You think you can dance? Try out these inmates at Gulu Main Prison. They have a break-dance club and oh boy, they can dance!
I have, together with several colleagues especially from Advance Afrika, these past two days been visiting prisons in northern Uganda, four of them in Lira and Gulu. It has been a humbling experience.
I really want to celebrate the Uganda Prisons Service for doing a great job amid several challenges. The prisons officials we met have been outrageously courteous. They are warm and hospitable. They are also professional. I could see the connection between them and the inmates.
And yes, there are issues in our entire justice system. The congestion is bothering–most inmates being on remand. The children born in prisons and by extension being prisoners is also a bother. But the prisons officials are doing their best in tough circumstances.
Allow me celebrate a small but great organization called Advance Afrika. I am a co-founder and sit on its board. This organization under a gentleman Ronald Rwankangi is doing a terrific job touching lives of inmates. It’s helping equip inmates with entrepreneurship skills. Training them in those small but important vocational skills. And once freed, gives some of these inmates capital to put to practice what they’ve learnt. It’s meant to help with reintegration.
One such ex-inmate is James Opoka. Having been detained at Gulu Main Prison for theft, he did his time but treated as an outcast by the community. He, however, soldiered on, using the skills gained in prison imparted by Advance Afrika. He set up a bicycle-repair shop in Layibi and a mat-selling business. And over the months, it’s grown. The community perception has changed too, seeing his industry and enterprise.
Advance Afrika is planning to set up a day care center at Gulu Women Prison for children of inmates. It’s also helping set up a performance centre in Gulu prison to help prisoners use music and dance as therapy.
The author Don Wanyama is the Senior Presidential Press Secretary and co-founder Advance Afrika
