Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Honiara (Agenzia Fides) - Bringing a word of hope, a new life perspective to convicts that spend long days, months, or years of their lives inside a correctional facility or a prison is the objective of a initiative begun by the Church in the Solomon Islands that has begun offering formation courses in prisons.
Sources from the local Church have informed Agenzia Fides that the courses are an effort to offer convicts a new anthropological vision, combining elements of psychology with the preaching of the faith and the love of God. The intent is to increase the self-esteem among prisoners, improve their personal motivations and the hope of living a life with new horizons. In this way, the prisoners themselves can improve their own standard of living and their own physical and psychological health inside the prison, and thus, begin a new life and be a support to their families once they have finished serving their time there.
“God ‘wonderfully made’ us,” Psalm 139 says. If each prisoner is capable of discovering this reality in his own heart - that he is a precious being in the eyes of God- it changes his life. Everything takes on a new meaning. We can talk to them about the meaning of life, love, and vocation,” Fides was told by the Catholic volunteers who offer formation to prisoners.
The courses are given by a Salesian, Father Albert Swer, President of the Don Bosco Professional Formation Center that is active in the Solomon Islands and that is in charge of organizing the activities in the prisons. The courses are on different themes: general culture, artistry, information technology and using computers, health education, spiritual formation, and Biblical studies. They generally last three weeks each, so that all the prisoners can have a chance to participate in all the courses. “Their enthusiasm has been a wonderful response,” Fr. Albert said.
Following the style and methodology of Don Bosco, the courses are enriched by discussion and debate among the prisoners themselves and the teacher, and are part of the foundation for a process of global rehabilitation and reinsertion of the prisoners into the community. The successful results of the project have lead the Penitentiary Administration of Solomon Islands to support the continuation of this collaboration with the Don Bosco Institute. “It is one of the most successful activities organized in our prisons. It takes into account the most profound needs of the prisoners: the need to develop their capacities and personality, to learn new trades, but above all, to acquire the interior motivation to begin a new life in the community, when they are freed,” said Gibson Aldo, Director of the Penitentiary Services in the Solomon Islands.
“For us, it is a privilege to once again offer a service inside prisons. The activity had already been taking place eight years ago, but it was placed on hold. Today, we hope it will become a constant source of support for the lives of the imprisoned,” said Fr. Ambrose Pereira, Salesian and Rector of the Don Bosco Institute in Henderson. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 2/5/2008; righe 38, parole 509)
