding and made to write the NVTI examination in hair, which would facilitate their reintegration into the society and also empower them economically,” she said.
Chief Superintendent Ewoame said that, in September 2016, the Prisons made history when 12 inmates sat for the NVTI examination with six scoring distinction while the other six obtained passes.
The Reformers Shop, too, she explained, would help the inmates to showcase their handicrafts and sell them to generate income to buy raw materials apart from earning some money to serve as a seed to start their trade after discharge.
The in Charge of the Female Prisons told the gathering that the Prisons cultivated a vegetable garden to supplement their daily rations and also help boost the diet of inmates, saying “it’s been a good venture for the station.”
She said marketing handicrafts and other items produced by the inmates was a major challenge facing the station and hindering its rehabilitation efforts, but, believed that with the right reformation strategies, inmates could be effectively be reformed
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