PFNigeria Trains Promise Path Project Volunteers, Restates Commitment To Welfare Of Inmates’ Children
In an effort to improve its mentorship and dedication to the care of children of inmates serving different jail terms across the country, the Prison Fellowship of Nigeria, PFNigeria through its Promise Path Project Initiative has trained its volunteers and mentors in seven states within the southwest zone of Nigeria.
Speaking at the 2-day event held in Ibadan, the national coordinator , PFNigeria Promise Path Project, Mrs Tosin Olugbade said the training became imperative to re-emphasize the aims and objectives of the project and re-echo the need for volunteers and mentors to prioritize child protection policies to safeguard the inmates’ children.
Mrs Olugbade who said safeguarding and welfare of the inmates’ chldren were of almost importance to Prison Fellowship of Nigeria, explained that the Promise Path Project has over the years focused and delivered on four-point agenda which include providing educational, social, safety and emotional support to inmates’ children
While explaining that the programme has taken care of over one thousand five hundred children of inmates across fifteen states of the federation, the national coordinator appealed to the volunteers to continue to live up to standard and remain committed to the children’s proper upbringing.
She said “my advice to them is to keep on the good work and we need to live up to our standard, because as PFNigeria, we have a standard for the promise Path programme. And to our partners, we are showing a kind of accountability, when you come in, you partner with us, we assure you that the children we are taken care of are safe, because we have a policy and have trained personnel that will stick to the policy to ensure that we are raising children that are fit for the society, that has hope for tomorrow, who will be beneficial to the society”
Also speaking, the chairman local organizing committee and Oyo state coordinator, PFNigeria Promise Path Project, Reverend Kayode Oluyombo said the initiative has overtime assisted government to reduce the number of out of school children, restating the project’s commitment to welfare of the inmates’ children.
Reverend Oluyombo explained that the programme has expanded from its initial mandate of providing support to inmates’ children alone and has incorporated the welfare of the guardians in its operations.
“We started the programme with the welfare of the children, the children’s educational, social, safety and emotional security of the children but now, we have brought in the guardians”
“Those people taking care of this children while their parents are in incaseration, are most times grandparents who doesn’t have a stable income, so when you’re taking care of these children, you have to take care of these grandmas”
He, however, solicited support from well-to-do individuals to assist the Prisons Fellowship of Nigeria in helping the inmates’ children not to toe the path of their parents but become good ambassadors of the society.
Over sixty volunteers participated in the two-day training
